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Key developments
• Search for survivors: A frantic search is underway for more than 1,300 people missing after catastrophic flooding swamped a China-Nepal border region Wednesday. Dozens of Americans are among the at least 700 foreigners unaccounted for. President Donald Trump said the US is willing to send “any help” to Nepal.
• Death toll climbs: At least 469 people have been killed in Nepal, authorities said. CNN’s team on the ground has seen destroyed bridges and buried houses. Here’s how you can help.
• Secondary threat: Rain and chilly weather is expected in China’s Gyirong County, where it’s feared a dam created during the initial landslide could breach and cause more flooding.
• What caused it? Scientists are still working to determine exactly what caused the disaster. Video posted on Chinese social media showed where a large portion of glacier broke off a mountain and plunged into the river below.
New video shows where glacier broke, causing deadly landslide
Video shared by a photographer on Chinese social media and geolocated by CNN captures where a large portion of glacier near Langtang Lirung peak broke along the Nepal-China border, causing a devastating avalanche and landslide.
In his post, the photographer wrote he heard the sound of the falling glacier around 10:30 a.m. local time on August 26, and at first mistook it for a military exercise.
Wednesday’s glacial collapse was so strong that it was initially reported by the US Geological Survey as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake.
Comparing satellite images from before and after the disaster, scientists have established that an enormous chunk of glacier sheared off from high on a mountain.
From there, it plunged to the river below — a roughly 7,000-foot vertical drop, a CNN analysis shows.
Though information on the volume of rock and ice that fell is not available yet, the section of the glacier that fell is approximately 2,000 feet wide, with a similarly sized section of rock next to it falling as well.
The sheared glacier left a 3,000-foot-wide gash in the mountainside, according to CNN analysis of satellite imagery.
The flood wave – a cascade of water, pulverized ice and rock – “descended the first 22 kilometers (13.7 miles) at an average speed of 193 kilometers per hour (120 mph),” said Jeffrey Kargel, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, a non-profit institute. That means it traveled nearly 14 miles in just 6 minutes and 50 seconds.
Scientists are still unpicking the exact causes of the devastating flooding.
CNN’s Laura Paddison and Thomas Bordeaux contributed reporting.
Threat of renewed flooding complicates already difficult search and rescue, Red Cross says
The threat of further landslides and flooding along the devastated Nepal-China border is making a difficult search for survivors even more dangerous, the Red Cross told CNN.
“We’re extremely concerned about the possibility of a renewed flood, even as the authorities are working very, very hard to reopen roads that have been blocked for communities that have still not received significant assistance,” said David Fisher, Head of the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) for Nepal.
Two days after the disaster, many people in the flood zone are “still very disoriented,” he said. Rescuers and volunteers are doing their best to distribute flood warnings to people still in shock, Fisher told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
“It’s critical that we reach both the existing emergency needs and that we get these warnings out as soon as possible,” he said.
Death toll in Nepal climbs to 469: police
The death toll from the flooding in Nepal has climbed to 469, Nepali police said Friday morning. Three people have been reported dead on the Chinese side, according to the latest update from officials Thursday morning.
More than 1,300 people have been reported missing. Rescuers are searching for survivors but have faced difficulties due to mountainous terrain, bad weather, wrecked infrastructure, and power outages, among other obstacles.
Video shows people trapped on balcony as flash flood hits
A video posted to social media shows people trapped on the balcony of a building in Bidur, a town on the Trishuli River in Nepal, at the moment the devastating flooding swept through.
Missing Texas couple was celebrating husband's 60th birthday on bucket-list pilgrimage
Deepak and Madhu Ahuja traveled from Texas to go on a religious pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet. They are among the 90 Americans who are missing after catastrophic flooding hit the region.
Their children Ashna and Shreya told CNN on Thursday their parents had made the trip to celebrate their father’s 60th birthday.
“They had just finished the pilgrimage, and they were feeling really proud of themselves for completing it,” Shreya said. “They were ready to come home.”
