NUWAKOT, Nepal (AP) — Poor weather temporarily hampered aerial rescue operations in Nepal on Saturday as the search for thousands of missing people in areas devastated by catastrophic flash floods along the border with China entered its fourth day.
Rescue workers and military personnel have been working around the clock since Wednesday’s disaster, which killed more than 600 people and left about 3,000 missing. Some survivors have been pulled from the mud, while crews continue searching several locations for those still missing.
But Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet, a Nepali Army spokesperson, said Saturday morning that helicopter operations were on hold until weather conditions improved. Flights resumed in some areas later in the day.
Survivors arrive in safe areas
In Nuwakot, one of the Nepali districts devastated by the floods, helicopters resumed operations before noon Saturday, Associated Press journalists saw.
Some helicopters were loaded with boxes and bags of aid, including clothes, instant noodles, crackers and rice. Others returned from the flood-hit areas carrying survivors.
An older man was carefully helped off one helicopter, while a soldier carried an older woman on his back to a medical tent. There, medics checked her blood pressure, breathing and heartbeat, as well as her teeth and gums.
Most of those evacuated arrived with nothing except the clothes they were wearing and, in some cases, a small plastic bag.
About a dozen people emerged from another helicopter. Soldiers carried several babies who had also been evacuated.
The evacuees had been brought from the nearby community of Trishuli.
Families anxiously await news of missing loved ones
At a relief center in Nuwakot, people waited anxiously Saturday for word about missing loved ones.
Military personnel taped sheets of paper listing dozens of missing people to a wall, prompting families to crowd around and search for their relatives.
Some scanned the lists, took photos and wiped away tears as they looked through the names.
Outside, people walked along mud-covered streets past signs of the disaster. On one street, a truck was stuck in the mud with its bed raised in the air.
Rescuers battle to find survivors at disaster-hit areas
Search and rescue efforts continued at several locations in Nepal and China’s Tibet, including the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Nepal’s Rasuwa district and the severely damaged Gyirong border crossing on the Chinese side.
Nepali Army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet said rescue efforts would continue at the hydropower construction site, where authorities believe more than 100 people are trapped in a tunnel filled with thick mud.
Basnet said rescuers had used baskets and ropes to reach some people, but the operation remained difficult because of 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 meters) of mud and the limited number of places where helicopters could land.
He said rescue teams had also been forced to relocate temporarily when authorities issued warnings about possible further flooding.
Rescuers have been on high alert for more flooding from a new lake that formed high up in the Himalayan mountains after the initial floods Wednesday. Experts warned that the lake, created after a glacier collapse that triggered the floods, was starting to overflow.
Monitoring data from the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources showed late Friday that the lake had dwindled in size. The water level dropped by 10 meters (32 feet) from the high point on Thursday morning, Chinese broadcaster CCTV said.
Aid trucks could be seen traveling from Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, toward the affected areas.
Search continues at devastated China-Nepal border crossing
The broadcaster was showing Saturday images of rescuers getting to Gyirong Port, the hard-hit border crossing with Nepal. Some reached the area by foot and via rafts. Some were dropped down from drones flown to the area. “Anyone, anyone?” rescuers yelled, according to footage by the broadcaster.
It was not immediately known how many people were at the border checkpoint building when the floods hit.
On Saturday, Nepal’s disaster agency said the death toll had climbed to 626 with 2,426 people missing in the country. There was little information on survivors on the Chinese side, where the death toll rose to seven Friday as state media showed evacuations of villages and leaders’ efforts to direct the relief response.
More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far. China's state media said 554 people were missing on the Chinese side. Hundreds of the missing are foreigners who were in the area to work, trek or make a pilgrimage to a sacred peak.
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Kafle reported from Kathmandu, Nepal. Associated Press journalists Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Sibi Arasu in Bengaluru, India; Upendra Mansingh in Nuwakot district, Nepal; Aijaz Hussain in New Delhi, India; and Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report.
