Here's the latest
• Death toll climbs: The total number of people killed following last week’s flash floods on the Nepal-China border stands at 955, according to Nepali and Chinese authorities. Some 4,471 people remain unaccounted for in both countries, officials say.
• Tunnel searches: Rescue crews are racing to find scores of workers feared trapped inside hydropower tunnels in Nepal, after thick mud buried the facilities. More than 900 workers at various projects remain missing.
• Urgent aid: Around 65,000 people require emergency water, sanitation, hygiene support in Nepal, the UN says, while families of the missing struggle to find information about their loved ones.
• Risks remain: Chinese weather forecasters warned of rain and poor weather conditions in Gyirong, which could cause water levels in a nearby barrier lake to rise. The situation is further complicated by the potential for glaciers near the flood zone to collapse, according to officials.
Piecing story together is "a debilitating process,”says daughter of missing American
Avid traveler Bina Parikh had been looking forward to taking the religious pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet as part of her spiritual journey. Now, she is among the dozens of American citizens missing since last week’s floods at the Nepal-China border, according to her daughter Kavita.
When the disaster struck, Kavita struggled to find information about her mother. “We were able to get the itineraries, her flight plans, create a timeline of where she was going to be at what time and started to match it up with the news articles that were coming out and news reports,” Kavita told CNN.
She and her father found Bina’s name on a website, which listed her mother as one of the dozens of US citizens missing in Nepal.
Kavita joined a WhatsApp group of Americans whose loved ones were also missing in Nepal, where they have been sharing information on whatever they can find.
“Everybody is leaning on each other at this point,” Kavita said.
Radhika Sharma, whose parents are also missing in Nepal, traveled to the country in hopes to get more information on them, and was able to obtain CCTV footage of the group’s family members getting into the cars that they were going be in.
“Knowing these were the vehicles that they traveled in, these are the license plate numbers… helps us kind of piece together story of where they might be.” Kavita said.
Kavita called “waiting” and “trying to guess” a “debilitating process.”
More than 11,000 people rescued after last week's flooding, Nepal's prime minister says
Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah said Monday that relief efforts in flood-affected areas are intensifying and that thousands of people have so far been rescued.
Speaking about the delivery of aid to affected areas – which he called one of the government’s “top priorities” – Shah said supplies had reached nearly 3,700 people, with the international community also supporting aid operations.
In Nepal’s badly-hit Rasuwa District, power has been restored to around 30% of households, he said.
The prime minister also said the government is prioritizing the construction of temporary bridges in areas such as the Nuwakot and Rasuwa districts, where most bridges were destroyed in the flash flooding last week.
Nepali prime minister says climate change making Himalayan region more vulnerable
Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah said last week’s flooding in the country’s north and neighboring China was “one of the largest disasters in this region,” while highlighting the region’s vulnerability to climate change.
The deadly flooding indicates that “the risks we face in the Himalayan region are increasing alongside climate change,” Shah said, adding that Nepal plans to raise the issue of climate change with the international community.
Remember: The Himalayan nation – home to thousands of glaciers which are melting and becoming increasingly unstable as the region rapidly warms – is particularly vulnerable to climate change.
It is also an emerging climate leader with ambitious environmental targets, despite barely contributing to the climate crisis, accounting for less than 0.1% of global planet-warming gases.
Around 80 Americans missing along Nepal-China border, State Department says
Approximately 80 Americans remain missing in “the Nepal/China cross-border region” after last week’s devastating floods, a State Department spokesperson told CNN on Monday.
The spokesperson added that the agency can confirm that “13 American citizens have made their way to safety in Nepal.”
The new figure is smaller than previously announced numbers. Yesterday, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott told ABC that roughly 85 Americans were missing in the region.
“The days are longer than ever.” Cousin of missing American teen tries to cling to hope
Srishti Agrawal is trying to hold onto hope that her 14-year old cousin Rashi and her aunt Rekha will be found. The mother-daughter pair are among the roughly 80 Americans missing in Nepal after catastrophic floods hit.
She checks her phone around the clock and has distinct notification sounds set up for alerts from multiple people and groups she is following for updates. One of them is a Whatsapp group –– active at all hours –– with the family members of everyone in Rashi and Rekha’s tour group. None of the pair’s fellow travelers have been found.
Agrawal last spoke to Rashi in July, when she was in India visiting family. Rashi wanted to join but had her upcoming trip to Nepal. The cousins ultimately decided to take a trip to India together in December. It’s a plan that the family can’t be certain will ever happen.
