NUWAKOT : Rescuers ploughed on with their search Friday
for survivors of deadly floods and landslides that struck Nepal and Tibet, with
the threat of new torrents complicating their gargantuan task.
Emergency teams have recovered 482 bodies after a
tsunami-like wall of water and mud crashed down on Wednesday, burying homes,
smashing bridges and sweeping away vehicles.
More than 1,400 people are missing, including trekkers in
the Himalayas and scores of Hindu pilgrims to Tibet’s sacred snow-capped Mount
Kailash.
The US Geological Survey said the disaster—the deadliest
for Nepal since a 2015 earthquake—was caused by a glacial collapse that
triggered a vast flow of icy debris.
The deluge of ice and mud also caused huge pools of water
to form, with one of these formations becoming a direct threat to emergency
workers scouring the region for survivors.
Nepali police urged all rescuers to “immediately move to a
safe location”, saying it had received information that “a water dam has burst
again on the Tibetan side”.
Separately in Tibet, China had earlier Friday paused its
rescue operation at the hardest-hit area of Gyirong over the risk of renewed
flooding, before later saying the threat had eased.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that a lake formed by
immense piles of debris began overflowing toward where rescue teams were
headed, but later said the water level of the pool was dropping so the “the
risk is gradually decreasing”.
Rescue operations were therefore “proceeding in an orderly
manner”, it added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who chaired a meeting on
rescue efforts Friday, offered Beijing’s help to Nepal’s emergency operations.
“China is willing to actively assist Nepal in its rescue
efforts and provide support and aid to the best of its ability,” Xi said in a
condolence message to Nepal’s president, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Emergency teams had been racing to retrieve survivors from
affected zones, where the widespread devastation meant food and water supplies
were running out.
The Nepali military had meanwhile located people trapped
in the tunnel of Trishuli 3A hydropower project, where they were working to
find a way in to extract the survivors.
“Two helicopters have been dispatched but it is
challenging because it is tough to even locate the entry points of the tunnel,”
army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.
Some 350 workers and residents have been brought to safety
from the site, he added, but efforts were ongoing to rescue more than 100
people trapped in the same area.
Workers rescued from other dam projects along the Trishuli
valley described a disaster that unfolded with terrifying speed.
Buddha Tamang told AFP he survived only because he was
inside a tunnel at the dam where he worked when the flood struck.
“I survived as I was in the tunnel,” said Tamang, who was
airlifted on Thursday after being marooned for more than 24 hours.
“The senior officers working on the other side, they were all swept away,” he told AFP.
