Nepal floods kill over 800, leave 3,000 missing in Himalayan disaster

A catastrophic flood that struck the Himalayan mountain region along the Nepal-China border has killed more than 800 people as of Sunday (local time), five days after the disaster began. The number of missing has surpassed 3,000.

Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority counted at least 788 deaths and 2,502 missing within Nepal as of Sunday, according to the Associated Press and other news agencies. At least 592 of those missing are foreign nationals.

Chinese authorities on their side of the border recorded 16 deaths and 546 missing, including 261 foreign nationals. Combined, the two countries have tallied 804 dead and 3,048 missing.

Nepalese authorities believe at least 933 workers have gone missing from more than 11 hydropower construction sites in the central Bagmati Province. Officials say roughly 100 people may still be alive, trapped inside tunnels at the Trishuli 3A and 3B power plants in the Rasuwa district. Reuters reported that authorities have received information suggesting the number of people trapped at those two plants could be as high as 350.

Nepal's military rescue teams drilled into the top of a tunnel buried under debris at the Trishuli 3A plant on Sunday night, inserted pipes to pump in air and deployed cameras to monitor conditions inside. Rescuers later used heavy equipment — including drills, excavators and hydraulic cutters — along with explosives to bore four holes into the tunnel, then descended by rope into the interior. Teams are now working to determine the condition, location and safety of those trapped inside.

Nepal's prime minister's office said in a statement that rescuers "descended into the holes using ropes and called out to those trapped inside, but received no response." The Ministry of Energy said teams were preparing to send rescuers equipped with oxygen gear and cameras into a construction chamber roughly 180 meters inside the tunnel.

Rescue operations have been hampered by rising floodwaters, a shortage of equipment and difficult terrain. Heavy rain that began around 2 a.m. Sunday caused the Trishuli River to rise, at one point flooding the drilling zone. Reports of surging water levels in the Bhotekoshi River — an upstream tributary of the Trishuli — in the Rasuwa district briefly forced rescue teams and residents to halt operations and evacuate to higher ground.

Unstable natural dam lakes have formed in the affected area where rivers have been blocked by mud and rock, raising fears that rapidly rising water could cause an uncontrolled breach. Drone surveillance on Sunday night confirmed a landslide about 2.8 kilometers from an existing natural dam lake on the Chinese side of the border. That landslide has created a new natural dam, raising the risk of secondary disasters should the ground become further destabilized or heavy rain continue.

Nepal's Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha said rescue operations were under way in multiple tunnels and that work was continuing despite "extreme weather and extraordinarily difficult conditions." Nepalese authorities deployed about 15,000 military and police personnel to the hardest-hit valley areas on Sunday, rescuing 183 people — including four Chinese nationals — and airlifting them to safety.

The international community has mobilized support to bolster Nepal's rescue capacity. India, which has experience with high-altitude tunnel rescues in the Himalayas, sent a team of 11 tunnel rescue specialists to Nepal. China dispatched nine tunnel rescue experts as well. Nepal's government has also requested specialized equipment and personnel, including heavy cargo drones, DNA testing kits and refrigerated facilities for storing bodies.

Nepal's Foreign Minister Sishir Khanal said the heavy cargo drones were needed to deliver emergency relief supplies to disaster-hit areas accessible only by helicopter. He added that refrigerated storage facilities, DNA testing kits and other forensic equipment and expertise were urgently needed to prevent the decomposition of bodies — hundreds of which are being recovered each day — and to help families identify their loved ones.

Morgues and hospital facilities across Nepal have reached capacity, Reuters reported. With bodies beginning to decompose before refrigerated storage could be arranged, authorities buried 96 unidentified bodies in temporary graves on Sunday and were in the process of burying about 100 more that day.

Before burial, however, authorities are collecting DNA samples, photographing the bodies and recording identifying information so that remains can be returned to families for cremation in accordance with Hindu tradition once identities are confirmed.

Meanwhile, Nepal's government estimated it will need between $4 billion and $5 billion to fund disaster recovery, with the upper estimate representing nearly 10 percent of the country's entire economy. Foreign Minister Khanal said the government planned to draw up a recovery plan after assessing the full extent of the damage, but was already appealing to the international community for support.

The United States and Canada each pledged approximately $3.6 million, the EU $2.5 million, the United Kingdom £5 million ($6.5 million) and Malaysia $1 million.

The UN released $2.5 million in emergency funding. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies allocated more than $1 million for Nepal relief and launched an emergency fundraising campaign targeting $31 million.

South Korea's joint government rapid-response team and Doosan Enerbility had planned to deploy two chartered helicopters — one each — to search for nine missing South Korean nationals on Sunday, but Nepal's military denied flight clearance citing safety concerns and air traffic congestion, putting the search on hold.