Agrawal says the family expressed some concern about the pair going through Nepal during monsoon season to Mount Kailash in Tibet for a Hindu pilgrimage. They were hoping the two could take a helicopter from China instead. But Rekha was determined to go through Nepal to fulfill her “big bucket-list item,” Agrawal said.
It’s been the worst six days of the family’s lives, Agrawal said.
“It’s a battle between trying to move on and feeling like you’re giving up on your family, and you don’t want to give up on your family, not unless you have a definitive closure.”
Tens of thousands in Nepal require urgent aid after floods, UN says
Tens of thousands of people in Nepal require urgent aid after last week’s deadly floods, according to figures announced by the United Nations.
“As assessments of the situation continue, we’re getting a clear picture of what people need,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told a press conference in New York on Monday.
Dujarric added that at least 107 children have been separated from their parents or caregivers in the flood’s aftermath, and 10,000 require “psychosocial support.”
“Family tracing and reunification is now an urgent priority,” the spokesperson said, adding that the floods damaged at least nineteen schools in Nepal, destroying nine completely.
Excavator digs mass grave in Nepal for unclaimed flood victims
In the pouring rain, deep in the jungle outside Nepal’s Bharatpur city, an excavator is digging a mass grave.
The site will be the final resting spot for hundreds of those who died in last week’s cataclysmic flooding and who have not been claimed by their families. Authorities in some parts say they are running out of space in morgues and hospitals to store so many bodies.
For many families in the most-affected areas in the hills and mountains, traveling downstream to search for missing loved ones is not possible after the flooding swept away bridges and dumped silt and debris onto roads.
As dusk fell, police ending their shift and removed their white protective overalls. The smell of fresh earth and decaying bodies mingled in the humid air. The policeman in charge of the site told CNN that more than 200 bodies had been buried there that day. He said his team would continue the search tomorrow.
Asked how many more bodies they expected to find, he answered: “I don’t know.”
What a once-bustling Nepali town looks like after the flood
CNN’s Anderson Cooper reports from Syabru Besi, a once-bustling Nepal market town now buried under flood debris, as the death toll continues to rise and thousands remain missing.
Destroyed hydropower facility is shown in satellite imagery
Rescue crews and foreign specialists have been racing to find workers feared trapped inside tunnels at various hydropower projects that run along the Trishuli river, with hundreds of people reported missing.
A list compiled by Nepal’s Independent Power Producers’ Association detailed the number of people missing at the hydropower projects, as of Saturday, which included at least 93 people at the Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project.
Earlier today, emergency crews tasked with searching the Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project reported “no signs of human presence” at the location, according to the Nepali prime minister’s office.
Satellite imagery of the facility in northern Nepal illustrates the extent of the damage following last week’s catastrophic flooding.
See the before-and-after satellite imagery below:
Food, water and sanitation among urgent needs for survivors in Nepal, aid groups say
Aid groups say that the survivors of the Nepal floods urgently need things like clean water, food, shelter and sanitation.
With hygiene concerns lingering, sanitation needs to be rebuilt and those rescued need access to clean water, said Lila Pieters Yahia, the United Nation’s resident coordinator for Nepal.
Different UN programs are also supporting the government in providing shelter and food for displaced people, Yahia told CNN’s Bianna Golodryga.
Delivering this aid remains a challenge, with bridges and roads decimated.
The only way for many aid agencies to get to the affected areas is by helicopter, World Central Kitchen Response Director John Torpey told Golodryga, adding that his organization is reaching out to others for help.
“We’re starting to reach out to guides, to scouts, who can bring things in,” he said.
The UN is also looking at potential challenges with communicable diseases. “One of the big risks we’re going to have to look at are [the] risk of communicable diseases due to the human remains…and livestock which is dead,” Yahia said.
Mental health support is also a crucial need on the ground, she added. “What shocked me the most was the sadness in the face of the people; they were desperate,” she said.
“I haven’t found my boy.” Father continues grim search for missing son
Ujwal Ghimire had come to Bharatpur in central Nepal to check whether his son was among hundreds of unidentified bodies recovered following the devastating flood six days ago.
His son Devendra was working on the Upper Trishuli hydropower project, around 60 miles upstream, when the flood struck. He had just come off the night shift and Ujwal hasn’t heard from him since.