The couple’s last known whereabouts were in Tibet, traveling to Kathmandu and ultimately to Delhi.
“This was a testament of my mom supporting my dad and all his hopes and dreams,” Shreya said. “He wanted to do this trip before or right when he turned 60… It was his bucket list dream.”
Rain and chilly weather expected in hard-hit Gyirong County, China weather agency says
Gyirong County, an area on the China-Nepal border that was severely affected by the landslide, is set to see more rain over the next three days, as authorities warn of further landslides and flooding.
Gyirong County will see frequent but mostly light rainfall, Chinese state media CCTV reported, citing the national meteorological agency. Temperatures in the area may be as low as 8 degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit), “making it feel relatively damp and chilly,” CCTV reported.
China’s Ministry of Resources earlier warned that there is a “high risk” a dam created during the landslide in Nepal could breach and cause more flooding downstream as a lake develops behind it.
This could potentially cause “renewed flooding and damage in downstream areas, including the Gyirong Port,” a major land border crossing between China and Nepal that was wiped out by the landslide, the ministry said in a statement.
It could pose risks to Chinese emergency responders sent to the port area for rescue missions.
The lake, known as a “barrier lake,” is forming near where Nepal’s Chhochen Khola river meets the Purepu Tsangpo river, which flows into China, the ministry said.
CNN journalist: Friends in Nepal can't be reached, survivors unsure what to do next
CNN’s director of international news and video Sugam Pokharel was supposed to visit loved ones in Nepal this December, but since catastrophic flooding swamped a China-Nepal border region he has had trouble getting in touch with some of the friends he is supposed to visit.
“This feels especially personal and difficult for me,” he told CNN on Thursday.
Pokharel was born and raised in Nepal before coming to the United States 20 years ago. He said he has many friends there that are unreachable after the catastrophic flooding.
“This is incredibly heartbreaking and worrying especially not knowing what has happened to them,” Pokharel said of his friends.
He said possible secondary flooding and decomposing carcasses pose a risk to residents.
“They’re saying, well, what do we do now? We don’t have our homes anymore, but do we shelter where we are staying right now? Or do we go to a like a higher altitude, essentially climb a hill and shelter in a forest?” he told CNN.
“There are so many livestock, so many dead animals… they’re going to start rotting soon. And so there’s a concern of an epidemic.”
Pokharel also noted that a major highway connecting Nepal’s capital Kathmandu is closed, potentially cutting off crucial supplies to residents.
“There is a cooking gas shortage in Kathmandu and the cooking gas comes in trucks from India,” he said. “And if the highway blockage continues for longer, the people in Kathmandu and other areas are also going to start feeling the pain soon.”
"It’s just hope that is driving us": Relative of missing Americans waits for news
When Shekhar Agrawal spoke to his sister on Tuesday, she was in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu with her daughter, preparing for a trip in the Himalayas before returning to Agrawal’s home country of India.
But the next morning, catastrophic flash flooding swept through the port at the Nepal-China border where his sister Rekha Shashidharan, 54, and her daughter Rashi Shashidharan, 14, had traveled. No one has been able to make contact with them since.
Rekha and Rashi Shashidharan are now among dozens of American citizens missing following the flooding. Agrawal said they were traveling with a tour group of around 50 people from different countries, including 34 from the US.
Asked how the whole situation has made him and his family feel, Agrawal was blunt: “Helpless.”
He said the process of trying to get information and updates from local officials has been difficult, as over a thousand people remain unaccounted for.
But Agrawal added that “we don’t have room, space for being scared.”
“It’s just hope that is driving us at the moment,” he said.
China says progress made reaching stranded tourists near disaster site
Chinese state media has given updates overnight in the rescue operation on their side of the border, including progress made in reaching those stranded by the catastrophic flash flooding.
Around 800 meters of disaster-damaged road leading up to the Gyirong port has been cleared, said state broadcaster CCTV. Gyirong is the border zone that was hammered by a colossal wave of water on Wednesday.
