Rescuers were racing Thursday to reach isolated communities across Nepal and Tibet after catastrophic floods and landslides destroyed villages, roads and bridges, leaving at least 359 people dead in Nepal and an estimated 1,300 to 1,400 missing as continued rainfall and an overflowing dammed lake threatened additional devastation.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
Rescue teams using helicopters to reach communities cut off by destroyed roads and bridges were searching Thursday for more than 1,000 people missing after catastrophic flooding and landslides swept through Nepal and Tibet, burying settlements and leaving authorities concerned that continued rainfall could trigger another round of destruction.
Nepalese authorities placed the country’s death toll at 359 as of Thursday morning local time, while estimates of the missing ranged from approximately 1,300 to 1,400 people, according to Reuters.
Officials cautioned that those figures could rise substantially as rescuers establish contact with villages and towns that have been isolated since the disaster.
Chinese authorities reported three deaths in Tibet as of the latest information provided.
The scale of the destruction has complicated efforts to determine how many people remain trapped or missing. Entire settlements were swept away or buried, while landslides eliminated road access to communities already struggling with shortages of food, medicine and temporary shelter.
Heavy rain is expected to continue in the region this week, creating additional danger for survivors and emergency crews.
Another concern has emerged in Gyirong, Tibet, where authorities were monitoring a dammed lake that had begun overflowing Thursday. A failure of the natural dam could release another destructive surge of water into communities and areas where search teams are operating.
Videos from the disaster showed torrents of muddy water and debris tearing through Himalayan settlements and destroying infrastructure within seconds.
One video showed a bridge being swept away, while separate footage documented the broader scale of the flooding and the missing-person crisis.
Scientists examining the disaster increasingly believe a massive glacial collapse contributed to the initial flood.
The U.S. Geological Survey detected what initially appeared to be a magnitude 4.4 earthquake around the time the disaster began.
That interpretation was later revised.
According to reporting describing the USGS findings, the seismic signal appears to have been produced by an enormous quantity of ice, rock and mud moving down the mountains rather than an earthquake triggering the collapse.
The distinction was discussed in coverage of survivors and travelers caught near the disaster zone, including a report on Indian actress Manasi Parekh’s experience.
The glacial failure, combined with heavy rainfall, appears to have sent a massive volume of icy mud and debris down steep Himalayan terrain and into populated river valleys.
Experts stressed that unstable mountain slopes and continuing precipitation now make rescue operations unusually hazardous.
Engineer Chen Hongqi described those difficulties in an interview with China’s state-run Global Times.
“First, the stability of the damaged area at the source of the landslide remains unclear, posing challenges to the prevention of secondary disasters,” Chen said. “In addition, the area is characterized by high mountains, deep valleys, and concentrated water collection, making rainfall a key factor influencing rescue operations.”
Access routes through the region are frequently narrow and bordered by steep mountain slopes, meaning additional rain could trigger rockfalls or landslides onto roads being used by rescuers.
The Red Cross described widespread destruction in an update Thursday.
“Entire villages had been destroyed and impassable roads and bridges had left communities cut off,” rescue officials said, according to Reuters.
With ground routes inaccessible in many locations, Nepal has increasingly relied on helicopters.
Aircraft have been searching for isolated communities and delivering food, tents and other emergency supplies to survivors.
Local tourism executive Sagar Pandey described scenes in which recognizable communities had essentially disappeared.
“There are no human-made things, no human settlement left,” Pandey told Reuters.
“Everything is just flat… So anyone in the hotel, the restaurant, or the car, I believe that everybody is gone,” he said.
Additional video from Nepal showed communities confronting widespread deaths and disappearances, while another recording showed people running from the advancing floodwaters.
A third video focused on Americans reported missing after the disaster.
The disaster struck during a period when large numbers of international travelers were visiting the Himalayan region, including pilgrims traveling to Mount Kailash, a sacred destination in Hinduism.
Citizens of the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa and South Korea were among those reported missing, along with large numbers of people from Nepal, India and China.
India alone said Thursday that 288 of its citizens remained unaccounted for.
“There are 288 Indian nationals who remain unaccountable. These include 73 Indian nationals who are working on the Trishuli One Power Project. Our embassy in Kathmandu is in touch with the project head to get more details about these people,” Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, according to The Hindu.
The international scope of the missing-person search has added another challenge for authorities attempting to determine who was present in remote mountain communities when the flooding struck.
Customs agent Omkar Joshi described the aftermath in stark terms.
“Everything is finished,” Joshi told AFP in reporting carried by Al Arabiya.
“It is a giant graveyard. All that is left are sand and pebbles, soaked red by human blood.”
Among those who escaped the disaster was Indian actress Manasi Parekh, who had been traveling through the region as part of the Hindu pilgrimage.
Parekh said she had visited some of the places later devastated by flooding only days before and had planned to travel to affected areas in Tibet on Thursday.
“I was literally welcomed at this spot five days ago. So warmly! And now the whole place is submerged,” Parekh said of one Nepal location, according to the Hindustan Times.
She also described her experience in an Instagram post.
“Life is uncertain, but what has happened is absolutely heartbreaking. We are constantly praying for the people affected by this tragedy,” Parekh wrote in an Instagram story. “By God’s grace, we are safe in China, and Isha Foundation is doing its best to get us back home, as well as find those who are in the midst of the floods. Please keep praying for everyone’s well-being.”
Authorities are now confronting two simultaneous emergencies: locating survivors from Wednesday’s destruction and preparing for the possibility that additional rain or the failure of the dammed lake in Tibet could unleash more flooding.
The terrain itself remains unstable, leaving rescuers vulnerable to secondary landslides as they attempt to reach communities where communications have been severed.
The final scale of the disaster remains unclear.
With entire villages inaccessible, hundreds of foreign travelers unaccounted for and estimates already placing the missing at well above 1,000, authorities expect casualty figures to continue changing as helicopters and ground crews penetrate deeper into the affected Himalayan valleys.
For survivors, the immediate priorities are food, medical care and shelter. For rescuers, continued rainfall and unstable slopes mean the same mountains that produced Wednesday’s devastation could remain dangerous for days to come.
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