But Ujwal’s son’s was not among them. “I haven’t found my boy,” he told CNN as he left the center. “His face wasn’t on the list here. So tomorrow we are going to Nawalparasi (district) and Gaidakot,” he said.
He was keeping up hope that his son was still alive, he said.
Here's how the situation developed since the flooding began Wednesday
In pictures: Deadly flooding wipes out villages on the China-Nepal border
Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands more are missing in Nepal and China due to catastrophic flooding across between the two countries.
Here’s a look at how the situation has developed since the flooding began last week:
Wednesday
- At 8:37 a.m. Nepal local time on Wednesday (10:52 p.m. Tuesday night ET), shaking is reported by US Geological Survey along the Nepal-China border, north of Kathmandu. Around this time, an “avalanche” of ice and rock tears down a mountainside and into the Lhende Khola River, a tributary of the Bhote Koshi River, which flows from China into Nepal.
- Just before midday local time (around 2 a.m. ET), Reuters reports “a massive flash flood in the Himalayan nation of Nepal.” Roughly two hours later, Nepal Police report at least eight deaths as a result of this.
- By 2:45 p.m. local time (around 5 a.m. ET), Nepal’s Tourism Board says that at least 384 travelers, including 291 foreign nationals, are considered missing. The Red Cross deploys an emergency team to affected areas, its regional office says.
- At 5:55 p.m. local time (8:10 a.m. ET), CNN reports that the death toll in Nepal has risen to at least 17. Less than 25 minutes later, this toll increases to 31. By 11:08 p.m. local time (1:23 p.m. ET), at least 157 people have been reported dead in the flash floods, Nepal Police says.
Thursday
- The number of people reported missing on the Chinese side of the border rises to 558 on Thursday, according to the local government in the city of Shingatse.
- The death toll in Nepal rises to 162, then 270, then 353, then 389 throughout the day, according to the country’s police.
- Rescuers in India recover three bodies in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, with Reuters reporting that raging waters are suspected to have carried mud-covered remains downstream into the country from Nepal.
- The US State Department says that 90 Americans who may have been impacted by the Nepal floods are unaccounted for.
Friday
- The death toll in Nepal once again climbs to 469, then 489, then 538, then 579, according to local police.
- A barrier dam lake on the Chinese side of the country’s border with Nepal bursts its banks, forcing rescue efforts to be paused. They are resumed hours later.
- Chinese Premier Li Qiang laments the “significant loss of life” caused by the flooding, with at least five dead and 550 missing in his country.
Saturday
- By Saturday morning local time, the death toll in Nepal has risen to 616, according to Nepali police. Throughout the day, this jumps to 626, then 675.
- Local police tell CNN that officials in the central Nepali district of Chitwan are planning to bury hundreds of unidentified bodies in a mass grave at a sacred Hindu site.
- One of two new lakes near a flood zone along the Nepal-China border is “essentially drained,” China’s state broadcaster CCTV reports.
Sunday
- The death toll in Nepal rises to 734, then 762, then 788, according to local police.
- Meanwhile, the death toll in China rises to 16, while the number of missing falls to 546, state broadcaster CCTV reports.
- An estimated 898 workers at various hydropower projects in Nepal are unaccounted for, according to the country’s Independent Power Producers’ Association. Rescuers undertake urgent efforts to pump air into a tunnel at a hydropower project along Nepal’s Trishuli river.
Monday
- The death toll in Nepal rises to 903, then 939, with approximately 3,925 people missing. This brings the total number of people missing in Nepal and China to 4,471.
- Chinese weather forecasters warn of rain and poor weather conditions in Gyirong, which could cause water levels in a nearby barrier lake to rise.
CNN’s Laura Paddison, Billy Stockwell, Sugam Pokharel, Max Saltman, Sylvie Zhuang, Sophie Tanno, Amarachi Orie, Jennifer Hansler, Bhadra Sharma, Lex Harvey, Nishant Khanal, Sana Noor Haq, Kara Fox, Laura Sharman, Sangi Gurung, Simone McCarthy, Jessie Yeung and Kathleen Magramo contributed to this reporting.
Daughter of missing US parents pleads for more information
The former dean of UC Davis Graduate School of Management and his wife are among the thousands of people missing following last week’s flash floods at the Nepal-China border.
Hanumantha Rao Unnava had recently retired from his position as dean when he decided to go on a holiday to Nepal and Tibet with his wife Vasundhara, who lectures at UC Davis, according to their daughter Vaasavi Unnava.
