The authorities of Nepal have raised this Thursday, August 27, the death toll to 360 after the massive flood that devastated several towns as it passed this Wednesday through an area bordering Tibet due to the overflowing of the Bhote Khosi River.
A spokesperson for the Nepalese Police, Abhi Narayan Kafle, has confirmed the latest balance to the EFE agency and has assured that the authorities have rescued 445 people alive in the last few hours, including 27 foreigners. On the other hand, 644 tourists remain missing.
Rescues in Nepal
The tragedy that hits Nepal leaves very harsh images. Army and Police personnel, along with numerous volunteers, work in the mud to locate and rescue possible survivors of the flood.
Among the rescued people is a woman who was buried by the barrage of water, rocks and ice, and who was found in a state of shock. The video shows the state it is in. She is completely covered in mud and stares blankly. The woman barely reacts to the stimuli of those around her, although she has been brought to safety.
WHO alert
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned this Thursday, citing data from the Nepalese authorities, that some 10,000 families in the country need urgent help after the flood.
The United Nations agency has stressed that they are still “identifying priority needs in terms of health”, which is why it has warned that the numbers of victims and damages will predictably vary in the coming hours, as the search for survivors and access to areas devastated by the flood progresses.
For the moment, the WHO has already sent a first aid team that includes multi-purpose tents “to facilitate the provision of health services in the affected areas.”
For her part, the national director of the NGO Care International, Mona Sherpa, has stressed that these floods “have generated concern about the spread of water-borne diseases due to damage to water and sanitation infrastructure.”
The non-governmental organization also plans to mobilize aid in the affected territory, where the Nepalese Police and Army have deployed 7,400 troops in the last 24 hours. The authorities continue to investigate the origin of the flood, since, at first, an overflow or rupture of a glacial lake in Tibet was considered a possibility, but it has also been suggested that an earthquake was related to the disaster.
