Recovery and cleanup efforts are under way in Nepal as the death toll from flooding and landslides rose to 126, with another 63 still missing, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
Police on Sunday morning warned the death toll was likely to rise further as reports come in from villages across the Himalayan nation.
Rescue workers recovered 14 bodies overnight from two buses headed to Kathmandu that were buried in a landslide on a highway near the capital. More than 3,000 security personnel were deployed to assist rescue efforts with helicopters and motorboats on Saturday as parts of the country have been inundated, including in Kathmandu where at least 34 people were killed.
Home Ministry spokesman Rishi Ram Tiwari told AFP news agency that more than 3,000 people have been rescued.
Tiwari added that bulldozers were being used to clear several highways that had been blocked by debris, cutting Kathmandu off from the rest of the country.
Monsoon rains from June to September bring widespread death and destruction every year in the country and across South Asia, but the number of fatal floods and landslides has risen in recent years.
“Police are working with other agencies and locals to rescue and find the missing people,” Basanta Adhikari, a spokesman for Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, told AFP.
A truck driver who witnessed the flooding said when he went outside in the middle of the night, the water had already reached up to his shoulders.
“My whole truck is underwater,” Hari Malla told AFP.
Since Friday evening, all domestic flights out of Kathmandu have been cancelled, affecting more than 150 departures. International flights are still in operation, Rinji Sherpa, a spokesperson for Kathmandu airport, told the Reuters news agency.
Police were working to clear debris and reopen roads to traffic after landslides blocked highways at 28 locations, police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki said.
The earliest letup in the rains might not come until Sunday, said Binu Maharjan, a weather forecasting official in Kathmandu, who blamed a low-pressure system over parts of neighbouring India for this year’s extended rains.
“Heavy rains are likely to continue until Sunday morning and weather is likely to clear after that,” Maharjan told Reuters.
In the southeast, the Koshi River, which causes deadly floods in India’s eastern neighbouring state of Bihar almost every year, was running above the danger level, one official said.
The river level was still rising, according to Ram Chandra Tiwari, the area’s top bureaucrat.
Experts say climate change has worsened the frequency and intensity of the rain in Nepal.
This year, more than 170 people have been killed in rain-related disasters.
