The tragedy just keeps getting worse day-by-day. From NBC News:
More than 900 people were killed by the devastating flooding in Nepal, officials in the south Asian country said Monday as as the number of those listed as missing nearly doubled to 4,247, among them, 592 foreign nationals.
Nepal’s government “has mobilized all available resources and efforts at its disposal for search, rescue, and relief and recovery operations,” a spokesperson for the country’s foreign ministry told a news conference Monday, before thanking a number of countries including, Qatar, the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan for helping out with relief efforts.
“So far, 903 bodies have been recovered,” the spokesperson said, adding that 10,000 people had been rescued including 323 foreign nationals.
Separately Nepal’s disaster agency said 4,247 people were missing as of 1 a.m. ET on Monday morning. [snip]
In Nepal, rescuers continue to struggle to reach devastated communities days after the massive flooding that stemmed from a glacier collapse near the country’s northern border with China’s Tibet region on Wednesday. [snip]
Morgues in the country have been overwhelmed and in Chitwan district, which sits 125 miles from the disaster zone, authorities dug hundreds of graves in a forest at Devghat for bodies swept downstream from the flood-hit Rasuwa region.
“We were left with no other option,” said Ganesh Aryal, chief district officer of Chitwan told Reuters. “Our concern was the risk to public health posed by the rapid decomposition of the bodies.”
“More than half” the bodies recovered there were “beyond recognition,” he added.
China has separately reported 16 deaths and 546 people missing in its Tibet region, including hundreds of foreigners. It is unclear how much overlap there is between the Chinese and Nepali missing-person counts.
China’s state television CCTV, attributed the disaster to “glacier instability resulting from the long-term effects of climate warming,” in a report Sunday. “It struck suddenly, with a large peak flow, high speed, severe destructive force and a wide impact area,” the broadcaster said.
A landslide-dammed lake above the border checkpoint is overflowing, furthering complicating the response effort, CCTV reported. But it said the likelihood of a complete breach is “relatively low.”
CNN has consolidated a list of nonprofits that are helping with the rescue and recovery efforts in Nepal. You can pledge to specific ones, or have your donation split among the group here (which includes World Central Kitchen, American Red Cross, CARE, Direct Relief, Humanity & Inclusion, Oxfam America, Save the Children, UNICEF, and World Food Program USA). 100% of the donation goes to the cause.
We should also mention the flash flood in a remote area of the Grand Canyon in Arizona yesterday, which has left one dead and more than a dozen missing.
