Key facts
- Deadly flash floods have devastated parts of Nepal and Tibet, wiping out entire villages.
- Nearly 3,000 people are missing following the disaster.
- Rescuers are struggling to access remote areas, with many people feared buried under mud.
- Morgues are overwhelmed, and some bodies have been found as far away as India.
- Families are posting missing person posters at hospitals in Kathmandu in a desperate search for information.
- Many workers at hydropower projects in the affected region are among the missing.
Deadly flash floods have swept through Nepal and Tibet, causing widespread devastation and leaving thousands missing. Entire villages have been erased, and rescue efforts are underway to find survivors amidst the mud and debris. In Kathmandu, desperate relatives are plastering posters of the missing on hospital walls, clinging to any hope of news.
The scale of the disaster is immense, with nearly 3,000 people unaccounted for. Nepal has confirmed 669 bodies recovered, but many remote areas remain inaccessible, hindering rescue operations and making it difficult to ascertain the full extent of the casualties. The task of identifying the dead is also a significant challenge, with morgues in cities like Chitwan overwhelmed and a makeshift facility set up to house the deceased. Some bodies have been carried by the powerful currents as far as neighboring India.
At Tribhuvan University teaching hospital in Kathmandu, a constant stream of people checks lists of patients, hoping to find any sign of their loved ones. In the absence of official information and with affected regions cut off, families have resorted to creating and displaying posters of the missing, featuring smiling faces of loved ones now lost. Yavraj Lama tearfully described his missing sister, her husband, and their two young children, whose village was entirely washed away. He expressed little hope for their survival given the complete destruction.
Monita Nepali, 22, is grieving the disappearance of her husband, Vishal Nepali, 30, a driver who worked near the Nepal-Tibet border. She last spoke to him an hour before the floods hit. Tulmaya Tamang is searching for 12 family members, including a five-month-old niece, from a village in Rasuwa district. For some, the immediate hope is to retrieve bodies to find peace, as the prolonged uncertainty is unbearable.
A significant number of those missing, at least 900, were working on large hydropower projects along the Trishuli River. Dramatic footage has emerged of Nepali soldiers rescuing survivors from a tunnel at the Trishuli-1 hydropower project. The army believes many more are still trapped underground in various project sites. Among them is 24-year-old Sujan Nepali, a hydropower worker whose sister continues to search for him at local hospitals.