‘Immense’ Devastation as Nepal Continues Search for 2,400 Missing in Floods
New York Times · LC · trust 26/100
As rescue efforts entered their fourth day, the scale of destruction came into focus, signaling a daunting recovery for the vulnerable nation.
Listen · 5:25 min Share full article Damaged buildings in Devighat, a town in the Nuwakot district of Nepal that was devastated by Wednesday’s flash flood, on Friday. Credit... Atul Loke for The New York Times By Binod Ghimire and Mujib Mashal
Binod Ghimire reported from Kathmandu, Nepal.
Four days later, as the rescue efforts in Nepal and neighboring Tibet continued on Saturday, the staggering scale of the flood’s devastation was coming into focus.
The official count of missing people jumped to over 2,400, more than double the figure from a day before. The death toll rose to over 600 and was expected to keep climbing. The morgues in several of the towns downstream from the deluge have been overwhelmed by the number of bodies , with officials forced to improvise makeshift arrangements.
“In living memory, we haven’t seen a mountain hazard event like this,” Kamal Kishore, the United Nations’ top official for disaster risk reduction, said on Friday. “The impact on lives, livelihoods, buildings, infrastructure, bridges, hydroelectric projects, power generation is really immense.”
Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. Its economy, long stagnated, is heavily reliant on the tourism industry and the remittances its workers send from abroad.
The small Himalayan nation also remains one of the most susceptible to climate change. Scientists have long warned about potential flooding from the lakes that melting glaciers have formed in the mountains. Even in normal years, smaller floods related to monsoon rains cause mudslides and block roads, straining the country’s vulnerable infrastructure.
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