Death Toll Rises to 1,355 in Devastating Nepal Flash Floods

Kathmandu: The death toll from the devastating flash floods has climbed to 1,355, according to the latest figures released by Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA). Nepal is observing a day of national mourning on Monday in memory of lives lost in devastating floods which struck on August 26.

A Cabinet meeting held on September 3 at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers had decided to observe national mourning in honour of the flood victims. Accordingly, the national flag is being flown at half-mast at government offices across the country, as well as at Nepali embassies and diplomatic missions abroad.

The Bhotekoshi flood struck Rasuwa, causing widespread loss of life and extensive damage to homes, roads, bridges, hydropower facilities and other critical infrastructure. The disaster also affected downstream areas along the Trishuli River, including parts of Nuwakot and Dhading, leaving communities displaced and disrupting transport, electricity, water supply and other essential services.

Search and rescue operations, relief distribution and infrastructure restoration have continued in the affected areas, with national security agencies, government authorities, local communities and international partners involved in the response. On the eve of the national mourning, Prime Minister Balendra (Balen) Shah issued a public statement acknowledging the ongoing work of Nepal’s security personnel involved in search, rescue and management operations following flood damage caused by the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers.

The statement highlighted a recent incident at the Central Jail at Khampa Camp in Bidur-6, Nuwakot, where floodwaters damaged administrative structures and reached lower levels of housing facilities. According to the Prime Minister, 52 personnel from the Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force (APF) transferred all 923 inmates to higher ground within the complex while re-apprehending 50 inmates who attempted to escape through damaged perimeter structures, with several officers sustaining injuries during the process.

Despite damage to nearby barracks, loss of road access and disrupted water supplies, security personnel have continued maintaining operations and supplying necessities at the facility. Nationwide, joint operations involving the Nepali Army, Nepal Police and APF have resulted in the rescue of 13,391 individuals via air and ground transport.

Current deployments across affected regions include 9,287 personnel from the Nepali Army managing operations in Battar and Dhunche and assembling temporary bridges in Devighat. Similarly, 7,975 Nepal Police officers are handling frontline search operations, body retrieval and canine unit deployments.

Moreover, 4,203 APF personnel are operating across 13 response bases, utilising diving units, rope rescue teams and drone surveillance. The Prime Minister also noted that 82 security personnel remain unaccounted for following the floods, including 45 from the Nepali Army, 25 from the Nepal Police and 12 from the APF.

Shah expressed appreciation for the continued efforts of the security forces, their families and assisting experts, reaffirming the government’s commitment to supporting security personnel deployed in the field. Australian tunnel rescue expert Arnold Dix, internationally celebrated for his pivotal contribution in extracting forty-one trapped workers from India’s Silkyara tunnel during 2023, has characterised ongoing flood mitigation operations throughout Nepal as a professional challenge unlike any encountered previously in his professional life.

Dispatching reports directly from the field in the wake of catastrophic inundations surrounding the Bhote Koshi river, Dix stated early Monday that disaster response squads are steering through a complex, multi-layered emergency. “Right now, in Nepal, we are facing something I have never faced before,” Dix posted on social media.

“Not one rescue, but multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties and lives that may still be saved.” Recalling insights gained from the Silkyara mission, where a singular, highly intricate subterranean extraction successfully restored forty-one men to their families, Dix underlined that current conditions near the Bhote Koshi require transitioning from a singular concentration towards managing several concurrent crisis zones amidst intense unpredictability.

Synthesising Western professional duties with Eastern philosophical frameworks, Dix observed that the magnitude of the calamity demands enduring commitment irrespective of immediate results. “Asian traditions offer another powerful idea: dharma,” he wrote. “The test is not simply whether we succeed. It is whether we continue to do what is right when the path becomes harder, the responsibilities multiply, and the outcome cannot be known.”

While search and recovery missions proceed across severely impacted segments of the Bhote Koshi corridor, domestic and overseas response units continue traversing perilous terrain to reach isolated populations. “Silkyara taught me never to confuse unlikely with impossible,” Dix added.

“Nepal is teaching me something more: when several lives may depend upon us at once, hope must become discipline, compassion must become action, and duty cannot depend upon certainty of success.” Specialist response squads and technical personnel maintain continuous operations on-site, contending with persistent water currents and heavy rubble that obstruct routes to devastated settlements.

Amid these ongoing rescue operations following the devastating floods, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) reported that an Indian technical team has made encouraging progress in efforts to clear the Chilime tunnel, while an Indian forensic team has processed more than 400 DNA samples.

According to the MEA, the Indian technical team continued its manual efforts to clear the tunnel at Chilime and made progress on a makeshift path that would allow access by heavy machinery. The improvised track is now close to one kilometre in length, while the team has also commenced work on creating rope-based access to the tunnel.

Meanwhile, the Indian forensic team has been processing more than 400 DNA samples at two laboratories in Kathmandu and has already generated around 70 DNA profiles, as stated by the MEA. In related developments, foreign media journalists seeking to collect news from flood-affected areas along Nepal's Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers will now be required to obtain a Press Accreditation and Journalist Identity Card from Nepal's Department of Information and Broadcasting (DoIB), according to an official notice issued by the Government of Nepal.

Concurrently, Nepali authorities have issued an alert along the river basins of the Budhigandaki River following floods in the mountainous region of Gorkha. The alert was prompted by a flood in the Therang River, which flows through Chumanubri Rural Municipality-4 and 2 in the mountainous region of Gorkha district.

Officials stated that the flood earlier this morning swept away four houses and a suspension bridge, an incident expected to cause difficulties for tourists trekking in the Manaslu region.