Rescuers in Nepal and occupied Tibet estimated on Thursday that over 1,000 people remain missing, including nationals from dozens of countries, after heavy rains caused massive landslides and rapidly rising floods to consume entire towns of people.
Authorities warned that rain is expected to persist this week, creating the potential for more devastation in areas already severely affected, whether buried in mud or completely isolated from sources of food and medicine as the landslides tore through major roads and bridges. Tibet’s colonial overlord, the Chinese Communist Party, is reportedly monitoring rapidly rising waters in a lake in the region that could soon overflow and cause even more devastation, potentially harming search and rescue teams working as rapidly as possible to find survivors in the mud.
Dramatic footage surfaced on Wednesday from the region showing people fleeing massive rushes of mud and water. The landslides appeared to consume entire neighborhoods and make bridges and roads instantly disappear. Many of the affected areas were heavily populated by travelers from all over the world participating in Hindu pilgrimages in the region.
In Nepal, authorities placed the death toll at 359 as of Thursday morning local time and estimated that over 1,000 people remained missing. Reports differed on whether the missing ranged between 1,300 and 1,400 people, and most suggested that number would rapidly rise as rescue teams made contact with now-isolated villages and towns. The Chinese Communist Party placed the death toll in Tibet at press time at just three people.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which observes weather and seismic patterns around the world, attributed the landslides to a glacial collapse related to the heavy rainfall, which then pushed icy mud down the steep Himalayan terrain into populated areas. The USGS noted that it had documented what appeared to be a 4.4 magnitude earthquake, but later revised that observation, indicating that the “earthquake” was the result of the vast amounts of moving icy mud, rather than the earthquake causing the landslides.
Speaking to the Chinese state newspaper Global Times, engineer Chen Hongqi explained some of the extreme difficulties that rescue teams are facing to reach the people affected by the disaster.
“First, the stability of the damaged area at the source of the landslide remains unclear, posing challenges to the prevention of secondary disasters,” he explained. “In addition, the area is characterized by high mountains, deep valleys, and concentrated water collection, making rainfall a key factor influencing rescue operations.”
Passages to various towns are narrow and surrounded by steep mountains that could bury travelers in rock and mudslides, Chen added, particularly given that meteorologists still expect significant rain to continue to fall.
Red Cross rescue experts lamented in an update on Thursday that “entire villages had been destroyed and impassable roads and bridges had left communities cut off,” Reuters reported. In China, officials are nervously studying the situation at a dammed lake in Gyirong that had already started to overflow in Thursday. Should the dam break, the rushing water would create another horrifying situation threatening to bury entire communities.
In Nepal, rescuers are flying helicopter missions over affected sites to find trapped communities and air-drop food, temporary lodging (tents), and other critical supplies. Speaking to Reuters, local Nepali tourism executive Sagar Pandey lamented, “There are no human-made things, no human settlement left.”
“Everything is just flat… So anyone in the hotel, the restaurant, or the car, I believe that everybody is gone,” he suggested.
“Everything is finished,” Omkar Joshi, a Nepali customs agent, told the Agence France-Presse (AFP). “It is a giant graveyard. All that is left are sand and pebbles, soaked red by human blood.”
Among the countries who have identified citizens among the missing are America, Australia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, and South Korea, in addition to the most affected countries of Nepal, China, and India. Many of those believed to be missing were participating in a Hindu pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, a sacred site in the religion. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated on Thursday that it had identified at least 288 of its citizens as missing in Nepal.
“There are 288 Indian nationals who remain unaccountable. These include 73 Indian nationals who are working on the Trishuli One Power Project. Our embassy in Kathmandu is in touch with the project head to get more details about these people,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters.
Among those accounted for was Indian actress Manasi Parekh, who recounted on social media how she was participating in the pilgrimage and missed the site of the landslides by hours, some she had visited beforehand, while sites in Tibet she had planned to visit on Thursday.
“I was literally welcomed at this spot five days ago. So warmly! And now the whole place is submerged,” Parekh noted of a site in Nepal.
“Life is uncertain, but what has happened is absolutely heartbreaking. We are constantly praying for the people affected by this tragedy,” she wrote in an Instagram story. “By God’s grace, we are safe in China, and Isha Foundation is doing its best to get us back home, as well as find those who are in the midst of the floods. Please keep praying for everyone’s well-being.”
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