The couple, who are US citizens, had described the holiday as a “trip of a lifetime,” Vaasavi told CNN. “The plan was to cross the border from Nepal into Tibet the day that the floods hit.”
When Vaasavi heard about the disaster last week, she texted her father but the message failed to deliver. “That’s when I realized something was really wrong,” she said.
Despite her best efforts, Vaasavi has been unable to make contact with her parents, or receive any information on their condition.
“The Nepali president went on the news and he said a lot of the survivors are being held in this area called Dhunche, that does not have cell service,” Vaasavi said. “But it’s been six days, and so like the fact that no government in the world has been trying to make sure that coverage is getting there, so we can also ping survivor cell phones, is really disconcerting.”
After learning that the Nepali police have been asking families of loved ones to provide DNA samples to help identify people, Vaasavi called the US State Department to ask them about the protocol.
“The person on the other end of the line said that they didn’t know that the Nepali police had actually said that,” Vaasavi said.
In the meantime, all Vaasavi can do is plead for more information. “We have no idea like where the [rescue] operations are even going on,” Vaasavi said. “My parents were kind of in the epicenter where everything really went wrong in Nepal.”
Weather forecasting system in badly-hit Nepali district "swept away," official says
Specialist equipment including seismometers — which measure ground movements — has been installed in Nepal’s badly-hit Rasuwa District after the area’s weather forecasting system was “swept away” in last week’s flooding, an official told CNN today.
Binod Parajuli, head of flood forecasting at Nepal’s Center for Hydrology and Water Resources Research, said CCTV cameras and seismometers have been installed in the Nepali village of Timure, Rasuwa District. From Tuesday onward, authorities should be able to access real time visuals from the area near the China-Nepal border, Parajuli said.
Rajendra Sharma, a senior meteorologist from the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), said obtaining real-time weather updates has become an urgent need, especially given the potential risk of further flooding.
Earlier today, the US Embassy in Nepal warned of the possibility of more flooding and landslides in the area, while Chinese media cited local authorities in China as saying overflowing pools of water mean glaciers near the flood zone have the “potential to collapse.”
Death toll tops 900 in Nepal-China floods as rescuers search for missing. Catch up here
At least 939 people have died in the floods in Nepal, according to the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), while at least 16 people have died in the flooding in China, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
A further 3,925 people are missing in the catastrophe in Nepal, the NDRRMA said. And at least 546 people are also missing in China, CCTV said.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who is on the ground in Kathmandu, Nepal, has described the floodwater from last week’s disaster as “really like liquid cement.”
If you’re just joining us, here’s the latest:
- A team of engineers led by the Nepali Army scoped out the Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project near the Bhote Koshi River, only to find “no one” inside, the office said in a statement. The prime minister’s office said emergency crews tasked with recovering people from tunnels in Rasuwa, Nepal found “no signs of human presence.”
- Emergency crews saved 109 people in Nepal by air on Monday, according to the country’s military, as regional officials stepped up response efforts following last week’s catastrophic landslides.
- Steadily overflowing pools of water in Nepal mean glaciers surrounding an impact crater have the “potential to collapse,” according to Chinese media, just days after deadly torrents killed hundreds of people in the Himalayan region.
- The parents and children of those unaccounted for have been asked to send their DNA to Nepal Police, alongside information about the missing person, including the time and place they were last seen. People who live outside of Nepal and have missing relatives there have also been asked to undergo DNA profiling in their home country and email their results to Nepal Police.
- The US Embassy in Nepal issued updated travel advice today, warning of an ongoing risk of flooding and landslides, while calling on US citizens to postpone “non-essential travel” to areas north of Dhunche, a Nepali village in the hard-hit Rasuwa District.
- A Nepali father has recounted to CNN how he was reunited with his young daughter, who was swept away in last week’s floods.
CNN’s Will Ripley, Rebecca Wright, John Mees, Kosh Raj Koirala, Will Harries, Niamh Kennedy, Simone McCarthy, Sana Noor Haq, Catherine Nicholls, Laura Sharman, Kosh Koirala, Billy Stockwell, Sangi Gurung and Bhadra Sharma contributed to this report.
Nepali Army teams rescue 109 people by air, officials say
Emergency crews saved 109 people in Nepal by air on Monday, according to the country’s military, as regional officials stepped up response efforts following the catastrophic landslides last week.
