The death toll from devastating floods in Nepal and China’s Tibet region has risen above 470, while rescue operations have been disrupted by fears that a newly formed barrier lake could burst and trigger further flooding.
Nepal’s prime minister’s office today said that 469 people had been confirmed dead and 977 were missing. At least three people were killed in Tibet and 558 remained missing, according to Chinese authorities.
Nepalese authorities said 644 of those missing were foreigners. About 1,550 people have been rescued.
The disaster struck on Wednesday after a glacier collapse sent a surge of ice, water, rock and mud down Himalayan river valleys, burying villages and destroying roads, bridges and hydropower plants.
Bishal Nath Upreti, president of the Nepal Centre for Disaster Management, said conditions remained extremely difficult for people stranded in the disaster zone because roads had been destroyed.
“Almost 42km [26 miles} of road is completely wiped out, and, except for the helicopters, the rescuers cannot go there”, he said.
About 800 people had been rescued by helicopter and 700 by land, Upreti said, adding that aid was being airlifted to survivors.
“They are very desperate now,” he said of those stranded. “It’s already over 72 hours now and people are really desperate for … shelter and food.”
China has deployed about 500 military and paramilitary personnel and sent Premier Li Qiang to supervise rescue operations.
“That is very, very rare and it really gives us a sense of how urgent and how much of a priority this operation has become.”
Nepal has deployed 30,000 security personnel to search remote valleys, but rescue operations have been complicated by the risk of secondary flooding.
Authorities in both countries are monitoring a newly formed barrier lake straddling the Nepal-China border, which they have warned is unstable and could burst.
Barrier lakes form when floods or landslides block a river, trapping water behind a natural dam made of debris.
Chinese authorities said the lake contained about two million cubic metres (70 million cubic feet) of water and could receive another three million cubic metres (106 million cubic feet) over the next three days.
Rescue and military teams attempting to reach the border port of Gyirong, where buildings have been buried under about 1.5 metres of mud, have been ordered to halt operations because of the risk of further mudslides.
Nepal’s foreign ministry said on Friday that the country did not require international assistance with search and rescue operations.
“The offer for help is natural. Our security agencies are doing the search and rescue operation. For now we don’t require such help,” spokesperson Lok Bahadur Chhetri said.
Nepal has, however, appealed for other forms of assistance, including financial support, as authorities confront the scale of the disaster.
The floods have left large areas of the affected region cut off, with authorities racing to reach survivors while recovering bodies and assessing damage to infrastructure.
At hospitals in Kathmandu, families have gathered seeking information about relatives who remain missing.
“Everyone is fighting for answers, waiting for some glimmer of hope, and right now that’s hard to come by,” Fernandez said.
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