A total of 555 stranded tourists have been relocated and 499 villagers affected by the disaster have been evacuated. By Thursday evening, over 681 firefighters, 13 rescue dogs, 113 vehicles, and 47 drones dispatched by China’s National Fire and Rescue Administration have all arrived, CCTV added.
Authorities have also barred Chinese visitors from entering the Shigatse’s border areas, according to an announcement made by China’s National Immigration Agency on Thursday evening.
China’s border regions with Nepal are already heavily restricted. Local travelers need to obtain permits to enter border areas, including Shigatse and Everest scenic area. Foreign travelers need to apply for special permits to enter Tibet, and foreign journalists, diplomats and academics who work on sensitive research topics are often denied access.
Information on the flooding and access has been much more restricted in China, where authorities always maintain tight control in the aftermath of a disaster.
'We want you home': A pilgrimage of a lifetime and a family's world turned upside down
Dr Radhika Sharma, the daughter of a New York-based couple missing in Nepal, sat down with Anderson Cooper tonight and shared how a trip she and her brother encouraged their parents to take has now turned their world upside down.
Ramesh and Neelam Sharma, who have not been heard from since Wednesday’s devastating flash flood, were described by their children, Rashika and Akash, as “hard working” and “down to earth people,” retired last year, after which, their children encouraged them to “go live [their] life” and “travel.”
“They are pretty religious,” Sharma said. “They had been exploring and researching this religious pilgrimage to Mount Kailash,” the home of Lord Shiva.
Ramesh and Neelam were accompanied by a friend who had done the pilgrimage many times before, and is now lost as well.
A tour agency manager who is based in Kathmandu who was in close contact with the tour guides updated families of the tourists that the tour group had crossed over to the Tibet side, an hour before the floods.
They have not been able to make contact with their parents since.
Sharma and her brother intend on traveling to Nepal tomorrow to get more information and find their parents.
Sharma plans to go to the police, the red cross, embassies and hospitals, to see which were treating patients. “Anyone I can get information from really,” Sharma said.
Sharma expressed that she has received support from a large amount of people on social media, following a post about her missing parents. She has since made a WhatsApp group with families of other US citizens whose loved ones are missing, to share if they get any information from the ground with each other.
“It just makes the whole process a little bit more bearable.” Sharma said.
Kathmandu hospital offers free treatment for flood victims
A medical college in Kathmandu founded by a Nepali Congress politician is offering free treatment for flood victims.
Kathmandu Medical College was founded by Dr. Sunil Kumar Sharma, a Nepali Congress member who previously served in the Federal Parliament. The private college has two teaching hospitals, one of which has sent a rapid response team to impacted districts such as Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Dhading.
The KMC Hospital in Duwakot, which is roughly 38 kilometers (23 miles) from the nearest flood zone in Nuwakot, has sent a team of doctors and medical officials to treat injured flood victims, a KMC representative told CNN.
In a press release posted by Sharma, the college says it is “fulfilling its social responsibility by providing free healthcare services to needy and injured patients” excluding medicine and pharmaceutical supplies.
At least 466 people have been injured as a result of Wednesday’s flood, and a majority of those survivors are getting treatment in local hospitals closer to disaster zones, according to the Ministry of Health’s Emergency Operation Center. For more serious injuries, such as those needing airlifts, other hospitals in Kathmandu Valley are on standby.
KMC told CNN that as of Thursday night, no flood patients had been sent to their teaching hospital in Kathmandu, but their on-site team in the disaster zones will help facilitate their transportation if needed.
The Nepali government is also offering free treatment for the injured, according to a Facebook post from the Nepali Prime Minister Balen Shah.
Australia sending 3.5 million dollar assistance package to Nepal for flood response
Australia is sending a 5 million Australian dollar ($3.5 million) assistance package to Nepal for affected communities, according to a foreign ministry statement.
The funds will go toward humanitarian assistance to support disaster response and recovery efforts like food, emergency shelter, clean water and sanitation.
The government is also deploying additional personnel to support affected Australians and a team of three humanitarian response specialists within the next 48 hours to help Australian staff already on the ground.
