Rescuers in Nepal and China were still searching on Saturday for nearly 3,000 people missing after a catastrophic flood tore through the Himalayan region earlier this week, submerging entire villages under a wall of water and debris.
At least 633 bodies have been recovered so far, according to the latest official figures, while authorities warned that the death toll could rise as more bodies are discovered and others are swept downstream into India. The disaster has left thousands displaced, with survivors describing scenes of total destruction along river valleys where entire settlements were wiped out.
In Nepal, the disaster authority added 933 hydropower workers to the missing persons list, joining trekkers and pilgrims who had been traveling toward Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash. The Red Cross estimated that as many as 93,000 people may have been affected by the floods, which struck with terrifying speed on Wednesday.
Buddhi Dangol, a survivor from one of the hardest hit areas, described the devastation as total. “All the settlements near the river were swept away. There is nothing left,” Dangol told AFP. Samjhana Thing said she had spent three days waiting for news of her missing brother. “We don’t know anything. Hopefully he is in a safe place,” she said.
Emergency teams have been racing to reach survivors in remote areas where roads have been destroyed and communication lines cut off. Food and clean water supplies are running dangerously low, and rescuers are now warning of the risk of further flooding after the deluge created massive lakes of ice and mud. One of these unstable formations has become a direct threat to rescue teams operating in the region.
Nepali police issued an urgent evacuation order for all rescuers, stating they had received information that “a water dam has burst again on the Tibetan side.” On the Chinese side of the border, authorities suspended rescue operations in the hardest hit Gyirong area due to the renewed flood risk before later reporting that the immediate threat had eased. State news agency Xinhua said two villagers had been rescued in the area early on Saturday.
In Nepal, military teams located survivors trapped inside the Trishuli 3A hydropower project tunnel, where more than a hundred workers remained stranded. “Two helicopters have been dispatched, but it is challenging because it is tough to even locate the entry points of the tunnel,” Army spokesman Raja Basnet told AFP. So far, 350 workers and residents have been brought to safety, though efforts continue to reach those still trapped.
Buddha Tamang, a worker rescued after being marooned for more than 24 hours, described the disaster unfolding with terrifying speed. “The senior officers working on the other side, they were all swept away,” Tamang said. Nepal’s official death toll stood at 626 on Saturday, with 2,426 people, including hundreds of foreign nationals, still unaccounted for.
Across the border in Tibet, where access is tightly controlled by Chinese authorities, seven deaths were reported and 554 people remained missing, according to Xinhua. Authorities said they had evacuated 555 stranded tourists and 499 Chinese residents from the affected area. Indian authorities recovered seven bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal, believed to be victims of the flood.
Among the missing are scores of Hindu pilgrims from around the world who were traveling to Mount Kailash when the disaster struck. Sivaranjani Muthunathan, a 46 year old traveler, described how her group became trapped in what they initially thought was a traffic jam before being engulfed by a torrent of water and mud. “One by one, we also climbed out through the driver’s side,” she said, showing a video of the raging floodwaters sweeping away vehicles. The group scrambled up a hillside to safety.
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