The patient search for possible survivors continues Tuesday in the neighborhoods of Kathmandu, Nepal, covered in mud by floods and landslides of an unprecedented scale which left at least 209 dead.
During the night from Friday to Saturday, the Nepalese capital and a good part of the east and center of the country were subjected to a deluge never seen in twenty years at the end of the summer monsoon season in South Asia. South.
Entire neighborhoods of Kathmandu were invaded by a tide of mud and debris of all kinds generated by the sudden and exceptional flood of the Bagmati river which crosses the valley.
At least 209 people have been killed in the country and 29 others are missing, Nepal’s Interior Ministry said.
“We have intensified air rescue for people who are sick or who still need to be brought to safety,” the ministry said.
More than 400 people were rescued in different districts on Monday.
The Nepalese army said it had already carried out a total of more than 4,000 evacuations, notably with helicopters, motorboats and lifeboats.
Many roads connecting Kathmandu to the rest of the country have been submerged in mud.
At least 35 of the victims were buried alive in three vehicles when a landslide covered one of these roads, south of the capital, police said.
Bulldozers and other excavating machines were used to clear the roads.
The paralysis of the road network caused the first shortages of vegetables in the capital, the prices of which increased significantly.
“Informal neighborhoods”
“Usually we receive 600 to 700 tonnes of vegetables every day, yesterday we only received 156 tonnes,” said Binay Shrestha, a wholesaler in one of Kathmandu’s main markets.
“Production is available but it is blocked by the state of the roads,” he added.
In Kathmandu, teams of booted rescuers were hard at work helping residents clean their mud-covered homes and salvage what could be saved.
Nilkantha Pandey, from the humanitarian organization Care Nepal, stressed the urgency of providing the victims with drinking water and finding them temporary rehousing.
“For the most part, informal settlements have been affected,” he said. It is time to respond to these needs and without delay.”
As noted by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the impact of the disaster was particularly devastating in these neighborhoods born from the uncontrolled urbanization of Kathmandu.
According to provisional data from the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, stations in 14 districts had measured record rainfall in the twenty-four hours before Saturday morning.
A station at Kathmandu airport recorded 240 millimeters of rain, the highest level since 2002, it said.
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.
Scientists say climate change has worsened their frequency and intensity.
Precipitation reduces in September, at the end of the monsoon season, ICIMOD climatologist Arun Bhakta Shrestha reminded AFP.
“Precipitation of this magnitude must be described as abnormal,” he said. “This is an extreme climatic event […] I probably see it as a consequence of climate change.”
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