Searches continued on Tuesday in districts of Kathmandu covered in mud by floods and landslides of an unprecedented scale. The disaster left at least 209 dead in Nepal, according to a new report.
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 flood of the Bagmati River which crosses the valley.
In addition to the 209 people killed in the country, 29 others are still 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.
Thousands of evacuations
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.
The paralysis of the road network caused the first shortages of vegetables in the capital, the prices of which increased significantly.
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.
