Large parts of the eastern and central Himalayan country have been flooded since Friday. Rivers experienced flash floods, causing widespread damage and loss of life.
“The balance sheet is 101 dead and 64 people missing This morning”, Nepal police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki told AFP on Sunday.
“It is likely that the toll will rise as our search and rescue mission progresses in the affected areas,” he added.
The previous police report on Saturday reported at least 59 dead and 44 missing.
More than 3,000 people were deployed to participate in rescue operations using helicopters, motor boats and inflatable boats.
Kathmandu Valley recorded 240 millimeters of rain in 24 hoursbetween Friday and Saturday morning, the Nepalese meteorological agency told the newspaper Kathmandu Post.
This is the heaviest rainfall recorded in the Nepalese capital since at least 1970according to this agency.
“Devastation”
Faced with heavy rains, the authorities warned against flash floods in rivers. Those in Kathmandu overflowed, flooding houses and vehicles near the banks.
Some survivors refugees on the roofs of buildingsothers fled, progressing with difficulty through the muddy water.
“It’s scary. I’ve never seen such devastation,” Mahamad Shabuddin, 34, owner of a motorcycle repair shop, near the swollen Bagmati River, said on Saturday.
Throughout the country, nearly 3,300 people were rescued by rescue teams since Friday.
The landslides blocked several highways linking the capital to the rest of the country, leaving hundreds of people in difficulty.
THE domestic flights resumed Sunday morning to and from Kathmandu, after their complete interruption since Friday evening due to the weather situation. More than 150 departures have been canceled.
Climate change
Monsoons from June to September cause death and destruction across South Asia each year, but the number of deadly floods and landslides has increased in recent years.
Experts say climate change has worsened their frequency and intensity.
More than 260 people have died this year in Nepal in rain-related natural disasters.
In July, a landslide on a road in Chitwan district (center) threw two buses with 59 passengers on board into a river.
Three people were able to escape alive, but the authorities were only able to recover 20 bodies, a flood hampering the search.
