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Glacier floods’ toll
Nepal’s catastrophic floods last week were triggered when a glacier collapse sent ice, rock and mud down the Trishuli River in the country’s border region with China on August 26, killing more than 1,250 people with more than 4,200 still missing.
“Property, housing and infrastructure worth at least 387.5 billion Nepalese rupees ($2.56 billion) was lost”
Dharma Raj Upreti, chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, told Reuters that property, housing and infrastructure worth at least 387.5 billion Nepalese rupees ($2.56 billion) was lost, and he said the first four months of early recovery would cost around $52.6 million.
Upreti said Nepal will need to rebuild around 20,000 houses in flood-ravaged areas, with at least 7,500 of those homes destroyed, while the disaster authority chief also said a detailed assessment would be done soon.
In the same Reuters reporting, the death toll was described as more than 1,250 killed, with more than 4,200 still missing and thousands displaced, as rescuers continued searching the flood-ravaged areas near the border with China’s Tibet.
Hydropower tunnel rescue
Nine days after the August 26 collapse, rescuers pulled two survivors from a tunnel linked to a hydropower station on Nepal’s Trishuli River on Friday, the first such rescue from hydropower projects along the river.
Officials and rescue workers said they believe the glacier collapse trapped at least 900 people in tunnels related to six hydropower projects, and Reuters reported that the two workers were taken to an army hospital in Kathmandu.
The Reuters account identified Kabir Maharjan as being hoisted from a hole in the ground in videos released by Nepali authorities, while his colleague Sanjay Sah was brought out on a worker’s back and later described his actions in a video recording.
Sah told rescuers, “I was in the control room, so my responsibility was to save everyone’s lives. When there was such a big accident, it was not right for me to run away,” and Reuters said the army recovered two bodies from a tunnel at Langtang Hydropower Station as searches continued.
Recovery costs and uncertainty
As Nepal’s disaster authority chief estimated losses at 387.5 billion Nepalese rupees ($2.56 billion) and recovery costs at around $52.6 million for the first four months, the same Reuters reporting said a detailed assessment would be done soon.
“At least 1,287 people have been killed in Nepal”
Shafaq News said the death toll reached 1,287 and that 5,083 others remained missing nine days after the disaster, while it also reported that authorities rescued two people from the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project.
Shafaq News added that across the border Chinese authorities reported 21 deaths and 541 people missing in the Xizang Autonomous Region, also known as Tibet, and it said combined official figures put the toll at 1,308 dead and 5,624 missing including 844 foreigners.
With searches continuing and hydropower projects among the affected sites, the Reuters reporting also said the disaster could result in commercial insurance losses exceeding $132.3 million, with hydropower projects accounting for most claims, as search teams raced to find survivors.