Fears of more flooding in Nepal, 100 Americans among the missing as rescue efforts step up

KATHMANDU — Authorities in Nepal have warned of the risk of further flooding after heavy rainfall, as China sheds light on the scale of the disaster in its Tibet region.Five days after surging floodwaters from a glacier collapse buried communities across the region in thick mud, rescuers in Nepal were still struggling to reach devastated communities as the full scale of the destruction emerged.“The disaster here is overwhelming,” Ferrin Cole, an operations director at the U.S.-based Crisis Response International, told NBC News on Sunday.“The flood that came down that mountain just wiped out cities.

We’re going in as fast as we can to get people the help that they need.”Cole said his team would be working to provide help to those in need a locate missing persons, but that working in mud “is actually pretty dangerous.” “The longer that death and mud are together, diseases breed, and so we’re always just aware of that,” he added.Approximately 100 Americans are among the missing across Nepal and China’s Tibet region, the State Department said Saturday.01:11How did the catastrophic Nepal-Tibet flood happen?00:0000:00In Nepal, the death toll has risen to 752, with over 2,500 people still missing, including 592 foreign nationals, according to the country’s disaster agency.The Nepal Tourism Board said 261 foreign nationals have been rescued.

China has separately reported 16 deaths and 546 people missing in its Tibet region, including 261 foreign nationals.It is unclear how much overlap there is between the Chinese and Nepali missing-person counts.Those missing loved ones may face a long wait for answers, with many bodies washed far downstream and recovered in poor condition.

Morgues in Nepal have been overwhelmed, though authorities are collecting DNA samples in the hopes of notifying relatives.In Nepal’s Chitwan district, where a number of bodies have washed up, police officer Anil Thapa told Reuters that “more than half” of recovered bod...