Days after a catastrophic wall of water and debris swept through towns in the Himalayan region, rescuers in China and Nepal continued searching on Saturday for thousands of missing people following the Nepal Flood.
The latest figures from both countries put the number of missing people at about 3,000, while rescuers had recovered 633 bodies. Reports suggested that some of the fatalities may have extended as far as India.
Nepal’s disaster authorities added 933 hydropower workers, along with hikers and pilgrims travelling to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash, to the missing-persons list. The affected region has seen extensive development of hydropower infrastructure.
“All the settlements near the river were swept away. There is nothing left,” survivor Buddhi Dangol told AFP.
Samjhana Thing said she had been waiting three days for news of her missing brother.
“We don’t know anything. Hopefully he is in a safe place,” she said.
Red Cross Estimate
The Red Cross estimates that up to 93,000 individuals may be affected by the devastating disaster, with the death toll expected to rise as search operations continue.
Meanwhile, emergency response teams are also racing to rescue survivors across impacted areas, where critical supplies of food and clean water are rapidly running low due to widespread destruction.
Compounding the crisis, search and recovery efforts for the missing are severely hindered by the threat of secondary flooding.
The initial torrent of ice, rock, and mud created massive dammed lakes, one of which directly imperils emergency personnel conducting search and rescue operations downstream.
Devastating Nepal Floods Could Cost 10% of Economy to Rebuild
Following the devastating effect of the Nepal flood, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle told Reuters on Saturday that Nepal would require $4 billion to $5 billion to rebuild following this week’s catastrophic floods. This amount is equivalent to over a tenth of the country’s GDP.
“The initial estimate is between $4-$5 billion. Just an estimate,” Wagle said. “We will require much less than what we needed for the 2015 earthquake. Loss and damage is being assessed.”
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