Death Toll From Devastating Floods in Nepal and China Surpasses 1,000
Rescue efforts continue to focus on hydropower sites, where hundreds of workers are believed to be trapped.
The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Nepal and China has reached 1,019, and more than 4,400 people remain missing as rescue crews work to reach communities cut off by the disaster.
In an update on Tuesday, Sept 1, Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) revised the number of deaths to 1,003 from 987, with 3,916 people missing, including 583 foreigners.
Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 people still missing, including 261 foreigners, in their most recent update on Sunday.
Among the missing are tourists from more than two dozen countries: 177 are from India, 90 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from the United Kingdom, and 25 from Canada.
Beijing’s foreign ministry also said 100 Chinese nationals were among the missing in Nepal.
In Tibet’s Gyirong county, 558 people are reported missing, including 260 foreign nationals, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Search and rescue operations are proving to be a “massive challenge” as simply “getting to the affected areas … to try and recover the survivors” is proving to be extremely difficult, because the roads and bridges there have suffered extensive damage, said Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
A mix of government and private helicopters have “been drafted to fly into the areas to try to bring as many survivors as possible” to hospitals to receive treatment for injuries that doctors say include broken ribcages and skin burns, said Fernandez.
Rescuers in Nepal have deployed helicopters to search for survivors and drop emergency supplies to thousands of people cut off in a rugged mountainous area popular with trekkers and pilgrims travelling between Lhasa in Tibet and Kathmandu.
Video footage from Wednesday, verified by news agencies, showed rapid torrents of water and debris sweeping away dozens of people at a border crossing in Gyirong, while downstream in Nepal, homes, roads, and power infrastructure were destroyed.
Nepal’s disaster authority said that a lake, which formed at the site where the floods occurred, was rising and at risk of bursting.
Army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet said helicopters were dropping tents, food, and medicine, provided by neighbouring India, into the hardest-hit districts. More than 5,000 army and police rescue personnel have joined the rescue effort, he said.
India evacuated thousands of people from the states bordering Nepal, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, as the floods threatened the Gandak River Basin.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah left by road for Bidur in one of the worst-affected districts of Nuwakot to assess the flood situation, his office said on social media.
Preliminary satellite imagery analysis by Planet Labs indicated that a landslide of ice and rock triggered a debris-laden surge down the Lhende River, approximately 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of the Rasuwagadhi border crossing between Nepal and China.
In the affected valleys, thick mud swathed homes, trees, and vehicles, while aerial footage showed collapsed houses, submerged cars, and a metallic bridge washed away by the torrents.
Middle East Eye