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September 29, 2024 – 9:06 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) At least 170 people have died in Nepal following floods and landslides caused by heavy rains, particularly in the capital Kathmandu, according to a new official report provided on Sunday.
Large parts of the east and center of this Himalayan country have been flooded since Friday, as have entire neighborhoods of Kathmandu. Rivers experienced flash floods, causing widespread damage and loss of life.
The toll continues to rise: it stands at 170 dead and 42 missing, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The previous one was 148 dead and 59 missing. At least 35 of those killed were in three vehicles and were buried alive in a landslide on a highway south of Kathmandu, Nepalese police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki told AFP on Sunday.
More than 3,000 people are deployed to participate in rescue operations using helicopters or boats. “More than 3,000 people have been rescued” across Nepal, said Interior Ministry spokesperson Rishi Ram Tiwari.
He told AFP that bulldozers were being used to clear highways blocked by debris, cutting off the capital from the rest of the country. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology said that according to preliminary data, stations in 14 districts had measured record rainfall in the 24 hours before Saturday morning.
A station at Kathmandu airport recorded 240 millimeters of rain, the highest level since 2002, it said.
Cut your roof
Due to heavy rains, authorities had warned of flash floods. The Bagmati River and its many tributaries flowing through the capital burst their banks, flooding homes and vehicles in the area after midnight on Saturday. Residents of these areas had water up to their chests.
Kumar Tamang, who lives in a slum, told AFP that he and his family had to flee during the night from Friday to Saturday when water rushed into their house. “This morning (Sunday) we came back and everything is different,” said the 40-year-old. “We couldn’t even open the doors of our house, they were blocked by mud.”
“Yesterday we were afraid that the water would kill us, but today we no longer have water to clean,” he lamented. Bishnu Maya Shrestha, who lives in another flooded district of Kathmandu, told AFP that she had to cut the roof of her house to escape the floods.
“We jumped from one roof to another to get to safety and eventually boats came to our aid.” Domestic flights resumed on Sunday morning to and from the Nepalese capital, after their complete interruption from Friday evening due to the weather situation. More than 150 departures have been canceled.
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.
In July, a landslide on a road in the 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 having hampered the search.
