Desperate families search for missing relatives after Nepal floods

Anxious relatives crowded the corridors of a Kathmandu hospital on Thursday as they searched for missing family after devastating floods on the Nepal-Tibet border killed at least 165 people.

Among them was Subash Khatani, scanning lists and speaking to officials in the hope of finding news of his elder brother, one of the hundreds unaccounted for after the disaster.

“My elder brother Ram Sharan Rasaili is among those missing in Rasuwa. That’s why we are out searching for him,” Khatani told AFP at the government-run Bir hospital in the capital.

On Wednesday, a tsunami-like wall of water and mud swept through villages and towns along the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers, with Nepali police saying they had recovered 162 bodies.

Rasuwa in northern Nepal was the first district hit. But deaths were reported in seven districts as floodwaters surged more than 160 kilometres (100 miles) south to Chitwan, near the Indian border.

The cause of the disaster was not immediately clear, but the US Geological Survey said it was a glacial collapse that caused seismic activity and the “catastrophic” downstream impacts in Nepal and Tibet.

Chitra Bahadur Nepali was looking for his nephew Yubraj Sewak, a driver who had been travelling towards the worst-affected Rasuwa district before contact was lost.

“My nephew was on his way to Rasuwa and was in contact with my sister until about 8:00 am yesterday,” Nepali, 52, said, showing his photograph on his phone.

“We have not heard from him since the flood. His name is not on any of the lists we have seen, and another member of our family is also missing.”

As rescue teams scoured for survivors in the flood-ravaged districts, families moved between hospitals and police helpdesks, desperately hoping for word on those missing.

The Bir hospital said it would treat all victims for free and was “fully prepared” to handle the surge in patients, local media reported.

In Nepal, 823 people — including 579 tourists from both Nepal and abroad — remained out of contact, according to the country’s disaster agency.

In Tibet, Chinese state media said that the “mudslide disaster” had killed three people, while 558 people, including 260 foreigners, were missing.

AFP