Bad weather hampers helicopter rescue operations

Government dispatches additional rapid-response team

Doosan Group Chairman Park Jung-won heads to Nepal

Survivors are airlifted by helicopter from flood- and landslide-hit areas on Saturday. [Reuters]
Survivors are airlifted by helicopter from flood- and landslide-hit areas on Saturday. [Reuters]

The death and missing toll from massive flooding in the Himalayan mountain region along the Nepal-China border continued to climb Saturday as the disaster entered its fourth day.

Citing reports from AP, AFP and other news agencies, the combined death toll in Nepal and China stood at 633, with 2,980 people still unaccounted for, as of Saturday (local time). Nepal accounted for 626 of the deaths, with seven recorded on the Chinese side of the border. The toll had reached 579 by Friday, before more than 40 additional bodies were recovered.

Of the nearly 3,000 missing, more than 500 are foreign nationals, including people from India and the United States. Nine South Koreans who were at the Upper Trishuli (UT)-1 hydropower plant construction site — where the flooding struck — are also among the missing: six employees of Doosan Enerbility and three from Korea South-East Power (KOEN).

The South Korean government and the companies involved have been conducting search-and-rescue operations, but no missing persons have been found. The government dispatched a joint rapid-response team to the site on Thursday and planned to send nine additional members Saturday.

Doosan Group Chairman Park Jung-won has also departed for Nepal to personally oversee the search for the missing Doosan Enerbility employees.

KOEN and Doosan chartered helicopters locally to support rescue efforts, but deteriorating weather in the affected area has severely hampered flight operations. Signs of a possible secondary flood have further complicated search-and-rescue work.

Nepali authorities, however, have continued efforts to rescue people trapped inside a tunnel at the flood-damaged hydropower plant. Local officials estimate more than 100 people are trapped inside. Nepal Army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet said rescue operations were difficult due to mud up to 1.2 to 1.5 meters deep and limited space for helicopters to land.


nyang@heraldcorp.com