Hope Remains as Nepal Rescue Effort Continues
Rescuers in Nepal are continuing their search for thousands of people still missing after devastating glacial floods killed at least 1,398 people on August 26.
The rescue operation has gained fresh hope after three hydropower workers were found alive inside tunnels, including two Nepalis rescued on Friday and a Chinese worker found on Saturday.
Nepal observed a national day of mourning on Monday, 13 days after the disaster, with flags flown at half-mast and candlelight vigils planned across the country.
Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet said rescue teams were maintaining the same level of effort to ensure that no one remained trapped.
The floods and mountain collapse swept away entire communities, destroyed roads and demolished homes, leaving more than 5,500 people missing, including about 800 foreigners.
Read more: Nepal floods leave hundreds of foreigners missing as rescue efforts intensify
Families of missing hydropower workers gathered in the capital, Kathmandu, calling for faster rescue efforts as they continued to hope that their relatives could still be found alive.
“We have a lot of hope,” Reena Amatya Shrestha, whose brother is among the missing, told AFP.
Australian tunnel rescue expert Arnold Dix, who is advising Nepali rescue teams, described the operation as an unprecedented challenge because several possible rescues were taking place in different locations, each with its own risks.
Rescue teams from China, India and South Korea are also assisting their Nepali counterparts.
The difficult conditions have slowed rescue operations. Drone pilot Adarsha Raj Bhusal, who joined efforts at the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa district, recalled sinking into mud up to his waist after jumping from a helicopter.
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Despite the scale of the disaster, there have been several accounts of people being found alive.
A 64-year-old woman, Chandika Shrestha, was rescued from her mud-covered home in Bidur on Saturday after her family had already held a symbolic funeral, believing she had died.
Her neighbour, Buddhi Lal Dongol, described her survival as a “new life” and expressed hope that others still missing would also return.
Nepal President Ram Chandra Paudel visited relief camps in Nuwakot district on Monday and spoke with people who had lost their homes in the floods.
Police have recovered 1,355 bodies and said DNA samples were being collected to help identify victims. With mortuaries overwhelmed, hundreds of bodies have been buried in mass graves.
The disaster agency said about 4,996 people remained missing, while local volunteer groups in Kathmandu continued collecting utensils, blankets and clothes for survivors.
The exact cause of the glacial collapse remains unclear, but climate change is accelerating glacial melting around the world and increasing the risk of similar disasters.
A preliminary United Nations assessment put building damage from the floods at $158m, with the overall cost expected to be much higher after accounting for damage to roads, bridges, agricultural land and humanitarian needs.
Nepal, a largely rural country of about 30 million people, has limited resources to respond to a disaster of such scale and has said reconstruction could cost billions of dollars.
