The Nepalese government says the army is digging through thick mud that has filled a hydropower tunnel where people are believed to be trapped. "The work to open the tunnel's entrance has been intensified since early on Saturday morning," the prime minister's office announced on Facebook, adding that 82 army and police personnel "have been continuously working since last night to excavate the tunnel entrance and accelerate the search operation." The rescue effort, however, is being hampered by "persistently adverse weather" - because of course it is. It's not clear how many people remain inside, though two were pulled from the mud yesterday, with dramatic footage shared on social media.
Meanwhile, India has decided to keep a closer eye on its own glaciers, which is a bit like checking the smoke detectors after the house burns down. Madan Kaushik, disaster management minister for the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, said: "Since we share a border with Nepal, as a neighbour, and also have a similar geographic situation … we have asked our department to monitor all the glaciers and known glacial lakes in the region." Uttarakhand, one of India's most ecologically sensitive regions, has 1,266 glacial lakes. As glaciers melt, water can accumulate behind natural barriers; if those fail, vast volumes of water can be released suddenly, triggering devastating floods. "We have asked our teams to be vigilant and monitor if a similar situation is emerging anywhere in the state," Kaushik told AFP.
The Guardian's south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen and journalist Gaurav Pokharel report from Bidur, Nepal, where rescue efforts are coordinated. They spoke to survivors like Sangke Dolma Tamang, 61, who was cheerily cooking snacks in her village of Mailung in the Rasuwa district when the floods came without warning. The family ran uphill, but as she grabbed for her husband, he slipped from her grip and was washed into the dark, fast-moving waters. "Others tried to pull him to safety, but the flood swept him away," she said, tears rolling down her weathered cheeks. She spent a night sheltering on higher ground until an army helicopter rescued her; her son is also missing. "Now I have nothing left to live for," said Tamang. "The whole house is gone. We couldn't salvage anything."
Nepal's government has appealed for financial help as it faces the daunting task of recovery and braces for more flooding. Entire communities have been swept away, leaving families homeless or in temporary shelters. "Multiple bridges have been washed away and major roads disrupted, leaving some of the worst-affected communities extremely difficult to reach," the Red Cross says. At least 18 schools have been destroyed and another 20 damaged, affecting about 10,000 school-age children, according to the UN Children's Fund.
The disaster comes just ahead of the anniversary of last year's 8-9 September mass anti-corruption protests that toppled the government. Nepal is now led by prime minister Balendra Shah, a 36-year-old rapper turned politician widely known as "Balen," who swept March elections on a wave of euphoria calling for political change - though even a rapper can't freestyle his way out of a glacial flood.
Chinese authorities said today that the risk of a lake formed after the glacier collapse near the China-Nepal border bursting has decreased, as its size appears to have shrunk. Satellite images from Thursday morning suggest water in the lake - straddling the border at the confluence of two rivers - has been slowly flowing through, decreasing the reservoir gradually, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing the water resources ministry. The surface area of the lake at Purepu Tsangpo river was 99,000 sq metres this morning - about the size of 14 football fields - having shrunk by 21,000 sq metres compared with Thursday. Experts warn of extremely high risk of secondary disasters in the valley, especially from the lake formed by glacier debris, potentially endangering rescue operations downstream. State-owned China Anneng, monitoring the lake since Friday, dispatched a 15-member team with reconnaissance drones, portable satellite stations, and mobile surveillance cameras to gather more data. An overflow on Friday temporarily halted rescue work before further assessment deemed the risks manageable.
Poor weather continues to hamper aerial rescue operations as the search for thousands of missing enters its fourth day. Nepal's finance minister says the country will need up to $5bn to rebuild after the floods, believed caused by a melting glacier that set off a deadly cascade. Finance minister Swarnim Wagle told Reuters those figures are "just an estimate" and that "loss and damage is being assessed." Nearly 3,000 people are missing: Nepal's disaster agency on Saturday said 2,426 are missing on its side, while China's Xinhua reports 554 missing in Tibet. The death toll in Nepal has risen to 626, with seven confirmed dead in Tibet. More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far, but at least 93,000 people are estimated to have been affected, according to the Red Cross. At least 777 foreigners are missing - 517 unaccounted for per Nepal's disaster agency, and 260 per Chinese officials - which could include tourists and foreign workers. Because nothing says holiday like a glacial outburst flood.