KATHMANDU: Rescuers in Nepal and China were still searching Saturday for nearly 3,000 people reported missing days after a deadly wall of water, ice and debris swept through the mountainous region, destroying villages and leaving hundreds dead.
Latest figures from both countries put the number of recovered bodies at 633, while reports suggested some victims may have been swept downstream into India.
In Nepal, the disaster authority added 933 hydropower workers to a missing persons list that already included trekkers and pilgrims travelling towards Mount Kailash.
Survivors described widespread destruction and an agonising wait for news of missing relatives.
“All the settlements near the river were swept away. There is nothing left,” survivor Buddhi Ram 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.
Enormous Trauma
The Red Cross said the trauma from Wednesday’s catastrophe had been “enormous”, with as many as 93,000 people potentially affected. The death toll is expected to rise.
Emergency teams have been working to reach survivors in devastated areas, where food and water supplies were running short.
The search has also been complicated by fears of further flooding.
The deluge of ice, mud and debris created huge lakes, with one threatening rescue teams operating in the affected region.
Nepali police urged rescuers to “immediately move to a safe location” after receiving information that “a water dam has burst again on the Chinese side”.
Chinese authorities temporarily suspended rescue operations in the worst-hit area of Gyirong over concerns about renewed flooding before later saying the threat had eased.
State news agency Xinhua reported early Saturday that two villagers had been rescued in the area.
Hundreds Trapped At Hydropower Project
On the Nepali side, the military located people trapped inside a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project and was working to reach them.
“Two helicopters have been dispatched, but it is challenging because it is tough to even locate the entry points of the tunnel,” army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.
About 350 workers and residents had been brought to safety from the site, he said, while efforts continued to rescue more than 100 people believed to be trapped in the same area.
Workers rescued from other hydropower projects along the Trishuli valley described how quickly the disaster unfolded.
Buddha Tamang said he survived because he was inside a tunnel at the dam where he worked when the flood struck.
“The senior officers working on the other side, they were all swept away,” Tamang told AFP after being airlifted to safety on Thursday following more than 24 hours stranded at the site.
Nepal reported 626 deaths on Saturday, with 2,426 people, including hundreds of foreigners, still out of contact.
Across the border, Chinese state media reported seven deaths and 554 people missing. Authorities said they had evacuated 555 stranded tourists and 499 Chinese residents from the affected area.
In India, authorities said seven bodies had been recovered from rivers flowing from Nepal and were believed to be those of flood victims.
Pilgrims Among The Missing
Scores of Hindu devotees from around the world were among those reported missing, with many travelling towards Mount Kailash on pilgrimage.
Sivaranjani Muthunathan was travelling by bus with 56 others towards the Chinese border when they initially believed they had encountered a traffic jam.
“Then there was fog, smoke, something that seemed to suddenly engulf us,” the 46-year-old told AFP on Friday, showing a video she recorded of the torrent surging towards the bus.
Vehicles around them were swept away or buried under mud.
“One by one, we also climbed out through the driver’s side,” she said, before scrambling up a hill.
