Search continues for hundreds missing after Nepal floods
Rescue teams in Nepal are racing to find hundreds of people still missing after catastrophic flooding and mudslides, among them dozens of Americans who remain unaccounted for. Fox News foreign correspondent Jeff Paul reported on the intensifying recovery effort on “America Reports.”
The death toll from the powerful floods and mudslides along the Nepal-China border has climbed to at least 676, with bad weather slowing and, in some areas, halting rescue operations.
Nepali officials revised their figures Saturday, bringing the combined number of deaths in Nepal and Tibet to 676, with nearly 3,000 people reported missing, according to The Associated Press. Chinese authorities have confirmed seven deaths and more than 550 missing people, while Nepal’s disaster agency said 669 people had died and 2,426 others were missing.
Specialists believe Wednesday’s flash floods and mudslides across Nepal and China’s Tibet region were triggered when a large section of ice broke away from a glacier and crashed into the Lhende Khola River. Efforts to reach the hardest-hit area have been severely hampered by washed-out roads, damaged infrastructure and limited communications. Conditions are expected to remain challenging, with intermittent rain forecast through the weekend.
“Search and rescue operations have been temporarily halted because it is raining, and the weather is foggy,” Narendra Pariyar, a senior official in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, told Reuters.
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A man holds an umbrella as he stands in front of damaged buildings after flash floods and a mudslide, in Trishuli, Nuwakot district, Nepal, August 29, 2026. (REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha)
While Nepalese authorities have stressed they don’t need countries to send people to help with general search and rescue, they did request that China send tunnel experts as up to 100 people are still trapped in a mud-filled hydropower plant tunnel.
“We have already made requests for such specialised services and technical assistance in areas where we don’t have enough expertise and technical know-how,” Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told Reuters.
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China dispatched five such workers from Tibet by helicopter to assist, according to the country’s state-affiliated Xinhua news agency.
Chinese rescue workers arrive at Maithali Barrack, an army training centre that serves as a primary base for airlifting survivors, following deadly flash floods and a mudslide in Trishuli, Nuwakot district, Nepal, August 29, 2026. (REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha)
Dramatic video showed the rescue of one such person as authorities from Nepal worked to drag the man out of the mud deluge.
Though impending rainstorms are likely to make rescue operations more difficult, officials say a previous threat from a lake that had formed on the border between Nepal and Tibet has substantially subsided.
The lake had been overflowing into the Lhende Khola River, risking further flooding, but that risk had gone down by Saturday, according to Chinese officials.
A satellite image shows one of two lakes at the site of the glacial collapse,in the border area between Nepal and Tibet Autonomous Region, China, August 28, 2026. (SPOT ©CNES 2026, Distribution Airbus DS/Handout via REUTERS)
Nepal’s finance minister Swarnim Wagle estimated the country will need over $4 billion to rebuild after the disaster.
“This is just an estimate. Loss and damage is being assessed,” he told Reuters.