Floods, landslides and an avalanche triggered by monsoon rains across northern India and Nepal have left at least 80 people dead or missing.
Disaster relief authorities in India's Uttar Pradesh state said record rainfall that swept most of the state over three days from the 25th killed at least 56 people, AFP reported on the 27th.
The state received 66.5 millimeters of rain during the period, nine times the 7.6 millimeters it normally gets at this time of year. A low-pressure system that formed over waters in the eastern Bay of Bengal moved inland and brought the downpours, the Indian government said, adding that about 1,000 homes were found to have been flooded.
India's Central Water Commission warned of the severity of the situation, saying major rivers in the north had risen above danger levels, including the Ganges and the Gandak, which run through Uttar Pradesh, and the Koshi and Bagmati, tributaries of the Ganges. Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous region with 240 million people, suffers severe flood damage every year during the June-to-September monsoon season.
In Nepal, which borders Uttar Pradesh, at least 14 people have died in a series of floods and landslides since the 24th, Reuters reported.
In the Palpa area of Lumbini province in southern Nepal, a 75-year-old man was killed and his two teenage daughters, aged 17 and 15, went missing on the morning of the same day when debris from heavy rain buried their home, according to local newspaper The Kathmandu Post. In the Baglung area of Gandaki province in the north, a landslide buried a house and killed four people, including a woman and children.
Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said water levels were continuing to rise in major rivers nationwide and issued flash flood warnings for 49 of the country's 77 districts. The Rasuwa and Nuwakot areas of Bagmati province in the central-north, where more than 7,500 people were left dead or missing in severe flooding last month, were excluded from the list of high-risk areas this time.
Separately, The Kathmandu Post reported that morning that at least 14 Nepali workers went missing when an avalanche swept the base camp of Himlung Himal, a 7,126-meter peak in Gandaki province. Himalayan Holiday Trekking, a climbing outfitter, said it had lost all contact with 14 staff members, including Sherpas who had been setting up tents for foreign climbers. Local authorities have been unable to send rescue helicopters because of poor weather, and with land access also cut off, rescue operations are facing difficulties.
