Anu and Birbal Rana were at their Vashon home late at night, preparing baked goods to sell at the farmers market, when the bad news came. A massive earthquake had struck Nepal, their native country, where many of their family members still live. In vain, they tried to reach their loved ones, but gave up at 3 a.m. Over the course of the next days, they learned their family members in Kathmandu were not hurt, though many have damaged homes.

“Until we could speak with them, it was terrible. We were just worried,” Birbal said. “Their houses were not made for earthquakes.”

Indeed, as news has come out of Nepal, images show the far-reaching devastation of the April 25 quake. The death toll is expected to climb higher than 10,000; more than 15,000 people have been reported injured, and nearly 200,000 homes were completely destroyed. Some 8 million people have been affected, according to the United Nations.

Though nearly 7,000 miles separate Vashon and Nepal, the small Asian country — only about the size of Arkansas — holds an important place in the hearts of many with ties to both places.

“There are deep connections here for a small island,” said Erik Steffens, a former Peace Corps volunteer who lived in Nepal for four years with his wife Kate Thomas.

At least four Nepali families live on Vashon; four Peace Corps volunteers that served in Nepal call the island home; one couple who has lived in Nepal for many years spends a month or two at their home in Burton every year; a young man who grew up on Vashon began a non-profit organization to help Nepalese children and is assisting with the relief efforts, and a host of other islanders have traveled or lived there.

Now, Steffens and others have banded together to raise money to help with the recovery efforts and will host a fundraiser on May 17.

Islander Ann Lewis, an international development consultant who counts Nepal’s finance minister among her friends, has ties to the country that go back to her childhood and is also part of the fundraising effort.

“It was the natural thing to do,” she said.

Organizers say they have not set a financial goal for the family-friendly event, but clearly the need is enormous. The government was ill prepared for the quake, many say, even though it had been predicted for years. Some two weeks later, there were still rural villages that had not received aid.

Islanders Pasang and Lakpa Sherpa come from such a village. Their home in Nepal is Thame, near Mount Everest’s base camp. On Vashon, Pasang works for Pacific Research Laboratories; Lakpa is a nanny for two Vashon families, and they have a 2-year-old son. Their village, located in the Himalayas at 13,000 feet, has been destroyed, Pasang said last week. His 11-year old son lives there with Pasang’s sister, while Pasang and Lakpa wait for him to be able to join them. Out of 41 homes, only two remain, Pasang said. Amazingly, only two people from their village died in the quake, but conditions are dire, and the people continue to live outside under tents and tarps, sharing what food they have.

Pasang’s photos from before the quake show stone homes dotting a valley with the Himalayas rising around them and a river running nearby. The photos after the quake show rubble and ruin. Traditional homes there are made of dry stone walls — now collapsed — and roofs of rock, bamboo or tin. To build using different materials and methods will be challenging, as Thame is a 45-minute plane ride from Kathmandu followed by a two-day walk. All materials must either be walked or flown in.

Still, he said, for the people of that village, the quake, which struck at about noon, could have caused more hardship than it did.

“It was at mid-day,” he said. “If it had been at night, more people would have been killed.”

Vashon’s Joshua Bingham, who created the nonprofit organization Nana’s House last year, is currently in Nepal and helping to provide aid in villages nearby. Last week, he spearheaded a 12-hour trek over 7 miles to take supplies to villages and is planning another for this week.

Communicating via Facebook over the weekend from his home in Pokhara, Bingham said large aid organizations were not present along his route and that small, grassroots efforts were proving the most effective.

“Unfortunately, we aren’t seeing the Red Cross or Save the Children or even the World Health Organization in places other than Kathmandu,” he wrote. “They have largely ignored the epicenter. We walked through 300-person communities and saw 95 percent destruction of houses. The damage here is extensive and will take several years to get this all done.Many people are furious with the government right now and their incredibly slow response time.”

In Kathmandu, Nick Langton, who spends several weeks each year with his wife Kerry at their Burton home, also points to the government response in this crisis.

“Everyone knew this earthquake would come,” he said. “One would have hoped the response would have been better than it has been.”

Langton’s roots in Nepal go back to 1973, when he first went to the country as a trekker. He, too, served in the Peace Corps there then later was the country representative for The Asia Foundation; currently he is the country director for Pact, an international non-governmental organization with offices in several parts of the globe.

Speaking via Skype from Nepal last Friday, Langton said signs of normalcy in Kathmandu were beginning to return. Telephone service had been restored, electricity was back to its customary intermittent state, traffic was moving and stores and restaurants were open.

“It’s functioning under the circumstances relatively well,” he said.

He noted that the region had, in fact, experienced two sizeable earthquakes, as another struck the day after the first and measured 6.7 on the Richter Scale. Both epicenters were in hill areas difficult to get to, and there have been hundreds of aftershocks. Indeed, during the course of the conversation, his home’s earthquake sensor went off, and he took a break from the conversation to move to a safer place.

While the human toll of the quake is paramount, Langton noted the quake has affected Nepal in numerous ways, demolishing some of its history as old brick houses and walls fell and likely speeding the migration of people from the hill communities — a process that has been happening for the past 25 years.

“My guess is that a lot of these villages will never be the same,” he added.

He, too, has personal ties to some of those small communities. Out of the 1,200 houses in the village he served in during the Peace Corps, only two withstood the quake. Six days later, he had spent the day gathering tarps and clothing to send there, as no supplies had yet arrived.

“The have had no aid at all,” he said.

Looking ahead, Langton said he believes the country will rebuild, but that people will suffer, as it will be a slow process with multiple challenges, including the prospect of widespread illness because of lack of adequate sanitation facilities, clean drinking water and medical care.

In the months to come, he said, camps of displaced people will be created, and the government will need to provide for them and relocate them — a process that could easily take five years or more.

Nepal has long relied on the tourism industry to support its economy, and those close to the situation say going to Nepal in a year or so is one way to help with recovery efforts. The country draws hundreds of people a year, and many who travel there develop great affection for it. Lewis, who lived in Nepal for many years, believes the reason lies with the Nepali people, who are known for their kindness and tolerance.

“I do not know a country as small that has such a rich mix of ethnic groups, religious groups, caste groups and social identities that gets along as peacefully,” she said.

On Vashon, Avi Ranu, Anu and Birbal’s daughter, planned to hold a bake sale outside Thriftway on Tuesday to benefit a family member’s relief efforts in rural villages. Anu and her sister Mala Thapa, who both work at Thriftway — also plan to play a key role in the upcoming  fundraiser by cooking traditional Nepalese fare. They wanted to help after the quake, Avi said, but before they had a chance to craft a plan, islanders had stepped up, offering to host the event.

“My mom feels blessed to be living on the island,” Avi added.

Over the weekend, Anu said she had spoken with her family in Kathmandu again, although Birbal had yet to be able to talk to his mother. Her brother’s home suffered cracks, but engineers going door-to-door evaluating homes considered it habitable, unlike three-quarters of the buildings there, which have been deemed dangerous. Still Anu and her family wonder if it is safe, especially because of the high number of smaller quakes in the past weeks.

“It’s scary right now,” she said.

The fundraiser will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 17, at the Vashon Presbyterian Church. The event will be fun and family friendly, with children’s activities, traditional Nepalese food and a chance to donate to vetted organizations. Entry will be by donation.