Two days on, rescuers scour debris in Nepal as risk of fresh flooding grows

Two days on, rescuers scour debris in Nepal as risk of fresh flooding grows.

Key points

• The tally of missing in Tibet's Gyirong County was 558, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV remarked on Thursday, including 260 foreign nationals.
• China's Premier Li Qiang arrived at the disaster-stricken site in Gyirong on Thursday afternoon, state-run Xinhua news agency remarked.
• Ganesh Aryal, the administrator of Chitwan district, remarked authorities had recovered 103 bodies from the river system in his district.
• Dibga Tamang was among the last individuals rescued from the hard-hit town of Rasuwa on Thursday, airlifted along with three others to an army camp in Nuwakot.
• There is a high risk the lake could breach, with peak flow projected around September 1, Chinese state media stated, citing the water resources ministry.

Two days on, rescuers scour debris in Nepal as risk of fresh flooding grows. Reuters Published August 28, 2026 Updated August 28, 2026 11: 20am. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

As hopes of finding survivors faded and office-holders worked to reduce the risk of further catastrophic flooding, rescue teams on Friday applied heavy machinery to dig through mud and debris in Nepalese towns devastated by a flash flood two days ago.

Meanwhile, the confirmed death toll in Nepal rose to 469 individuals early on Friday, with almost 1, 000 more missing there and in neighbouring Tibet, near where a glacier collapse on Wednesday morning sent a enormous torrent of rock, ice, mud and debris cascading through Himalayan mountain river systems.

In practice, the flood ripped through villages and valleys, destroying power stations, roads and bridges along a route that links Kathmandu with Lhasa in Tibet and is popular with trekkers and pilgrims.

Of those missing, at least 540 are foreigners. Authorities in Nepal applied helicopters to search for survivors and drop emergency supplies to thousands cut off in towns and valleys while emergency services, some using sniffer dogs, recovered dozens of bodies swept down into the plains.

"All of our individuals have gone. They are dead, " Tamang remarked. "I have no one left waiting for me. Everything and everyone is gone. In practice, the end."

Notably, the sheer amount of water and debris stirred up now risks triggering a further disaster.

While on the other side of the border China stated that some three million cubic metres of water, the equivalent of regarding 1, 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools, was anticipated to flow into an already dammed lake over the next three days, nepal's disaster management authority cautioned that a lake formed by debris blocking the Bhotekoshi River was rising and at risk of bursting.

Chinese authorities have mobilised an eight-member engineering team to conduct aerial surveys and 3D modelling of the barrier lake, but accessing it was challenging. "After the glacier collapse created the lake, many isolated cliffs and steep cliffs appeared along it, " one of the engineers, Chen Hanxiao, informed CCTV.

Chen remarked the general approach to reducing the lake's threat is to excavate a drainage channel at a lower point of the dam, but the width and depth of that channel needed calculations based on how fast the water will flow and how swiftly the lake will fill.

As well as weather monitoring over the next few days, their next tasks were to monitor the lake and collect data from the lake floor. Torrent tore through border crossing.

As crews worked to clear debris from the key access road leading to the area, chinese rescuers had yet to reach the worst-hit area on the Chinese side of the border, the Gyirong border crossing, by Thursday evening, state media reports indicated.

Dramatic footage on Wednesday indicated enormous torrents of muddy water and debris tearing through structures in the border crossing area within seconds and engulfing residents trying to flee.

In practice, the tally of missing in Tibet's Gyirong County was 558, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV remarked on Thursday, including 260 foreign nationals. So far, just three individuals have been confirmed dead on the Chinese side.

China's Premier Li Qiang arrived at the disaster-stricken site in Gyirong on Thursday afternoon, state-run Xinhua news agency remarked. The visit suggested Beijing was treating the disaster as a matter of the highest national priority. Buildings 'wiped out like toothpicks'.

Worldwide, relatives of those missing were desperate for information regarding their whereabouts. Sneha Sudhir was one of 10 women whose husbands had set out from Nepal on a trek to Tibet's Mount Kailash when the region was struck by disaster.

Meanwhile, the men, all from northern Virginia, are among dozens of Americans missing. "Where are they?" Sudhir remarked tearfully from her home in Chantilly, Virginia, on Thursday.

Sudhir remarked the women were supporting each other and reaching out to office-holders, politicians and friends and family in the United States and India, hoping for word. "Everybody is taking turns in shedding their tears, wiping it off and getting back to work, " she remarked. US President Donald Trump remarked America had offered backing to Nepal.

"Nobody's ever seen anything quite like that, where particularly powerful, robust, well-built buildings were wiped out like they were toothpicks. It's a terrible thing. We are sending aid and we've spoken to the leadership and we let them know anything they want, they'll have."

Ganesh Aryal, the administrator of Chitwan district, remarked authorities had recovered 103 bodies from the river system in his district. It is concerning 100 kilometres away in the plains from the worst-hit region of Trishuli.

With local hospitals unable to accommodate all the bodies, district authorities were setting up tents and making arrangements for families to claim their dead relatives, he remarked.

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah. This person visited flood-hit Nuwakot on Thursday, remarked the situation was still challenging.

"All the state agencies are operating at full capacity. Our first priority now is to save the life of each citizen, search and rescue of the missing, treat the injured and provide immediate relief to the affected families, " he remarked.

In practice, the disaster is a major challenge for Shah's five-month-old administration but office-holders noted the country had systems and office-holders who have experience in handling such tragedies, including the 2015 earthquake that killed almost 9, 000 residents.

For now, two days on, rescuers scour debris in Nepal as risk of fresh remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.