Death toll rises in Nepal-China border disaster as lake poses new flood threat

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The death toll from massive flash floods has risen to 469 in Nepal, police said Friday, as rescuers work to find hundreds of people still missing in the area on the Nepal-China border.

The previous death toll was 390 in Nepal and three in Tibet. Authorities had also reported more than 1,400 missing people in both areas from the disaster Wednesday.

Hundreds have already been rescued, Nepalese authorities said, and dozens were receiving medical treatment in the capital, Kathmandu. Foreigners from multiple countries were among the missing, many of them trekkers and pilgrims.

Images showed buildings and streets in Nepal’s hard-hit Nuwakot district slathered in mud, debris hanging from trees and stunned survivors caked in mud. In Tibet’s Shigatse prefecture, a two-lane road running along a river was completely buried. Aerial footage also showed a lake had formed and expanded on the China-Nepal border, with authorities warning of a possible dam break.

Rajan Tamang, a restaurant owner in New York City, said he learned from family in Kathmandu that his mother and sister were among those who died, while many other relatives and friends remained missing.

“My family was just waking up, and they didn’t even get any information, and suddenly this flood came. Some of them are missing, some of them lost their life and only a few is alive,” he told The Associated Press after a vigil in New York.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the flooding was terrible to see, describing how “strong, well-built buildings were wiped out like they were toothpicks.”

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the U.S. spoke with Nepalese leaders and offered to provide “anything they want.”

Scientists who've studied satellite images said bedrock underneath a glacier high in the Himalayan region had collapsed, taking part of the glacier with it. The rocks and melted water swelled the rivers in the valleys below, causing a torrent of water at times several stories high that swept buildings, bridges and earth downstream.