Rescue teams were searching for hundreds of missing people along the Nepal-China border Thursday after a catastrophic and deadly torrent of floods and mud swept through several communities a day earlier following a glacial collapse. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority in Nepal said 826 people were missing and the death toll from the country's flash floods rose to 165 on Thursday. Nepalese authorities ramped up operations in the worst-affected districts of Nuwakot and Rasuwa.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV separately reported that 558 people were missing in Tibet — 260 of them foreigners — and two villagers were rescued. At least three people were reported killed as of Thursday morning, it said. Hikmat Singh Ayer, CEO and senior director of Nepal's Tourism Board, told CBS News Wednesday there were at least 33 Americans among the missing foreign nationals.
Flash floods decimated villages, slamming into houses, roads, bridges and power plants, CBS News' Arshad Zargar reported. Videos broadcast by regional news outlets and posted on social media show violent torrents of water surging through valleys and mountain passes, tearing down bridges and dams and sweeping away buildings. Drone footage in Nepal on Wednesday showed roads destroyed and buildings buried by thundering water the color of wet cement.
The region's steep valleys are economic lifelines and travel corridors but are precarious when disaster strikes. Images showed what appeared to be the second floors of buildings in Nepal's hard-hit Nuwakot district slathered in mud after the torrent rushed by. Debris hung from tree branches and wires, vehicles were buried and some stunned survivors were caked in mud.
The floods halted travel in some areas. There was little time for anyone to flee. "When I reached Dhunge bazaar, in half an hour, the flood came and damaged all the market.
People were preparing to go to office then," resident Shoyam Rajbhandari said. "How many people are missing or dead, we don't know." Since early morning, army and private helicopters have been deployed. The Nepalese army rescued more than 100 people from flood-affected areas through helicopter operations Thursday, army spokesperson Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet said.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
