More than 1,500 people are missing and almost 470 people confirmed dead in Nepal and China following Wednesday’s flood, as rescue efforts continued.
Nepali authorities also warned about additional flooding and warned residents and rescuers to take precautions. Thousands of army, police and paramilitary forces have been mobilized for search and rescue operations in Nepal. Desperate family members rushed from that hospital to another nearby searching for news.
Chinese authorities have confirmed three deaths and 550 missing, almost half of whom were foreign tourists, according to Chinese state news reports published Thursday. The fall turned the ice into a devastating wave of water that barreled into nearby rivers and washed through towns and villages in China and Nepal, carrying people as far as 150 miles to districts near Nepal’s southern border with India. Experts believe that a vast quantity of rock and ice fell from around 16,000 feet, possibly due to the partial collapse of a glacier, and plunged 4,000 feet into the valley below.
A dammed lake upstream of the Gyirong Port in Tibet has begun overflowing, forcing a temporary suspension of rescue operations, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. China didn’t provide updated figures on Friday. On Thursday afternoon in Kathmandu, the walls of the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, one of Nepal’s oldest and largest state-run hospitals, were covered with photos of missing persons and the remains of people killed in floods.
