Full story
Nepal mudslide toll rises
Nepal mudslide deaths reported by Nepal Police rose to 1,118, with 4,858 people still missing after the disaster on Aug. 26, according to Global Times citing police statements.
“death toll from the deadly mudslide on Aug. 26 has risen to 1,118, with 4,858 people still missing”
ABC News said Nepal floods death toll climbed to 1,252 and that an additional 4,216 people were believed to still be missing, using figures from the Nepali Government’s National Disaster Management Authority update as of Thursday at noon.
ABC News also reported that Chinese state media reported an additional death toll of 16 and 546 missing persons in Tibet, bringing the total death toll to 1,268 with 4,762 missing on both sides of the border.
Akhir Khabar described a separate Himalayan flood disaster in which rescue teams intensified efforts to locate about 1,500 people missing in Nepal and China after a sudden flood claimed at least 273 lives at the border between the two countries.
Akhir Khabar added that police spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle said the death toll could rise as search and body recovery operations continued after 162 bodies were recovered.
Rescue focus and tunnel fears
Al Jazeera said rescue efforts continued as Nepal-China flood death toll rose to 1,280, with over 5,600 still missing on both sides of the China-Nepal border, including at least 550 foreign nationals.
Al Jazeera reported that Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said 1,252 bodies have been recovered, while Chinese authorities reported 21 deaths and 541 people missing in Tibet.
AP said rescuers raced Monday to free hundreds of workers believed to be trapped in tunnels at hydropower sites buried in mud, as the death toll climbed and families searched for missing loved ones.
AP reported that a private-sector association representing power companies said at least 900 workers were unaccounted for at 12 hydropower projects damaged in Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts, and that about 500 of those workers were believed trapped in tunnels.
BBC described hydropower workers telling it that river water crashed into their tunnel, with Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet telling AFP, "Our soldiers are also deployed to collect bodies and prevent the spread of disease."
Rebuilding, identification, and stakes
Al Jazeera reported that Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah said authorities would continue searching for survivors while also starting rehabilitation and rebuilding efforts, and it quoted Dharma Raj Upreti saying about 20,000 houses would have to be rebuilt, including 7,500 destroyed.
“"There is no point in rebuilding the houses in the same locations"”
Al Jazeera added that Upreti told Reuters there was "no point in rebuilding the houses in the same locations" because it would expose people to the same risks, and that authorities were trying to identify safer areas to relocate communities and build new settlements.
BBC reported that USGS sensors recorded a magnitude 4.4 tremor moments before water levels rose, and that USGS later corrected the tremor would not have been the cause of the flood but a consequence of a large ice and debris slide.
BBC said USGS reported the seismic event caused by the glacier collapse was equivalent to a magnitude of 5.2 and occurred near the Nepal–Tibet border at 08:37 local time (02:52 GMT).
BBC also quoted Basanta Raj Adhikari, head of the Disaster Studies Center at Tribhuvan University, saying there is a risk of a "second and third wave" of floods, while he said heavy rains are not expected but new landslides could occur.