Nepal warns of new floods as hundreds remain missing

Nepal warned flood-stricken communities to stay on high alert Sunday as river levels rose again along the China border, compounding a disaster that has killed hundreds and left thousands missing after catastrophic Himalayan floods swept through mountain valleys last week.

Nepal’s disaster agency said the death toll had climbed to 788, with 2,502 people missing. Nepal’s Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai put the number of recovered bodies at 734 on Sunday, NPR reported. Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 people missing on the Chinese side of the border.

The latest warnings were sent to residents’ phones early Sunday after water levels increased in the Bhotekoshi River. Dharam Raj Uprety, chief executive of Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, said Chinese authorities had alerted Nepal to increased water flow upstream.

For residents who survived the initial floods, the warnings have brought fresh fear and exhaustion.

“Sometimes they say a flood is coming, then we have to run again to higher ground, even at night. There is also rain,” said Govind Shreshta, a resident. “It’s really difficult for me. I have a 72-year-old father and 70-year-old mom. I must carry them and I am exhausted. It’s going on like this for those who are still alive.”

The floods began Wednesday after a glacial collapse high in the Himalayas. Scientists who studied satellite images said bedrock beneath a glacier collapsed, taking part of the glacier with it. The rockfall was so powerful it registered as a magnitude 5.2 event. Rocks and meltwater then surged into rivers below, sending torrents through valleys in Tibet and Nepal that swept away buildings, bridges and earth.

The Bhote Koshi, the Nepali name for “Tibetan river,” wiped out a border checkpoint and the Friendship Bridge linking Nepal and China, NPR reported. Security footage posted by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed mud and water striking buildings.

In Dhading, among Nepal’s hardest-hit regions, some residents returned to damaged homes to search for anything that could be saved. People shoveled sludge and rubble from balconies and window frames. Others picked through mud for belongings. One man found his chickens alive and loaded them into his truck.

“Everything is finished. Nothing is left. Not even our home,” Sharmila Tamang, a Dhading resident trying to salvage items, told The Associated Press.

Workers also began inspecting a badly damaged power plant Sunday. The facility serves more than 20,000 people across four districts.

The Red Cross estimated that more than 90,000 people were affected by the flooding. Nepal says it has deployed thousands of rescue workers, and NPR reported that people were still being found alive during the weekend. Rescuers were also trying to clear a major highway connecting Kathmandu to one of the worst-hit areas.

The missing include hundreds of foreign nationals who had traveled to the region for work, mountain visits or pilgrimage. U.S. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Sunday that 85 Americans remained unaccounted for and nine had been safely evacuated.

“We are currently unaware of any U.S. citizen deaths at this time,” Pigott said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Some missing Americans were pilgrims traveling to Mount Kailash in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Divya Chandrashekar told NPR her brother-in-law Ragu Rajan and his wife, Archana Suresh, from Murphy, Texas, were near the Gyirong Port border post when the floods hit. Shreya Ahuja of North Carolina said her parents, Deepak and Madhu Ahuja, both U.S. citizens and Dallas small business owners, had finished a pilgrimage for her father’s 60th birthday and were heading back to the border post hours before the flood.

The State Department has activated $3.6 million in emergency humanitarian aid, including food for up to 10,000 households for up to three months. The U.S. Embassy in Nepal said the first deliveries reached Rasuwa and Nuwakot on Saturday and Sunday, including 500 blankets, 500 mosquito nets, 500 insulating foam sheets and 2.5 tons of food supplies.

Nepal’s foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, called for a global response to climate change. “Despite having only 0.1% contribution to the global emissions, people of Nepal have become major victims of climate change,” he said Saturday. Scientists said it was too early to draw a direct link between global warming and this disaster, but said rising temperatures increase the chances of such events, especially in the Himalayas.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Sunday that Malaysia would send a search-and-rescue team to Nepal and pledged $1 million in financial aid.