One of those rescued was a German national, the Nepali Army said. Troops, technical experts and foreign personnel were also part of tunnel search teams, focusing their efforts on a stretch of hydropower plant stations in the north.
Patrols also scoured forested terrain, hills and streams in flood-stricken areas to “reassure local residents,” the army added. Authorities provided medical services to 165 residents in Trishuli and Dhunche, central Nepal. More than 8,900 army personnel were dispatched to Nuwakot, Dhading, Chitwan and Nawalparasi East to help reopen blocked roads, manage the recovery of bodies of those killed and distribute health care, the army said.
Photos published by the army showed team members dressed in neon orange and camouflage gear wading through dense, swampy sludge, set against the sweeping, forest-laden backdrop of the Himalayan nation.
Governments in Nepal and China have started to deploy specialized teams, as thousands remain missing in affected regions. At least 4,471 people are missing on both sides of the border, according to a CNN tally of figures published by local officials — leaving many families uncertain about the fate of their loved ones.
US Embassy in Nepal advises against non-essential travel north of hard-hit village
The US Embassy in Nepal issued updated travel advice today, warning of an ongoing risk of flooding and landslides, while calling on US citizens to postpone “non-essential travel” to areas north of Dhunche, a Nepali village in the hard-hit Rasuwa District.
The embassy raised the possibility of heavy rain over the coming days, which could cause “flash flooding, debris flows, landslides and transportation disruptions,” citing Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.
The embassy called on US citizens to “postpone non-essential travel north of Dhunche, including travel to Syafrubesi, Timure, Langtang-area trailheads and Rasuwagadhi,” as well as to move to higher ground if water can be seen to be rising rapidly or authorities issue a warning.
Hundreds dead and thousands missing: The Nepal-China flooding in numbers
Hundreds of people have died since catastrophic flooding hit the Nepal-China border region last Wednesday, with thousands more reported missing.
Here’s a look at the disastrous impact of the flooding in numbers:
Nepal
- At least 939 people have died in the floods in Nepal, the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said in its latest update a short while ago.
- A further 3,925 people are missing in the catastrophe, the NDRRMA said.
- Some 583 foreign nationals are among the missing, the Nepal Tourism Board said in a statement earlier today.
- Another 315 foreign nationals have been rescued, the tourism board said, including people from India, China, Germany, Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, the United States, Malta, Switzerland, Russia, Portugal and Oman.
- A further five foreign nationals are in contact with authorities, the tourism board said, three of which are Spanish, one Belgian and one from the US.
China
- At least 16 people have died in the flooding in China, state broadcaster CCTV reported yesterday morning local time.
- At least 546 people are also missing in China, CCTV reported.
- Among the missing are at least 261 foreigners from 23 countries, authorities said during a press conference yesterday.
- Of those missing, 104 are from Nepal, 49 are from India, 33 are from Latvia, 18 are from the United States, and 15 are from the United Kingdom, Chinese authorities said.
- Foreign nationals from Canada, Australia, South Africa, Russia, Malaysia, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Estonia, France, Ireland, Finland, Lithuania, Portugal, Ukraine, Spain, Hungary and Kazakhstan are also missing, Chinese authorities said yesterday,
CNN’s Simone McCarthy, Laura Sharman and Kosh Koirala contributed to this reporting.
Floodwater "like liquid cement," CNN's Anderson Cooper reports from Nepal
The floodwater from last week’s disaster on the Nepal-China border is “really like liquid cement,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who is on the ground in Kathmandu, Nepal, has described.
“We think of it as this flood that occurred six days ago - of (being like) water. It’s really like liquid cement and just walking on it, you sink into it and it kind of sucks you in,” he told CNN’s Sara Sidner.
Speaking about the increased numbers of people reported missing in Nepal in recent days, Cooper said that this was “not completely unexpected.”
Some people have not reported their loved ones missing “because they didn’t want to think this person was gone,” and hoped that they would be found, Cooper explained.
“As the days have gone by, and we’re now on day six, they file missing person reports, they list this person as missing,” he said.
Watch more from the ground in the video above.
Death toll in Nepal rises to 939, as number of missing falls
The number of people killed by the catastrophic flooding in Nepal has risen to 939, the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) has said in an update.
A previous death toll released earlier today stood at 903.
The number of missing people in the country has fallen by more than 300, the figures released by NDRRMA show.
Approximately 3,925 people are now missing, down from the 4,247 figure released earlier today, the latest update says.
