KATHMANDU: At least 66 people have been killed in Nepal since early on Friday ( Sep 27 ) as persistent downpours triggered flooding and landslides, closing major roads and disrupting domestic air travel, officials said on Saturday.
The death toll could fall, they added, with another 69 individuals reported missing, and 60 injured since Friday morning, home government official Dil Kumar Tamang told Reuters.
The Kathmandu river, which is home to four million people and is the nation’s capital, was the site of the majority of the deaths, where regular customers and activity slowed as a result of the flood.
As some components of Kathmandu reported 322.2mm of weather over the past day, rescue workers used helicopters and plastic boats to assist those who had fallen onto rooftops or were standing on elevated ground.
After almost a week’s pause in South Asia’s yearly monsoon rains, the majority of the streams in the Himalayan region have swollen, spilling over over bridges and roads, according to authorities.
According to police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki, officers were removing particles and reopening roads in 28 locations as a result of landslides that had caused traffic to slog through the area.
According to Binu Maharjan, a climate prediction official in Kathmandu, the earliest start to rain does not arrive until Sunday, which is when a low pressure system over parts of neighboring India had contributed to this year’s lengthy rains.
According to Maharjan,” Big rains are likely to continue until Sunday morning and the weather is likely to clean thereafter.”
Most central and eastern sections had received reasonable to really heavy precipitation, ranging from 50mm to more than 200mm, she added, with average levels recorded abroad.
Worldwide flights are operating, but some domestic airlines have been disrupted, said Rinji Sherpa, a spokeswoman for Kathmandu airport.
The Koshi River in the south, which causes lethal storms in India’s eastern adjacent state of Bihar nearly every year, was running above the danger levels at 450, 000 tons, versus the normal number of 150, 000 tons, one standard said.
A cusec is a unit of waters flow that is equivalent to one square feet per second.
The valley level is also rising, added Ram Chandra Tiwari, the city’s top official.