Nepal flood death toll passes 1,000 as rescues intensify

Photo — Muhammad Amdad Hossain / Pexels

Catastrophic monsoon floods and landslides in Nepal have become one of the deadliest natural disasters in the country’s recent history, with the death toll now exceeding 1,000 and the number of missing in the thousands.[6][10][11][13] Rescuers are deploying helicopters, excavators and other heavy machinery to reach remote mountain towns and valleys that were cut off after rivers burst their banks and torrents of water and debris swept away homes, schools and infrastructure.[10][11] Local authorities have appealed to families to provide DNA samples to help identify bodies recovered from devastated areas, underscoring the scale of destruction and the difficulty of accounting for victims across rugged terrain.[11] International and regional attention is focused on the disaster’s humanitarian impact, the risk of further landslides and disease, and the strain on Nepal’s emergency services, which are racing against time and challenging weather to find survivors and provide shelter, food and medical care to displaced communities.[6][10][13]

Sources: BBC News, Reuters, The Guardian, NBC News