• Rescue resumes:Nepal and China have resumed rescue operations in areas devastated by flash flooding, after a pause sparked by fears a barrier lake could unleash another deluge. Residents in threatened areas were seen moving to higher ground, but officials on both sides of the border have since said the danger has receded.
• Death toll climbs: At least 538 people have been killed in Nepal, according to the police. Dozens of Americans and other foreign nationals are among at least 1,300 people unaccounted for.
• On the ground:In Kathmandu, a CNN team witnessed families’ anguish as they learned the worst news of their loved ones from lists and photos on a morgue wall. A separate CNN team closer to the disaster zone is documenting devastated neighborhoods.
• Colossal force:Scientists are still working to determine exactly what caused the disaster. New video showed where a large portion of glacier broke and plunged into the river below.
Excavators and loaders in action on Friday as rescue workers repair a road leading to Gyirong Port after a mudslide.
Chinese families are looking to social media for information about missing loved ones, more than two days devastating floods hit the China-Nepal border.
“The whole family is very worried,” a woman in Sichuan province told CNN. She had lost contact midday Wednesdaywith her brother, who was working in the area of Tibet that was most impacted.
Her brother was working on railway construction about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from Gyirong Port before going missing, the woman posted on the Chinese social media platform RedNote. The port was engulfed by a mudslide on Wednesday and remains the epicenter of rescue efforts.
The woman, who declined to be quoted by name, said she had already reported her brother’s disappearance to local police and had yet to receive any updates.
“What’s the situation at Gyirong Port? My sister works there and I haven’t been able to reach her…” read another post on the platform from a user in Yunnan province, who in a later post said they traveled to into the neighboring region of Tibet.
China’s National Immigration Administration acknowledged there are port employees missing in a Friday social media post.
Information from impacted areas in China has been slow to emerge and is dominated by official state agencies in China’s tightly controlled media environment. That cuts a contrast to Nepal, where authorities and other
China’s social media censorship machine appears to have kicked in soon after the disaster struck, with videos of the disaster filmed on the ground removed from platforms — a situation that rights groups say makes it harder for families to get a sense of their loved ones’ whereabouts.
As of 3 p.m. Friday local time, five people had been confirmed dead and 558 remained missing on the Chinese side, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
People stand on a hill after reaching high ground following a warning that a lake has broken its banks, two days after flash floods and a mudslide in Trishuli, Nuwakot district, Nepal, on August 28,.
At least 93,000 people have been affected by flash floods on the Nepal-China border, the Red Cross said on Friday, as rescuers battled to reach remote rural areas in the Himalayas.
Thousands of homes were destroyed by the disaster, David Fisher, the Nepal delegation head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
Fisher urged aid agencies to plan beyond “immediate survival” and ensure “that people are not living under tarpaulin and tents months and months from now.”
The threat of secondary flooding and monsoon-fueled storms has delayedrescue efforts as weather conditions remain unpredictable.
One senior UN worker called for “vigilance” in the coming days.
“Like a tsunami”: US survivor describes Nepal flood tragedy
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Two of the only known US nationals to survive the flood told CNN that the water from the catastrophic floods came down the mountain “like a tsunami.”
Indian-American couple Anjana Raja, 52, and Pattabiraman Venkatesan, 56, were on a guided tour in Nepal when the disaster struck.
They spoke to CNN’s Will Ripley in Kathmandu telling him that they only survived because their tour guide rushed them up the mountain to higher ground.
The orange and red blobs in the satellite view above show storms with the coldest and tallest cloud tops that are likely raining.
Monsoon-fueled storms will continue to pop up across the disaster area through this weekend.
The storms are hit-or-miss, so some places will experience deluges while others stay dry. You can see this happen from Thursday afternoon into Friday afternoon in the satellite loop above.
The Rasuwa district flood zone in Nepal has been mostly spared from widespread storms in the past 24 hours, but one location picked up about 1 inch of rain.
Whether any storms billow up over the area this weekend is hard to pinpoint, but the potential is there for localized drenching downpours.
Any storms that form on Saturday in Rasuwa could drop up to 2 inches (50 mm) of rain. Totals could reach up to 4 inches (100 mm) in isolated spots.
“I lost my hope,” says Nepali man searching for missing staff
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The Nepali owner of a transport company who lost contact with a number of his drivers said he gave up hope of finding them after being shown aerial photos of the area where they were working.
Sunil Shrestha told Reuters that he heard about the flood and tried to call his drivers repeatedly, but received no answer. “That really panicked me,” he said.
