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Today's key developments
• Death toll: The number of people killed following last week’s Nepal-China flash floods topped 1,000. More than 4,400 people remained unaccounted for in both countries, officials say.
• On the ground: Authorities are burying hundreds of unidentified victims in a mass grave, reports CNN’s team in Nepal who also spoke to the man with the Herculean task of reuniting families with the bodies of their missing loved ones.
• Tunnel searches: Rescue crews are racing to find workers feared trapped inside hydropower tunnels in Nepal, after thick mud buried the facilities. Around 900 workers remain missing.
• Devastation: A single water tower is the the only structure still standing in the Gyirong port area, according to Chinese state media.
China says it will send DNA identification experts to Nepal
Chins will send DNA identification experts to Nepal, foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said during the ministry’s regular press briefing on Tuesday.
He said China will also be sending DNA testing equipment, drones and water purification equipment among other items needed urgently.
Identifying bodies has become a major challenge in Nepal. After several days in the river, many bodies are in a condition where identification is difficult, CNN was told.
As the death toll crosses 1,000, here's the latest from our teams on the ground
The number of people killed in last week’s devastating landslide and flash flooding in Nepal and China has topped 1,000 as of Tuesday morning, according to authorities.
As rescue efforts continue for the more than 4,400 people still missing, our teams on the ground in Nepal are telling the heartbreaking and resilient human stories amid scenes of death and destruction.
Catch up on the latest:
• Resilience in the air: Priya Adhikari, Nepal’s first female helicopter pilot, has flown around 100 missions in less than a week, to rescue survivors from hard-hit areas. She spoke to Anderson Cooper about the search effort and what keeps her going.
• A miraculous rescue: 5-year-old Manisha Magar was presumed dead after she was swept away by the catastrophic flooding. Then, her parents saw video footage of her rescue. CNN’s Will Ripley caught up with the family in Kathmandu.
• A difficult reunion: Our reporters spoke to a man in Nepal facing the Herculean task of reuniting families with the bodies of missing loved ones — but after days in the river, many are in a condition making identification difficult. CNN’s Hanako Montgomery reports from a mass burial site where authorities are laying to rest hundreds of unidentified victims.
• Families seek answers: Family members of missing foreigners, a figure which includes about 80 Americans, have travelled to Nepal to search for their loved ones. Anderson Cooper spoke with an American doctor who is looking for her parents. “Our hope is that if they heard the alarms and the warnings, they either drove or they ran,” the doctor said.
Nepal tourism department lists names of missing foreigners
Nepal’s tourism department has published a list of the names of 583 foreigners who are missing following the devastating flash floods.
The list underscores the global scale of the tragedy. Citizens of 38 countries, including the US, are represented among the missing.
At least 461 foreigners from 23 countries are unaccounted for on the Chinese side of the border, according to authorities.
Combined, the numbers represent over 1,000 foreign nationals – and families still waiting for some kind of closure.
Nepal death toll rises to 987
The death toll from the flooding in Nepal has risen to 987, according to an update Tuesday morning from Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
The number of people who are missing has fallen to 3,916, while 11,814 people have been rescued so far, the national disaster agency said.
Over on the Chinese side, at least 16 people have died, state broadcaster CCTV reported Sunday, adding that at least 546 people are missing.
“We feel their pain": The man tasked with reuniting families with the bodies of their loved ones
At the Nepal Poultry Entrepreneurs Forum office in Bharatpur, Sub Inspector Hari Sharan Dhakal sits behind a desk, facing the Herculean task of reuniting families with the bodies of their missing loved ones.
Around 20 people are sat on chairs waiting for new information to come in. Other arrivals file in to add details to the growing list. Fans whirl as the day gets hotter.
At a desk, in between laptops and a printer, is a sheaf of papers that contain the names of the missing.
There are 837 names on the list, along with addresses and family contact details. Appended are smiling photos provided by relatives that show happier times before the disaster struck.
But after days in the river, many are in a condition that means identification is difficult.
Sometimes, the photos are “totally different” from the photos authorities have taken, Dhakal says.
Many have lost their clothes, making other identifiers like tattoos even more important to their efforts. The school ties found on the bodies of some children have provided a first clue to tracking down their families, he said.
Yesterday evening, the center reunited 12 bodies with their loved ones, he said.
But it is a difficult task, says Dhakal.
As well as searching along 70 kilometers of riverbank in their district, the recovery team must coordinate with hospitals and other such centers around the country and take DNA samples. The bodies can also only be retrieved by trained personnel, he says.
“It’s too much challenging,” he said.
“People come to us crying. We feel their pain.”
Families search for missing loved ones after Nepal floods
An American doctor is searching for answers about her missing parents who traveled from New York to Nepal for a pilgrimage.
She tells Anderson, “our hope is that if they heard the alarms and the warnings, they either drove or they ran.”
Mass burial in Nepal for unidentified flood victims
Authorities are burying hundreds of unidentified victims after catastrophic flooding overwhelmed morgues and left families unable to reach loved ones. CNN’s Hanako Montgomery reports.
Authorities are burying hundreds of unidentified victims after catastrophic flooding overwhelmed morgues and left families unable to reach loved ones. CNN’s Hanako Montgomery reports.
Water tower sole standing structure at border crossing, Chinese state media says
We’re seeing updates from Chinese state media that a single water tower higher up in the mountains is the the only structure still standing in the Gyirong port area where the China–Nepal border crossing was devastated by massive flood waters almost a week ago.
Satellite imagery taken before and after the disaster show the border facility was largely destroyed by the wave of ice, mud and water.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported late Monday night that emergency repair works in the area remains challenging.
