Rescue operations entered their fifth day on Sunday as teams continued searching for survivors and missing people after catastrophic flash floods and debris flows devastated areas along the Nepal-China border.
The combined death toll in Nepal and China’s Tibet region has risen to 750, while more than 3,000 people remain missing, according to the latest updates from authorities. Nepal’s disaster management agency has reported 734 people dead in Nepal, and 2,498 remain missing, while Chinese authorities have reported 16 deaths and 546 missing in Gyirong county of Tibet, AFP reported.
More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far.
The disaster struck on August 26, when a massive debris flow and flash flood swept through the mountainous border region, destroying homes, roads, bridges and hydropower infrastructure. Rescue operations have been complicated by the region’s steep mountains, narrow gorges, damaged roads and unstable terrain.
Nepali authorities resumed search and rescue operations after bad weather temporarily forced a suspension. Helicopters have been deployed to evacuate survivors and deliver relief supplies to isolated communities.
Rescuers are focusing on several critical locations, including the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Rasuwa, where authorities believe more than 100 people could be trapped inside a tunnel filled with mud. Search operations are also continuing around the severely damaged Gyirong border crossing on the Chinese side.
Nepal has sought specialised assistance from neighbouring countries for complex tunnel rescues, survivor-detection technology, forensic identification and DNA testing. An Indian tunnel-rescue reconnaissance team has arrived in Nepal, while China has also sent specialists to assist with the operation.
India has also sent relief supplies, including food, medicines and blankets, and offered technical teams and prefabricated bridges to help restore connectivity in areas where infrastructure has been washed away.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the disaster was likely triggered by a rapid slope failure involving a glacier in Nepal’s Langtang National Park near the Chinese border. The resulting debris flow travelled nearly 100 km downstream along the Lende Khola and Trishuli Khola river systems.
The USGS said the slope failure generated energy equivalent to a magnitude 5.2 earthquake. However, it cautioned that it remains unclear whether the initial event should technically be classified as a landslide incorporating part of a glacier or a glacial collapse. The ice and debris rapidly moved downhill, picking up additional water, rocks and other material and creating a powerful debris flow and flood.
Satellite imagery has shown major changes in the Langtang Lirung glacier area following the disaster. Reuters’ analysis found that the lower portion of the glacier broke away and crashed onto the valley floor, triggering an avalanche of ice and rock that caused catastrophic flooding downstream.
Authorities have also been monitoring a lake that formed upstream along the Nepal-China border following the disaster, amid fears that further flooding could hit downstream communities.
The immediate risk from the lake had eased by Saturday, with Chinese authorities reporting that the water level had fallen and the lake was gradually shrinking. However, officials warned that flood risks could persist until the upstream water bodies drain completely.
Meanwhile, families across Nepal continue to search for missing relatives. Authorities have warned that some recovered bodies have deteriorated beyond recognition, prompting plans to collect DNA samples before burial to help identify victims.
With thousands still unaccounted for, rescuers remain focused on locating survivors while authorities begin assessing the enormous damage to homes, roads, bridges and critical infrastructure caused by one of the region’s worst disasters in recent years.
