Number of missing in deadly Nepal, China floods soars to nearly 3,000
“ENORMOUS” TRAUMA
The trauma of Wednesday’s catastrophe has been “enormous”, and as many as 93,000 people may have been affected, the Red Cross said, with the death toll expected to rise.
Nepal’s Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle told Reuters the government’s initial estimate was that rebuilding would cost between US$4 billion and US$5 billion.
“This is just an estimate. Loss and damage is being assessed,” he said.
Nepal’s reconstruction bill could run into “billions of dollars”, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said on Saturday.
“The urgency is on rescue and saving lives as much as we can,” he said, appealing for specialised assistance, including heavy-lift drones and technology to help locate people who are trapped.
He also called for forensic testing kits to identify bodies and freezer units to store them, saying bodies that have been in water could decompose at a faster rate.
“Our own healthcare capacity is very limited to put these bodies in a frozen state for a long time,” he said.
Mr Khanal said Nepal also required specialist assistance to rescue people trapped in tunnels, restore transport and communication lines where bridges had been destroyed, and conduct DNA testing on recovered bodies.
A team of Indian tunnel experts arrived in Nepal on Saturday, he said, while China’s Xinhua news agency reported Beijing had dispatched five tunnel experts to support rescue efforts, with four more due to join them.
India has already sent three flights carrying 60 tonnes of relief supplies, including blankets, medicines and food. It has also offered disaster-response personnel, prefabricated bridges and technical teams to help restore connectivity, its foreign ministry said.
Three days after the disaster, authorities said some bodies being recovered had decomposed beyond recognition. They would be buried after legal formalities because of health risks and fears of disease outbreaks.
“DNA samples will be collected, and the bodies will be buried in an open space,” the Chitwan district administration said in a notice.
Emergency teams worked flat out to find survivors as widespread devastation left communities short of food and water.
Fears of further flooding have compounded the search for the missing.
The deluge of ice and mud caused huge lakes to form, and one of these formations has become a direct threat to emergency workers scouring the region for survivors.
By Saturday, however, the risk from one such lake straddling the Nepal-China border had eased, with parts of the lake bed visible, Chinese authorities and state broadcaster CCTV said. Satellite images suggested water was slowly draining from the lake, gradually reducing its size, CCTV reported.