📰 General · CNN
‘No sign of survivors’ at Chinese border crossing as Nepal flooding death toll passes 600 - CNN
From CNN via USVI News: Rescue efforts are in their fourth day but Nepali authorities are warning they are struggling to cope with the number of decomposing bodies recovered. Follow for news updates.
The death toll continues to rise as rescuers search for the roughly 3,000 people still missing across China and Nepal after catastrophic flooding on Wednesday.
According to Nepali authorities, at least 675 people have been killed in the country. And another 2,498 people were still missing as of Saturday evening local time, Nepal’s Disaster Management Authority reported. At least seven people have died in China, where official reports have been slow to come out of Tibet.
Missing workers: Nearly 900 Nepali employees who had been working on hydropower projects are missing in the flooding, according to the country’s Independent Power Producers’ Association. About 361 workers from the industry have been rescued so far, the group said.
Search and rescue efforts: Nepal’s Army said more than 2,500 people have been rescued by aerial evacuation, including 216 foreign nationals. At least 200 others have been rescued by ground. Some remote areas remain difficult to reach as teams try to access them by helicopter.
Communities destroyed: CNN drone footage showed just half a bridge left standing and damaged homes in a mud-caked valley of Nepal’s Nuwakot district. The sound of heavy machinery filled another village in the region as excavators dug through rubble and residents searched for belongings.
A searing image: A bunny toy covered in mud was found washed up on the riverbank at a rescue site near Gyirong Port, a Chinese border crossing with Nepal, according to the state media station Tibet Radio and Television. No sign of survivors has been found at the site since the rescue team arrived on Friday.
Grieving from afar: Luminous, yellow candles lit a courtyard today in Sydney, where dozens of community members, Nepali diaspora and Australian officials gathered to commemorate those killed. And the Nepali community in Long Island, New York, came together to hold a vigil as they wait to hear news about missing friends and loved ones. In Bloomfield, New Jersey, neighbors have been stunned to learn that the parents of a 9-year-old boy are missing following the flooding.
CNN’s Bhadra Sharma, Sana Noor Haq, Rebekah Riess, Ross Adkin, Hanako Montgomery, Daniel Campisi, Sophie Tanno and Sylvie Zhuang contributed reporting.
This article is republished through the USVI News affiliate desk. Reporting, analysis, and viewpoints are those of the original publisher and do not necessarily reflect USVI News.