Shrestha, whose company also operates a helicopter, said he sent his pilot the last GPS location of one of the vehicles and told him to go and check on the situation there.
When the pilot returned, he showed Shrestha a number of photos that showed no sign of any vehicles in the area. “So at the time I lost my hope,” he said.
Shrestha is now trying to find out what whether his staff are alive or dead. “They are like a family, you know. They are very good people, very humble, very nice, always punctual, never gave me trouble,” he said. “Always like a family, you know. Friends and family.”
Shrestha also hinted at the wider impact of Wednesday’s disaster. “They are the main pillar of their family,” he added.
Bhegar Tamang, 68, at the Yellow Monastery, on August 28.
Bhegar Tamang’s daughter Yangri set off to buy goods from her local store in her Nepali village edging the border with China on Wednesday.
That was the last time Tamang saw Yangri, who was whisked away by ferocious flash floods that ripped through this part of the Himalayan nation earlier this week.
The 68-year-old also lost her husband and her son, who worked at a local hydropower plant, in the flash floods that hit the region on Wednesday, erasing entire communities.
“I rushed to high ground and I survived,” she told CNN on Friday. “I don’t know where to go. There’s no way to return home.”
Tamang is now sheltering at a Buddhist monastery on the outskirts of Kathmandu where she was evacuated along with around 200 other survivors of the flooding that hit the area on Wednesday after a huge section of glacier sheared off a mountain in northern Nepal.
Rildi Tamang, 70, at the Yellow Monastery, on August 28,
Another survivor from the same area, Rildi Tamang, recalled the final glance she shared with her husband, Pema, before he was swept away on Wednesday. The 70-year-old widow told CNN that only one in three residents had survived in her village.
“I lost my husband. Now, I can’t even locate where my house was,” Tamang said on Friday at the monastery, where she was also seeking shelter after her home was destroyed in the deluge.
“I ran and survived. He couldn’t escape.”
A resident carries belongings he salvaged from his destroyed home following flash floods in Devighat, Nepal, on August 28.
At least 538 people have been killed by colossal flash floods that tore through Nepal earlier this week, the country’s disaster authority reported on Friday.
That death toll is expected to climb, with another 1,300 people unaccounted for and parts of the remote region yet to be reached by emergency workers.
CNN’s Lex Harvey and Ranjeeta Johnson contributed reporting.
A drone view shows firefighters in Tibet conducting search and rescue operations at a damaged road leading to Gyirong Port after a mudslide, in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China, on August 28.
China’s first professional rescue team has finally reached the area most affected by the catastrophic landslides.
A total of 16 firefighters and one rescue dog made it to the Gyirong port, on the China-Nepal border, on Friday afternoon, according to state media Xinhua.
The rescue mission had been suspendedearlier due to the fear of secondary disasterscaused by the overflowing barrier lake upstream of the town.
The team was using a “water, land and air” approach in the mission. Some rescuers were using inflatable boats to navigate the river, two rescue teams were crossing the mountains by foot, while heavy-lift drones are transporting firefighters into affected areas.
A woman affected by flash floods and mudslide, arrives at the Maithali Barrack, an army training center, at Trishuli in Nuwakot district, Nepal, August 28.
The number of people confirmed dead in flash flooding in Nepal has risen to at least 489, police said Friday, an update on the previous figure of 469.
It comes as search and rescue operations in both Nepal and China have resumed following a brief pause due to further flooding fears.
Meanwhile, a tourism ministryoding, including 85 Indians, 16 Chinese, nine South Koreans, two Italians and two US nationals
An aerial view shows a collapsed bridge after flash floods at Devighat, Bidur Municipality in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on Thursday.
Here’s what we know so far about what caused the catastrophic flooding and why it was so deadly:
- An enormous chunk of glacier around 2,000 feet wide sheared off Langtang Lirung mountain in northern Nepal Wednesday, accompanied by a huge landslide, according to satellite analysis.
- It sent a flood wave through the steep mountain valleys on the Nepal-China border, so powerful it was initially recorded as an earthquake.
- This torrent was made up not just of water but was also loaded with silt, sand, gravel and giant boulders, which all moved together as a single fluid.
- It was like “liquid concrete” and impossible to outrun, Hatim Sharif, an engineering professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told CNN. The material hits a building with roughly twice the force of water, when traveling at the same speed, Sharif told CNN.
- Its composition also makes rescue efforts more hazardous. The debris can hold water for a long time, making it unpredictable and treacherous. Depth is another issue. The sediment left behind is many feet thick in places, meaning searching for people “is done by probing and by hand, and it is very slow,” he added.
