As rescue efforts entered their fourth day, the scale of destruction came into focus, signaling a daunting recovery for the vulnerable nation.
Binod Ghimire reported from Kathmandu, Nepal.
Entire towns wiped out. Roads, bridges and communication lines washed away. In just a matter of moments, tens of thousands of people were left devastated and disoriented as catastrophic floodwaters tore through the tranquil Himalayan valley.
Four days later, as the rescue efforts in Nepal and neighboring Tibet continued on Saturday, the staggering scale of the flood’s devastation was coming into focus.
The official count of missing people jumped to over 2,400, more than double the figure from a day before. The death toll rose to at least 675 and was expected to keep climbing. The morgues in several of the towns downstream from the deluge have been overwhelmed by the number of bodies , with officials forced to improvise makeshift arrangements.
“In living memory, we haven’t seen a mountain hazard event like this,” Kamal Kishore, the United Nations’ top official for disaster risk reduction, said on Friday. “The impact on lives, livelihoods, buildings, infrastructure, bridges, hydroelectric projects, power generation is really immense.”
Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. Its economy, long stagnated, is heavily reliant on the tourism industry and the remittances its workers send from abroad.
The catastrophe comes amid a drastic shortfall in global humanitarian funding, as some of the largest traditional donors, particularly the United States under President Trump, have pulled back from international aid in recent years.
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