On Aug. 26, a landslide and a glacier collapse in the Himalayas sent an avalanche of water, rock and soil cascading down the Trishuli River valley, which sits on the border between the northern Rasuwa district of Nepal and Gyirong County in Tibet. The flood moved with overwhelming force and terrifying speed, sweeping away homes, schools, shops, vehicles, and people. A week later, the reports are bleak: more 1,000 people have died in Nepal and Tibet and around 4,500 people remain missing.
Some of the bodies carried away by the deluge were found hundreds of miles downstream in India. Rescue workers are still fighting to reach survivors. At least 900 workers remain missing from several hydropower projects along the Trishuli River, which runs through several remote, mountainous districts of Nepal.
Hundreds of workers are believed to be trapped inside the tunnels in the hydropower projects. A final accounting of lives lost is expected to be in thousands. In the Chitwan district of southern Nepal, some 120 miles from the mountain valleys where the glacial fury first struck, officials have buried nearly 200 unidentified bodies in a forested area because of a lack of morgue space.
Mass burials have also started in a forest outside Kathmandu, the capital. DNA samples have been collected so the bodies can be identified later. Families are still waiting outside hospitals in Kathmandu, the capital, for news of their loved ones.
Magar was searching for her missing brother-in-law and a nephew, and had pasted their photos on a hospital wall already covered with images of the dead and names of the missing. Many others were coming to terms with their loss after recognizing identifying details in photographs of the dead. Among them was Kesari Tamang, a woman, whose brother Sankha Budha Tamang ran a hotel in Betrawati town in central Nepal.
He had been swept away by the flood and a body matching his description had been recovered 100 miles downstream in Kapilvastu. The family was travelling there to identify him. Another relative let out a deep sigh and said, “If it’s not him, we will just come back,” he said.
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