Rescuers were racing Friday to find hundreds of people still missing, two days after a catastrophic flash flood struck the Himalayan border between Nepal and China, with authorities warning an overflowing lake formed by the disaster could unleash more flooding. Nepal police said Friday morning the country's death toll had risen to 469, up from 390 a day earlier. China has not updated its earlier count of three deaths in Tibet.
The two countries said more than 1,000 people remained missing, including as many as 540 foreigners from more than 30 countries. Wednesday's disaster, triggered by a glacial collapse that sent rock and meltwater surging into rivers below, has left a new danger in its wake: a barrier lake formed upstream by debris dams. China's Ministry of Water Resources said the lake held roughly 2 million cubic meters of water as of Thursday and was expected to receive another 3 million cubic meters — equivalent to about 1,200 Olympic swimming pools — over the following three days, with peak flow expected around September 1.
Chinese national broadcaster CCTV said the lake's barrier sits more than 10 kilometers from Gyirong Port, the border crossing that was engulfed by the initial flood, and is at an elevation roughly 1,000 meters above it. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The country has mobilized an eight-member engineering team to survey the lake by air and build 3D models of the site. Engineer Chen Hanxiao described the difficulty of the terrain: "After the glacier collapse created the lake, many isolated cliffs and steep cliffs appeared along it," he told CCTV.
He said the team's general strategy is to dig a drainage channel at a lower point of the dam, though the channel's exact width and depth will depend on calculations of water flow and how quickly the lake continues to fill. Their survey found the lake to be about 150 meters long and 40-50 meters deep. Continuing rain in the area, which is forecast to last through the coming week, has further destabilized the surrounding soil and rock.
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