Nepal flash flood death toll climbs to 362 with 1,300 still missing
by Darryl Coote & Lisa Hornung · UPIAug. 27 (UPI) -- The death toll from a flash flood that tore through Nepal's mountainous border region near China rose Thursday to 362, with hundreds still missing, according to officials.
The devastating flash flood, reportedly triggered by an avalanche and collapsed glacier, hit north-central Nepal on Wednesday morning, leaving a wide swath of damage and destruction in its wake.
The New York Times and The Guardian reported the new death toll, including the three reported in Tibet by Chinese authorities. More than 1,300 are missing, and hundreds of others displaced.
"Of these, 359 bodies have been found, including 17 in Rasuwa, 28 in Nuwakot, 33 in Dhading, 132 in Chitwan, 30 in Gorkha, 22 in Tanahun, 82 in Nawalparasi East, and 15 in Nawalparasi West," the police said. "The police are also working to keep various households in various districts at risk of flooding in safe places, carry out necessary rescue and search operations in coordination and cooperation with various agencies and locals, and remove roadblocks at various locations."
A lake that has formed in the flooded area by a river blockage is rising and is at risk of bursting, Nepal's disaster authority said, telling residents to stay away from river banks, The Guardian reported.
Among the missing were 63 Americans, The Kathmandu Post reported, citing data from the Nepal Tourism Board. The board said 177 Indians, 53 Ukrainians, 33 Britons, 25 Canadians, eight Germans and six Singaporeans and six South Africans were also missing.
Malaysia's Foreign Ministry said 55 of its nationals were missing, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said 34 Australians were missing and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said five Japanese citizens were also unaccounted for.
"I am concerned for the well-being of our compatriots, the Nepalese people and all foreign nationals staying there, and I pray earnestly that their irreplaceable lives will be protected," Takaichi said in a statement.
In China, state-run media reported 558 people, including 260 foreign nationals, were missing due to mudslides in Tibet's Gyirong County, which borders Nepal. The number of people missing had nearly doubled in 12 hours.
More than 7,450 police officers and soldiers have been deployed to the affected areas in Nepal, conducting at least 37 flights and rescuing 305 people, according to officials.
The Nepali army said its aircraft evacuated 696 people, including 101 foreign nationals by 7 p.m. local time on Thursday.
Its emergency treatment center was treating 900 people who had been injured, the army said. It had deployed 5,400 personnel for rescue operations.
The Prime Minister's Office of Nepal said search-and-rescue operations along the riverbank and affected areas were intensified on Thursday morning. Thursday evening, it said in an update: "Honorable Prime Minister [Balendra Shah] has given strict directions to speed up rescue operations in flood affected areas, arrange free and effective treatment to the injured and immediate relief materials to the displaced families."
"[Shah] emphasizes the relief camps built especially for the displaced should be fully organized, clean. He has given clear instructions to ensure personal privacy in camps and to keep women, children and elderly with proper respect, safety and special priority," it added.
On Thursday, scientists said that newly available images show that an enormous chunk of the bedrock beneath a glacier that had collapsed had also given way.
"The rock that the glacier was sitting on collapsed," said Kristen Cook, a geomorphologist at the Université Grenoble Alpes in France, The Times reported. The combined force of the collapse sent millions of tons of rock and ice into the valley, she said. "It was a much larger collapse than we were initially able to see in the satellite imagery," she said.
The deluge caused the U.S. Geological Survey to register it as a 5.2 magnitude earthquake.
The debris flow would have released about the same amount of energy as 1,000 tons of TNT, The Times reported.
"Perhaps more importantly than energy, we can directly compute the mass from our force estimate. This comes out as nearly 400 million metric tons," said Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at University College London.
That is equivalent to about 1,000 Empire State Buildings crashing into the river valley at the same time, The Times reported.
Bhushan Thakur, 38, a hairstylist, told The Times that he had just begun work Wednesday when he heard a thunderous sound. He saw a huge wall of water rushing toward him, and he and two others ran for their lives, leaping up the hillside.
"We jumped and jumped, otherwise, we would have died," he said.
He and others on the hillside were rescued by army staff who guided them to a school where they were given food.
Dawa Lama, 45, who lives in Timure, Nepal, told The Times that he was in his house just before 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday when he heard what sounded like a thunderclap and then felt a breeze.
Then a wave of muddy water slammed into his home, carrying away his wife and two daughters, ages 7 and 8.
Lama said he outran the water by climbing up the hillside, but his family could not. "They all died and I lived," he said. He said he still has hope that they will somehow make it. "How long can I remain in hope, I don't know."
Kabita Dhungana, deputy mayor of Nuwakot, said, "Please help us," as she spoke to BBC Radio 4's The World at One.
"Family members, children, parents are missing, and this is a very critical bad situation," The Guardian reported Dhungana said. "Everything, basic needs are destroyed, so please help us. We are really in need of help."
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Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famed "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on August 28, 1963. The speech galvanized the nation's civil rights movements and led to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. File photo by UPI | License Photo