- A big concern is that fresh rain could make everything move again.
Chinese People’s Armed Police officers clear debris near Gyirong Port following a mudslide, in Gyirong county, Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region, China on Friday.
Nepal has resumed rescue operations in areas impacted by devastating flash flooding following a brief pause amid fears of a fresh deluge of water, Reuters reported an army spokesperson as saying.
China has also restarted downstream rescue operations following a pause for the same reason, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported, after flood risks were deemed to be “manageable.”
Operations had been temporarily paused due to a barrier lake breaking its banks, causing water to overflow and sparking fears of more flash flooding.
However, later on, officials in both China and Nepal said the immediate risk from the swollen barrier lake was diminishing, as the water began to drain, lowering the risk of a sudden new cascade of water.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang attends a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on May 14.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang has lamented the “significant loss of life” caused by Wednesday’s flooding disaster, urging officials to spare no effort in locating survivors.
Li was dispatched as an envoy of Chinese leader Xi Jinping to the country’s disaster-stricken regions, and has been staying at the border town of Shigatse since Thursday afternoon to direct relief efforts.
“The disaster has caused significant loss of life and left many people missing. It is deeply distressing,” Li was quoted as saying, in a readout published by state news agency Xinhua on Friday afternoon.
Li urged officials to “make every possible effort to locate those still missing.”
“As long as there is even the slightest glimmer of hope of finding survivors, (we) have to make every possible effort.”
People wait outside an army camp for updates and assistance in the rescue of their family members following devastating flash floods at Trisuli in Nuwakot, Nepal, on Thursday.
Signs of despair and heartbreak hung heavy Friday outside the army barracks serving as Nepal’s emergency response centre.
Outside the compound, on the wall of a hut, several pieces of paper were taped up, containing names and dates of birth. A desperate crowd pressed forward, tracing names on the notices with trembling fingers, searching for their loved ones.
Further along, relatives searching for those missing called out their names and phones numbers to two soldiers sitting at a bench the other side of the wire, log books in front of them.
Those injured in the disaster lay on temporary beds set up under blue canvas tents. Stacks of bottled water lay around and young children skipped around. One young child drank juice from a carton.
Authorities had rescued about 900 people yesterday, General Rajaram Basnet told CNN. All were from Timure and Syaphrubesi in the most-affected Rasuwa district, nearthe Chinese border, devastated by the deluge, he said.
Basnet said he’d “never seen a disaster of this scale” before. Rescue operations could be hampered, he said, due to forecasted rain and other complications over the next few days.
119 of those flown out were 92 Indians, 13 Chinese, 8 Koreans, 2 Italians, 2 Americans and 2 Italians.
But hundreds of Nepalis are still missing. A man who had screamed through the fence,hoping for any information at all, claimed too much effort had been spent on trying to locate and rescue foreigners, including those working at hydropower stations as well as pilgrims on their way to Tibet.
Meanwhile, Kapur Singh Tamang, one of the workers at a hydropower station, landed safely at the barracks after being rescued by helicopter. He was ushered away by police to a vehicle that would take him to his home in Hetauda in Makwanpur district.
As the main gate parted to admit ambulances and military vehicles, it offered fleeting glimpses of the anxious crowd waiting outside for answers.
Residents look at the devastation left by flash flooding as a helicopter brings rescued survivors in Nepal’s Nuwakot district, on Thursday.
The immediate risk from a swollen barrier lake is diminishing, officials in both China and Nepal say, after rescue operations were suspended over fears of further flooding.
A barrier lake created following Wednesday’s catastrophic flooding near the Nepal-China border broke its banks on Friday.
But officials say the lake is gradually draining, lowering the risk of a sudden new cascade of water.
Zhou Zhidong, from China Aneng Group’s Third Engineering Bureau in China, said water from the barrier lake began flowing out on Friday morning.
Compared with the high water-storage level early Thursday, the lake’s water level has fallen by around 10 meters and the risk is gradually decreasing, he said
Chinese authorities have been warning the dam created during Wednesday’s landslide could breach and cause more flooding downstream as a lake developed behind it.
In Nepal, more than 13,000 police and army personnel were mobilized in Nepal’s Rasuwa region to respond if disaster struck for the second time this week, a spokesperson for the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority told CNN.
But the spokesperson, who did not give their name, also maintained a sudden deluge was unlikely.
Officials in Nepal warned earlier Friday of a new flood risk, urging residents and rescuers in the area to be on high alert and seek safety if they sense danger.
