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At least 919 people are dead and 4,793 remain missing after catastrophic floods tore through Nepal and neighbouring Tibet, turning Himalayan valleys into rivers of mud and leaving thousands of families without answers.
The latest count includes 903 deaths and 4,247 missing in Nepal. Another 16 people have died and 546 are missing in Tibet, according to figures reported Monday. The numbers have risen sharply as rescue teams reach previously cut-off communities and search further downstream.
The list includes citizens of India, China, the United States, Malaysia, Ukraine, Britain, Australia, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, Russia, Germany, Latvia, South Africa, Japan and New Zealand.
Behind those figures is a particularly desperate race to find hundreds of workers believed trapped inside the enormous tunnels of Nepal’s hydroelectric plants.
That gives this tragedy a familiar and painful connection to Cyprus. Thousands of Nepalis live and work on the island, looking after elderly people, cleaning homes and hotels, working in kitchens, delivering food and doing many of the jobs that keep daily life moving.
For them, Nepal is not simply the country appearing in dramatic television footage. It is home. It is where their parents, children, brothers and sisters live. And for some, the past several days have been spent checking messages, making repeated calls and waiting for a familiar voice to answer.
There has been no official report so far that Nepalis living in Cyprus have lost relatives. But with more than 4,000 people missing in Nepal alone, the uncertainty is being felt far beyond the country’s borders.
Workers trapped beneath the mountains
The search is now concentrating on at least 12 hydroelectric projects damaged by the floods in Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts.
About 900 people connected to the power projects remain unaccounted for, according to Nepal’s Independent Power Producers Association. At the Upper Trishuli-1 project alone, 576 people are missing and around 300 may have taken refuge inside a tunnel.
These are not small, narrow passages. Some are large enough for trucks to drive through and include areas where workers may have found protection from the initial flood.
Rescuers have reportedly managed to pump oxygen into parts of the tunnel system, offering a small but important reason for hope. Reaching anyone inside, however, means digging through thick mud, rocks and broken equipment while rain continues to make the surrounding slopes unstable.
Every hour matters. Even if workers survived the first impact, they may now be without food, clean water or a safe route out.
The tragedy has exposed the human cost behind Nepal’s growing hydropower industry. The plants supply electricity to towns and villages, but many were built in narrow river valleys below glaciers and unstable mountain slopes.
Victims from across the world
The full nationalities of those killed have not yet been released. Authorities have confirmed 903 deaths on the Nepalese side and 16 in Tibet, but they have not provided a reliable breakdown showing how many victims were Nepali, Chinese or foreign nationals.
The missing, however, include people from across the world.
Nepal’s disaster agency says 592 foreigners are among those missing in the country. Chinese state media reports that another 261 foreign nationals are unaccounted for in Tibet, including more than 100 Nepalis.
The list includes citizens of India, China, the United States, Malaysia, Ukraine, Britain, Australia, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, Russia, Germany, Latvia, South Africa, Japan and New Zealand.
Citizens of Belarus, Belgium, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Portugal, Serbia, Spain and Sweden have also been reported missing.
India initially reported the largest number, with at least 288 of its citizens missing in Nepal. Nearly 100 Chinese nationals, dozens of Americans, 53 Ukrainians, around 50 Malaysians and 33 Britons were also listed as unaccounted for. Those figures are still changing as survivors make contact and authorities compare passenger, hotel and tour records.
Among the missing are tourists and religious pilgrims, but also guides, drivers, border workers, police officers, soldiers and employees of hydroelectric projects.
One group of 49 Indian pilgrims disappeared while waiting at an immigration complex near the Nepal-Tibet border. They were returning from Mount Kailash, a sacred pilgrimage site, when floodwater swept through the area.
A mountain collapsed, then the water came
The disaster began Wednesday when bedrock beneath a glacier high in the Himalayas gave way. Part of the glacier collapsed with it, releasing an enormous mass of rock, ice and water.
The collapse was so powerful that it registered as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event. The debris then surged into the valleys below, swelling rivers and sweeping away homes, roads, bridges and power facilities.
More rain and unstable pools of water higher in the mountains have created fears of another sudden flood. Washed-out roads are also preventing heavy rescue equipment from reaching some of the worst-hit areas.
