By Ingrid "Shortwave" Frost
The water came down fast, and it did not stop taking people with it. Flash floods and landslides tore through valleys on the Nepal-Tibet border last week, and rescue crews who briefly paused their search have gone back out, according to Al Jazeera. The death toll is nearing 600.
The scale of the missing is staggering. As of Saturday, almost 2,500 people were reported missing, including at least 777 foreigners, the Guardian reported. The Red Cross estimates roughly 93,000 people have been affected.
Among the missing are at least 41 Australians — pilgrims, trekkers, an 11-year-old child, and a member of the Australian Defence Force, according to the Guardian. Families back home are waiting on word, checking phones that don't ring.
Rescue teams from Nepal and China have resumed joint search operations after a brief halt, Al Jazeera reported. But the danger has not passed. Experts are warning of a newly formed lake in the flood zone — the kind of unstable pooling that can unleash a second wave of destructive flooding with little warning.
What caused the initial deluge remains under study, but the human toll is not in dispute: entire communities swept away, foreign tourists and pilgrims caught in valleys with no way out, and a rescue operation now racing a landscape that keeps rearranging itself.
This story is developing. The final death toll, and the fate of thousands still unaccounted for, will not be known for some time.
FILED FROM SOMEWHERE WITH BAD COFFEE —
— Compiled from reporting by Al Jazeera and The Guardian.
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