Poor weather hampered aerial rescue operations in Nepal on Saturday (August 29, 2026) as the search for hundreds of missing people in areas devastated by catastrophic flash floods along the border with China entered its fourth day.
Some survivors have been pulled from the mud, while crews continue searching several locations for those still missing. Nepali Army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Rescuers have been on high alert for more flooding from a new lake that formed high up in the Himalayan mountains after the initial floods Wednesday. Experts warned that the lake, created after a glacier collapse that triggered the floods, was starting to overflow.
Rescue workers and military personnel have been working around the clock since Wednesday’s (August 26, 2026) disaster, which killed nearly 600 people and left almost 2,500 missing. Search and rescue efforts continued at several locations in Nepal and China’s Tibet, including the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Nepal’s Rasuwa district and the severely damaged Gyirong border crossing on the Chinese side. The floods have killed 616 in Nepal, according to the police on Saturday (August 29, 2026). Chinese state media had earlier confirmed seven dead, taking the total killed to at least 623 dead. The number of missing soared past 2,400 on Friday (August 28, 2026) as emergency teams said they had recovered 623 bodies — with some of the dead possibly swept downstream as far away as India. Raja Ram Basnet said rescue efforts would continue at the hydropower construction site, where authorities believe more than 100 people are trapped in a tunnel filled with thick mud.
He said rescue teams had also been forced to relocate temporarily when authorities issued warnings about possible further flooding.