In a warning posted earlier Friday, a spokesperson for the disaster agency said there had been reports of “muddy sludge rising which risks causing more flooding.”
A barrier lake is a body of water formed when debris dams up a river. This lake formed following Wednesday’s devastating flooding and landslide.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping in The Great Hall of People in Beijing, China, on September 4, 2025.
At a meeting of senior Communist Party leaders chaired by Xi Jinping on Friday, the Chinese leader urged officials to focus on the newly formed barrier lake as part of rescue efforts.
“[We] must pay close attention to the stability of the landslide-dammed lake and surrounding mountains, and take effective measures to strictly prevent secondary disasters,” said an official readout of the meeting – which happened before the latest news of the lake bursting its banks – released by state news agency Xinhua.
A barrier lake formed by Wednesday’s deluge has begun overflowing, threatening another landslide or flood, and complicating efforts to rescue survivors.
“This disaster occurred in a high-altitude and cold region with steep valleys and changeable weather, along with many glaciers, ice lakes, and potential geological hazards in the surrounding area, making rescue and relief efforts extremely difficult,” the readout added.
At the meeting, Xi also called everyone to stand up and observe a moment of silence for victims who lost their lives to the catastrophic floods, Xinhua reported.
Separately, Xi on Friday extended his condolences to Nepalese President Ram Chandra Paudel over the loss of his country’s flood victims
Wednesday’s catastrophic flooding near the China-Nepal border killed hundreds of people and left collapsed buildings, mud-caked streets and floodwaters in its wake.
Rescuers help women move along a muddy road following flash floods and a mudslide in Trishuli, Nuwakot district, Nepal, on Friday.
A woman searches for her belongings inside her damaged home following flash floods and a mudslide in Trishuli, Nuwakot district, Nepal, on Friday.
People move through a mud-covered road following flash floods and a mudslide in Trishuli, Nuwakot district, Nepal, on Friday.
A woman cries after being rescued at an army camp, in Battar Bazar town in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on Friday.
A woman stands at a damaged shop in Trishuli, Nuwakot district, Nepal, on Friday.
Video shows Nepali army rescuing two people from the tunnel of a hydropower plant in Rasuwa, Nepal.PMO Nepal
Rescuers pulled two mud-caked people from inside a tunnel of a hydropower plant in a dramatic Nepal army operation on Friday.
Personnel slid the men across the slick, debris-covered ground and carried them piggyback down a steep slope, video from the army shows.
The complex rescue was made even more challenging by the treacherous geography and dangerous conditions, it said.
Nepal’s army intensified rescue efforts around the Hydro Power Project in Rasuwa on Friday morning, it said.
The heavily-affected Rasuwa municipality in Nepal hosts several hydropower projects on the Trishuli River.
Earlier, Nepali state media reported 60 employees missing at one under-construction hydropower project after the flooding caused “severe damage.” In a separate incident, at least nine employees from two South Korean energy companies working on a hydroelectric plant along the river were also reported missing.
CNN’s Gawon Bae and June Jeong contributed to this report.
Army soldiers help a family disembark from a helicopter in Nepal on Friday.
Nepali authorities have released a list of 114 foreigners who have been rescued following the catastrophic flooding in the country, offering much-needed hope to families who have been waiting for news of their missing loved ones.
On the list are two Americans — Pattabiraman Venkatessan, 63, and Anjana Rana, 54 — as well as citizens of Italy, China, India, and Korea. They were rescued from the Nepali district of Rasuwa on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the list.
The US State Department previously said three Americans had been safely rescued, while 90 were still unaccounted for.
At least 1,300 people have been reported missing following the floods in Nepal, including citizens of Canada, Britain, and Australia. However, this number is likely incomplete as families continue to register their relatives as missing.
Nepali residents moving to higher ground following flood risk warning
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Deepak Prakash Dhungana, a local teacher in Bidur, Nepal, told CNN on Friday residents in an at-risk area have started moving uphill to a forested area for safety, after reports from local authorities about possible flooding as a barrier lake that formed after a landslide broke its banks.
The residents carried blankets and other essentials as they tried to reach higher ground, Dhungana said.
People walk past damage in the aftermath of flash floods in Devighat in the Nuwakot district in Nepal, on Thursday.
Nepal’s disaster management agency warned of a new flood risk in the Rasuwa district, urging residents and rescuers in the area to be on high alert and seek safety if they sense danger.
There have been reports of “muddy sludge rising which risks causing more flooding,” said Shati Mahat, a spokesperson for Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said in the warning posted Friday.