It added that it has been difficult for excavators to maneuver properly due to narrow paths.
CCTV also said days of constant rainfall has caused some rockfalls. As radar technology is being hindered by winding terrain, it said observation posts with safety officers have been set up every 10 meters.
Lengthy ladder ropes have also been set up in case workers have to make emergency exits, the broadcaster reported.
Nepal's first female helicopter pilot on rescue operations: "We are trained for this"
Priya Adhikari has flown around 100 missions in less than a week, rescuing survivors of Nepal’s devastating landslide and flooding disaster.
Speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper tonight in Kathmandu, Nepal, she reflects on the scale of the devastation and the happiness she feels every time she meets survivors.
Partner confirms death of Australian national in Nepal floods
The partner of an Australian man who was in Nepal at the time of the flash flooding has confirmed his death, describing the loss as “heartbreaking and overwhelming.”
Michael Keats, from New South Wales, is believed to have been returning from a trip to Mount Kailash in Tibet when he was killed in the floods, according to CNN affiliate Nine News.
His partner Emily Boyd said Keats was “an incredibly important part of our family” and “his loss has changed everything” for her and her young son.
“We are trying to navigate the shock and grief of losing someone we love deeply,” Boyd wrote on a fundraising page.
Keats was a follower of Indian spiritual leader Jagadish Vasudev, known as Sadhguru, and it is believed he was one of 11 Australians on a trip organized by his spiritual group the Isha Foundation.
The group was at the Gyirong immigration center, having just completed a journey to Mount Kailash, when floodwaters surged through the building and much of the town, an Isha Foundation spokesperson previously told CNN.
The group consisted of 77 foreigners, including 22 Americans, 12 Canadians, nine Britons and others from Germany, France and other nations, as well as three Nepali volunteers.
Keats was one of 43 Australians caught in the disaster, according to Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who said confirming any deaths was “challenging at this time.”
24 bodies recovered from a house in Nepal, police say
Authorities have recovered 24 bodies from a house in Nepal’s flood-hit Bidur area, according to Superintendent of Police Bipin Regmi.
“We suspect still more bodies buried there,” Regmi said. Rescuers will continue searching for bodies from Tuesday morning.
One of the bodies buried under the mud belonged to a child, while the rest were adults, according to Mangal Tamang, a Betrawati municipal official.
He said six bodies had been airlifted to Kathmandu while the others remain in the town as of now, but will be sent to the Nepali capital.
“We plan to continue [to] search in the same place and surrounding houses,” Tamang said.
Parents recount being reunited with 5-year-old daughter after flood swept her away
The father of Manisha Magar, the 5-year-old girl who was swept away by the catastrophic flooding, thought his daughter was dead until video footage showed her rescue.
CNN’s Will Ripley spoke to the parents of 5-year-old Manisha, who was rescued more than two days after their home was swept away in Nepal’s devastating flooding
It's just after 5 a.m. in Nepal. Here's the latest on the aftermath of deadly floods
We’re starting to learn more about lives lost, people missing and property damaged in the devastating floods on the Nepal-China border.
It’s just after 5 a.m. local time Tuesday in Nepal. Here’s the latest:
Missing Americans: There are roughly 80 Americans unaccounted for.
- The former dean of UC Davis Graduate School of Management, Hanumantha Rao Unnava, and his wife Vasundhara, who lectures at UC Davis, were on a holiday, which was supposed to be a “trip of a lifetime,” their daughter Vaasavi Unnava said. The couple had planned to cross the border from Nepal into Tibet on the day the floods hit, she said.
- Srishti Agrawal’s 14-year old cousin Rashi and aunt Rekha went to Nepal with a tour group. Neither the mother and daughter nor their fellow travelers have been found, Agrawal said. The PhD student at Purdue University said the family expressed some concern about the pair’s plans for a Hindu pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet during the monsoon season, but Rekha was determined to go through Nepal to fulfill her “big bucket-list item.” Now, 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.”
Nepalis look for closure: Ujwal Ghimire did not find his son listed among the recovered dead bodies in Bharatpur in central Nepal, and he will now travel to Nawalparasi District and Gaidakot for any news. He hopes his son, Devendra, is still alive. The last he heard from him was when Devendra finished his night shift at the Upper Trishuli hydropower project, right before the flood hit.
Mass grave: Hundreds of people, who died in the floods and were not claimed by families, will rest in a mass grave deep in the jungle outside Nepal’s Bharatpur city. Traveling downstream to search for missing loved ones is not possible for many after the flooding swept away bridges and dumped silt and debris onto roads. The policeman in charge of the site told CNN that more than 200 bodies had been buried there that day.
Fears for workers inside tunnels: 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. At least 93 people are missing at the Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project, according to Nepal’s Independent Power Producers’ Association, but crews on Monday reported “no signs of human presence,” according to the prime minister’s office. Also, authorities recovered 24 bodies from a house in the Bidur area, according to the police.
What comes next:
- The weather forecasting system in Nepal’s Rasuwa District was swept away, and authorities say they have now installed specialist equipment, including seismometers to measure ground movements. Starting Tuesday, they expect to get real-time visuals from the area near the Nepal-China border — an urgent need in the face of further flooding potential.
- The United Nations and some aid groups say that the survivors urgently need clean water, food, shelter and sanitation, which remains a challenge with bridges and roads decimated.
CNN’s Alea Motwane, Ross Adkin, Hanako Montgomery, Daniel Campisi, Billy Stockwell, Bhadra Sharma, Hira Humayun and Max Saltman contributed to this post.
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.
