Search for military chopper continues in Nepal

There was still no sign of a U.S. military helicopter Thursday more than two days after it vanished over sparsely populated and rough Himalayan terrain while conducting earthquake relief efforts in Nepal.

The Huey helicopter disappeared on Tuesday delivering aid to victims in the country and was declared missing after it lost radio contact with units on the ground. It is not clear whether it crashed.

A report from the Deutsche Presse Agentur news agency Wednesday morning suggested that officials had determined its location, but Army Col. Steve Warren, a Defense Department spokesman, later told reporters that the search was continuing, Marine Corps Times reported.

The ongoing search comes as Nepal's prime minister on Thursday said his nation is overwhelmed by its second major earthquake in less than three weeks.

Sushil Koirala was visiting Charikot, the administrative center of the remote district that was hit hardest by the magnitude-7.3 earthquake that struck Tuesday.

At least 96 people were killed and more than 2,300 were injured in the second quake.

Koirala said hundreds of thousands of people had been left homeless as monsoon rains loomed, the Associated Press reported.

"After the first quake, we were not prepared for a second one so big," he said, according to the AP. "We need tents. Our people need shelter. With the rainy season, it will be difficult for people to survive in the open."

The latest disaster followed a magnitude-7.8 earthquake on April 25 that killed more than 8,000 people and injured 17,000.

Some Charikot residents have received food, but the available supplies are not enough to sustain those arriving from the surrounding areas.

Navraj Nama, 25, who came to Charikot from the village of Danda Khorka with his brother and elderly uncle, told the AP: "We came here with such hopes and such difficulty, but now we're just waiting and waiting."

He said that 90% of their village was damaged on April 25, and about 50 buildings had collapsed in the second quake.

Santosh Chhetri, a United Nations Population Fund representative in Nepal, said the organization had been leading efforts to deliver lifesaving services to the more than 126,000 pregnant women since the quake last month.

"A key priority is ensuring that women deliver their babies safely, and that, once the babies are born, their mothers are able to care for them safely," Chhetri said.