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🇳🇵 Nepal /Disasters & Emergencies

Nepal flood rescuers battle treacherous terrain and shortages to find the missing

From Kathmandu Post · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Rescuers in Nepal are navigating difficult terrain and facing equipment shortages while searching for missing people after devastating floods.
  • Specialist teams, including those with search-and-rescue dogs and drones, are working to locate victims in collapsed structures and submerged areas.
  • The floods have destroyed significant infrastructure, complicating rescue efforts and highlighting the challenges faced by emergency services.

In the remote settlement of Timure, Nepal, a child's cry pierced the silence of devastation, leading rescuers to a six-year-old girl trapped beneath the wreckage of a security post. The discovery, made by an Armed Police Force (APF) team on Friday, offered a glimmer of hope amidst the ongoing search for those missing after Wednesday's catastrophic flood.

At the surface, nothing was visible. We suspected someone was trapped beneath the debris. The team immediately began digging through the collapsed structure and successfully pulled a six-year-old girl out alive.

— APF Deputy Inspector General Netra Bahadur KarkiDescribing the rescue of a child from a collapsed security post.

The APF's Collapsed Structure Search and Rescue unit, established in 2011, is at the forefront of these efforts. With 285 trained personnel equipped to handle concrete, steel, and timber in challenging environments, they are a critical asset in disaster response. The rescued girl was stabilized at the scene but faced a delay in evacuation due to adverse weather conditions, underscoring the logistical hurdles rescuers face.

Across the flood-affected regions, Nepal's security forces are engaged in a race against time. The APF has deployed over 4,200 personnel, utilizing specialized units including dog squads, diving teams, and drone operators. These teams are working tirelessly to find survivors and recover bodies, with dog squads reportedly locating five to seven bodies daily.

Our dog squads are locating five to seven bodies daily based on scent cues.

— APF Deputy Inspector General Netra Bahadur KarkiExplaining the methods used in the search for missing persons.

The disaster, which struck Wednesday morning, unleashed a massive surge down the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river corridors, obliterating roads, bridges, and settlements. The Nepali Army has deployed seven helicopters and eight private aircraft for rescue and relief missions. Elite troops from the Army's Ranger Battalion recently rescued four workers trapped in a submerged intake tunnel at the Rasuwa Hydropower Project. The rescue operation required precise use of structural plans and specialized equipment to breach the debris, illustrating the extreme difficulty of locating and accessing victims when the landscape itself has been dramatically altered.

The entire land structure had shifted; there was no visual landmark left to identify the entrance.

— Brigadier General Rajaram BasnetDetailing the challenges of locating a submerged tunnel entrance.
About this summary

Originally published by Kathmandu Post. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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