The missing from the flood jump to 1,400 as China reports hundreds of possible victims in Tibet

The extraordinary flood on Wednesday in the Himalayas becomes more tragic as Nepal looks beneath the mud and China begins to provide data. According to Beijing, there are 260 foreigners missing in Tibet, among a total of 558 people with whom contact has not been established. These add to the 826 missing on the Nepalese side, among whom are 468 foreigners.

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In both cases, the vast majority of foreigners would be pilgrims of Indian origin, who were heading to Lake Manasarovar and Mount Kailash, both in Tibet and both sacred to Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists. However, there are missing persons of 28 nationalities, including four Spaniards – according to Minister J. M. Albares – 54 Americans, 34 Australians, 33 British, and 17 Malaysians.

Nepal has woken up to a multitude of villages half-buried under mud and a growing list of missing persons, following Wednesday morning’s devastating flood. Although the official death toll is 166, there are at least 826 people with whom it is impossible to establish contact, so it is feared that the final toll will exceed a thousand deaths. Among them, a disproportionate number of pilgrims and tourists, hydroelectric power plant workers, and security forces, given its location on the border.

Meanwhile, in China, the government already acknowledges – in the Tibetan prefecture of Shigatse – 558 missing, 3 dead, and only two rescued, with the possibility that many bodies may emerge downstream in Nepal. In the Himalayan republic, only when road and telephone communications are re-established with the most affected areas will it be possible to measure the magnitude of the tragedy. Only surpassed, in recent decades, by the 2015 earthquake, which left nine thousand dead.

As then, many survivors, surely thousands, have lost their homes. The violence of the current – a veritable wall of water more than ten meters high – not only swept hundreds of people along its path through the narrow Trishula basin, but also toppled multi-story buildings like dominoes and destroyed 80 bridges (35 for vehicles) and 40 kilometers of roads.

The flood originated in Tibet – just across the Chinese border – although there is still no consensus on its cause and the Chinese government has not even ventured a hypothesis. The Nepalese Foreign Minister said yesterday that a tremor on the other side of the border caused a rock and ice avalanche that blocked the Lhende, a tributary of what Nepalis call the Tibetan River. Some scientists argue that, according to satellite images, it could be the detachment of the tip of a glacier, favored by thawing and then aggravated by high water levels at the end of the rainy season.

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The fact is that the rising water level ended up overflowing in a torrent through the gorge, with dizzying force and speed. Not even the imposing Chinese customs office in Gyirong, in front of which groups of Hindu and Jain pilgrims were queuing, was spared from being engulfed by the tremendous onslaught of the waters.

To the human tragedy must be added the economic impact, in one of Asia’s poorest countries. Several hydroelectric power plants – including one in a very advanced stage of construction – and at least one solar plant have been devastated, as have several sections of roads. Practically at the epicenter of the disaster is the main Sino-Nepalese border post, between Gyirong and Rasuwagadhi, three or four hours north of Kathmandu. Hence, dozens of victims are customs officers or truck drivers, in addition to tourists.

The high season for Hindu pilgrimages, which coincides with the low season for mountaineering – due to the rains – has determined the profile of many of the victims. Among them, many devotees from India or Indians who have emigrated to North America, brought by travel agencies.