KATHMANDU—Residents of Nepal’s flood-hit capital returned to their mud-caked homes on Sunday to survey the wreckage of devastating floods that have killed at least 126 people across the Himalayan republic.
Deadly rain-related floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.
Entire neighborhoods in Kathmandu were inundated over the weekend with flash floods reported in rivers coursing through the capital and extensive damage to highways connecting the city with the rest of Nepal.
Kumar Tamang, who lives in a slum area by a riverbank, told AFP he and his family had to flee after midnight on Saturday as waters rushed into his shack.
“This morning we returned and everything looks different,” the 40-year-old said.
“We couldn’t even open the doors to our house, it was jammed with mud,” he added. “Yesterday we were afraid that the water would kill us, but today we have no water to clean.”
Nepal’s home ministry said 104 people had been killed across the country with another 64 still missing.
Ministry spokesman Rishi Ram Tiwari told AFP that bulldozers were being used to clear several highways that had been blocked by debris, cutting Kathmandu off from the rest of the country.
“More than 3,000 people have been rescued,” he added.
At least 14 of those killed were aboard two buses and were buried alive when earth from a landslide careened into a highway south of Kathmandu, Dhading district chief Rajendra Dev Pandey told AFP.
More than 260 people have died in Nepal in rain-related disasters this year.