At least 39 Australians remain missing in Nepal, the ministry said.
Countries around the world continue to report missing citizens
Countries around the world are continuing to report missing citizens following the Himalayan flood.
On Thursday, Sweden’s Foreign Ministry said one citizen and one resident of Sweden are missing, while the French Foreign Ministry said some of its citizens could not be reached, but did not specify how many.
Among the more than 1,300 missing people are more than 700 foreign nationals from two dozen countries. Of the missing foreigners, at least 517 are missing in Nepal, according to the Nepal Tourism Board, and another 260 in China, according to authorities there.
The US State Department said 90 Americans are missing and Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry said 55 of its citizens cannot be reached. At least 30 Canadian citizens and permanent residents in Nepal and the Tibet region are also missing, Foreign Minister Anita Anand said, adding that she is deploying five more consular officials to Kathmandu to support Canadians and coordinate with local authorities. At least 56 Ukrainians remain missing, the country’s foreign ministry said.
At least 39 Australians are missing in Nepal, the Australian government said.
Nepal’s tourism board said 178 Indian nationals and 33 British citizens are also among the missing.
A sacred journey turned to disaster. Family of Australian couple awaits answers
Sydney-based couple Uday and Kripa Shivamurthy were returning from a three-week spiritual pilgrimage to Mount Kailash when the Nepal flood hit.
The couple had sent photos and videos to family members after completing the trek, a journey they undertook every few years to seek blessings from Lord Shiva, before heading to the China-Nepal border on their way home.
“[Trekking to the mountain] was supposed to be the hard part,” Navya Nataraj, the couple’s niece, said. “They were in line waiting to cross the immigration border from China to Nepal at 9:05 a.m., and the flood hit at 9:15 a.m.”
Security camera footage shows a huge wave of floodwater engulfing the border crossing.
The couple, who had undertook the journey with a group of 77 people organized through the Sadhguru Foundation, haven’t been heard from since.
Nataraj said the family, including the couple’s two sons, ages 21 and 30, remained stoic and hopeful that the Shivamurthys were “out there somewhere.”
“We have been getting conflicting reports. But then today they released aerial images…,” Nataraj said. “We are distraught and devastated.”
Nataraj said the worst part for their family was “not knowing.”
“To us Hindus, it is important for the soul to be able to pass on to the other side without pain and turmoil, but the only way to do that is to have the body and do the last rites,” Nataraj said.
Nepal operating at "full capacity" as priority remains on saving people, prime minister says
Nepal’s prime minister said Thursday that authorities are “operating at full capacity,” with their focus on helping the injured, locating missing people and providing relief to affected families.
Writing in a Facebook post after returning to Kathmandu from Nuwakot, Prime Minister Balendra Shah – popularly known as Balen – outlined a number of key updates, deployment details, and ongoing emergency relief measures across the disaster-affected districts.
The devastating flooding is seen as an early test for the country’s young rapper-turned-prime minister who took office just five months ago.
He said:
- 13,295 total security personnel have been deployed to affected areas, including 7,250 police, 4,200 army personnel and 1,845 members of the armed police forces.
- 69 flight operations have rescued 573 citizens, with vulnerable groups prioritized.
- Emergency health centers, free medical treatment, and free voice and data services have been offered for affected citizens.
- Essential materials including generators, portable mobile towers, batteries, tents and machinery are being sent to the affected areas.
Constantly checking the news: a harrowing time for Nepali expats
For the more than 2.1 million people who make up the Nepali diaspora overseas, the past couple of days have been a harrowing experience.
“This is my first time living outside Nepal, so this is also the first time I’m seeing what is happening in my country from the outside,” says Shirish Maharjan, who left her home in Kathmandu for the first time three weeks ago to move to the United States to study city planning at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
While Maharjan’s family in the Nepali capital remains safe from the floods, she fears for the safety of many others, including three Kathmandu University students who were completing an internship at the Upper Trishuli 3B Hydropower Project and are currently unreachable, according to the university.
