Nepal flood death toll reaches 389 as rescuers race against fresh flooding risk

Two days after a glacier collapsed high in the Himalayas, rescue teams were still pulling bodies from the mud. By early Friday, the confirmed death toll in Nepal had reached 389. Nearly a thousand more were missing—almost 550 of them foreigners from more than two dozen countries—swept away or trapped in the valleys and villages that the torrent had torn through on Wednesday morning.

The collapse sent a wall of rock, ice, mud, and water cascading down mountain river systems that feed the Bhotekoshi and other waterways linking Nepal to Tibet. The flood ripped through the region with such force that it destroyed power stations, roads, and bridges along a route that connects Kathmandu to Lhasa and is traveled by trekkers and pilgrims. In the Chitwan district alone, about 100 kilometers downstream from the worst-hit area, authorities had recovered 103 bodies from the river system. Local hospitals could not hold them all, so district officials were setting up tents for families to claim their dead.

Dibga Tamang was among the last people pulled from the town of Rasuwa on Thursday, airlifted by helicopter to an army camp in Nuwakot along with three others. "All of our people have gone. They are dead," he said. "I have no one left waiting for me. Everything and everyone is gone." Rescue helicopters were still searching for survivors and dropping emergency supplies to thousands cut off in remote towns and valleys. Emergency teams, some with sniffer dogs, continued to comb through the debris. But as the hours passed, the focus shifted from rescue to recovery—and to a new, gathering threat.

The sheer volume of water and debris had created a secondary disaster waiting to happen. A lake formed by debris blocking the Bhotekoshi River at the flood site was rising dangerously. On the Chinese side of the border, authorities warned that roughly 3 million cubic meters of water—equivalent to about 1,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools—was expected to flow into an already dammed lake over the next three days. Peak flow was forecast for around September 1. "The volume of water is continuing to increase, and so is the risk," said Zhu Jinfeng, a researcher at China's water resources ministry hydrology department, speaking to state broadcaster CCTV. There was a high risk the lake could breach, releasing a catastrophic second wave of flooding downstream.

The Gyirong border crossing, where the torrent had torn through on Wednesday, sits at a critical junction in China's Belt and Road network linking the country to South Asia. Dramatic video showed enormous torrents of muddy water and debris engulfing structures and people within seconds. Chinese rescuers had not yet reached the worst-hit areas on the Chinese side by Thursday evening, as crews worked to clear debris from the access road. The tally of missing in Tibet's Gyirong County stood at 558, including 260 foreign nationals. Only three deaths had been confirmed on the Chinese side so far. China's Premier Li Qiang, the country's second-highest official, arrived at the disaster site on Thursday afternoon—a signal that Beijing was treating the crisis as a matter of the highest national priority.

Survivors described the moment the water came. "The river looked small from a distance but it suddenly started overflowing and swept through," said Janak Bahadur in Nepal's Devighat. "It came in suddenly and exploded like a bomb." Around the world, families of the missing were desperate for any word. Vasanthi Muniandy, whose sister Vennila had been part of a Hindu pilgrimage group from Malaysia, said she had last heard from her after Vennila crossed into Tibet from Nepal. "I am totally broken," Vasanthi said. "I really want her to come back. I don't have anyone but her. I just want her to come back home."

Aid was beginning to arrive. Nations including India, Australia, and South Korea sent rescue teams and supplies. President Donald Trump said the United States had offered support, describing the destruction as unprecedented. "Nobody's ever seen anything quite like that, where very powerful, strong, well-built buildings were wiped out like they were toothpicks," he said. Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah, whose government was only five months old, visited the flood-hit area of Nuwakot on Thursday. "All the state agencies are operating at full capacity," he said. "Our first priority now is to save life of each citizen, search and rescue of the missing, treat the injured and provide immediate relief to the affected families." The country had faced catastrophic disasters before—the 2015 earthquake had killed nearly 9,000 people—and officials said they had the systems and experience to manage this one. But the clock was running. The debris-blocked lakes were filling. By September 1, they warned, the water could break free.