Rescuers are battling to locate thousands of people missing in Nepal and China after a tsunami-like wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayan region. The combined toll in Nepal and Tibet rose to 691 dead and more than 3,000 people missing after China’s latest update on Sunday.
Death toll and missing persons
Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing, of whom 261 were foreign nationals, while Nepal’s disaster agency said late Saturday that the death toll had climbed to 675 with 2,498 people missing. In China’s update, the state broadcaster said the missing foreign nationals included 104 from Nepal, 49 from India, 33 from Latvia, and 18 from the US.
More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far.
Tunnel rescue efforts
In a breakthrough late on Saturday, the Nepali army was able to insert a pipe into a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site where workers are believed to be trapped. The home minister, Sudan Gurung, said: “We have already started sending air through the small opening, and we will now begin excavation work and send the rescue team inside.”
More than 100 workers may still be alive and trapped inside such tunnels, with rescue efforts focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites.
Rising flood waters and warnings
Nepal warned on Sunday of rising flood waters and urged rescue teams to exercise caution. “We have received information that the flood flow in the Bhotekoshi River in Rasuwa has increased further,” the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said in a warning issued at 7.20 am.
In an area home to vast energy infrastructure projects, Nepal’s disaster authority listed 933 hydropower workers among the missing, including trekkers and Hindu pilgrims to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash.
The foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, on Saturday estimated Nepal’s reconstruction bill could run into the “billions of dollars”. “The urgency is on rescue and saving lives as much as we can,” he said, appealing for specialised assistance, including heavy-lift drones and technology to help locate people who are trapped. He also called for forensic testing kits to identify bodies and freezer units to store them, saying bodies that have been in water could decompose at a faster rate.
Survivors and ongoing risks
Survivors face an agonising wait to learn the fate of missing relatives, and the prospect of rebuilding their lives from nothing. “All the settlements near the river were swept away,” Buddhi Ram Dangol told Agence France-Presse in Nepal’s Nuwakot district. “There is nothing left.”
Fears of further flooding have compounded the search for the missing. The deluge of ice and mud caused huge lakes, and one of these formations has become a risk of further floods. The Chinese and Nepali foreign ministers spoke on Saturday and discussed sharing satellite and hydrological data, both sides said.
In Tibet, where Chinese authorities are the only source of information, rescue operations were temporarily paused at the hardest-hit area of Gyirong over the risk of more flooding from a newly formed lake. A total of 2,141 rescuers were near the Gyirong site, the Xinhua state news agency reported, including more than 500 in the worst-hit area.
In Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, relatives and friends gathered outside the main government hospital from early morning, desperately searching for news of missing loved ones. Many shuffled between the help desk and the hospital noticeboard, clutching photographs and scanning injured patients’ lists in the hope of finding them.
Dil Maya Lama stood weeping outside the help desk at the hospital, searching for information about her missing 26-year-old brother, a driver for a hydropower company in Rasuwa. She had traveled from Ramechhap, about 130km (80 miles) away. “I came here with the hope that I might find him,” she said. “There is no information about him.”
Nelza Moktan anxiously sought information about her missing cousin, who also worked as a driver in Rasuwa. “I feel hopeless. It has already been four days,” she said.