Maharjan checks for news constantly, even while studying in the library. “It’s honestly very unsettling to be away from home,” she says. “Even in between my assignments here, I find myself making time to check what is happening back home and checking in with my parents to make sure everything is normal.”
“It’s really sad to see people in my county being affected,” Maharjan adds. “Nepal contributes very little to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet people, especially communities living in the Himalayas and other vulnerable areas, are facing the repercussions of a changing climate.”
Death toll rises from destructive floods with urgent search efforts underway. Catch up here
Hundreds of people are dead and over a thousand more remain missing after catastrophic flash flooding left a trail of destruction in the Nepal-China border region Wednesday. Rescue teams are racing to find survivors but have faced obstacles caused by wrecked infrastructure, power outages and limited resources.
Among the missing are hundreds of foreign nationals, including dozens of Americans, and world leaders have offered search-and-rescue assistance and aid. Meanwhile, scientists are investigating exactly what caused the sudden, massive flooding, and the danger might not be over yet.
It’s now 2:40 a.m. local time Friday in Nepal. Catch up on all the latest:
- Hundreds dead and missing: At least 389 people are dead in Nepal, the country’s police said Thursday. Across Nepal and China, more than 1,300 people are missing as of the latest updates from authorities. Thousands more have seen their homes and communities washed away, including at least 17,000 children, the UN Children’s Fund said Thursday.
- Rescue efforts underway: On top of the dead and missing, hundreds of people were injured as additional police teams were deployed across central Nepal in search and rescue efforts for survivors. The UN has mobilized emergency teams, but post-flood conditions and a lack of connectivity, power and resources have hindered rescue efforts.
- Many missing are foreigners: Among the missing are more than 700 foreign nationals from two dozen countries. At least 517 are missing in Nepal, according to the Nepal Tourism Board, and another 260 in China, according to authorities there. Dozens of foreign nationals have been rescued so far, but countries are continuing to report more missing.
- US response: The US State Department said Thursday that it is aware of 90 Americans who may have been impacted by the Nepal flood and are unaccounted for. President Donald Trump said the US has offered Nepal “any help that they need.”
- What caused the disaster? Scientists are still working to piece together exactly what caused the overwhelming flooding, but they believe it may have been a devastating combination: a massive chunk of glacier falling thousands of feet near the Nepal-China border at the same time as a landslide below it. That created a torrent of water, mud and debris that tore through the steep mountain valleys on the border and hit villages like “liquid cement.”
- Not in the clear yet: China’s hard-hit Gyirong county, where the flood crashed across the border, still faces the risk of landslides, mudslides and flash floods, with three days of rain ahead and collapsed earth forming unstable dams and “barrier lakes,” Chinese state media said.
CNN’s Sugam Pokharel, Hira Humayun, Lisa Wong, Kara Fox, Kaanita Iyer, Jennifer Hansler, Laura Paddison, Angela Fritz, Ivana Kottasová, Yong Xiong and Billy Stockwell contributed reporting.
UN emergency response teams are "fighting their way through" to reach flood victims
The United Nations has mobilized emergency teams on the ground in Nepal, with more on standby, according to Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.
In a statement posted on X, Fletcher says that $2 million is being allocated for flood victims. This includes water, medical kits, and emergency shelter for three months.
The UN’s immediate goal is to reach areas most in need, such as the districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Dhading, to assess the gravity of the disaster.
“The immediate priority is saving as many lives as we can,” said Fletcher. From there, response teams will administer medicine, water, sanitation and shelter for those displaced as a result of the flood. “It’s a massive job,” he said.
Fletcher also commented on a warning from Chinese authorities about a “high risk” behind a lake at the Nepal-China border that could cause new flooding. “I think we should take those warnings very, very seriously.”
According to Fletcher, the UN is using “very sophisticated” satellite technology to help anticipate a potential future disaster.
At least 389 dead in floods, Nepal police say
The death toll from the catastrophic floods in Nepal has risen to 389, according to the country’s police.
Another 466 have been injured. The police said 28 officers are still missing and 4,348 have been deployed.
