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Agence France-Presse

Search and rescue teams in Nepal’s capital picked through wrecked homes on Monday after waters receded from monsoon floods that killed at least 198 people around the Himalayan republic.
Deadly floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September, but experts say climate change is making them worse.
Entire neighbourhoods in Kathmandu were inundated after the heaviest rain in more than two decades, with the capital temporarily cut off from the rest of Nepal after landslides blocked highways.
“So far, 198 people have been reported dead, and another 26 are missing,” said Nepal Police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki.
At least 35 of those killed were buried alive when earth from a landslide smashed into vehicles on a road south of Kathmandu, he said.
Bulldozers were being used to clear nearly two dozen sections of major roads leading into Kathmandu that had been blocked by debris.
The home ministry said it was working to rescue numerous people who had been stranded on the highways.

Rescuers in knee-high rubber boots, meanwhile, were using shovels to clear mud from the worst-hit riverside neighbourhoods around Kathmandu, many of them unauthorised slum settlements.
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a Nepal-based think tank, said the disaster had been made worse by unplanned urban encroachment around the Bagmati River, which courses through the capital.
Nepal’s army said that more than 4,000 people had been rescued, with helicopters, motorboats and rafts bringing stranded people to safety.
Nilkantha Pandey of humanitarian organisation CARE Nepal said that many impacted by the floods needed safe drinking water and temporary housing.


“Mostly informal settlements have been affected,” Pandey said. “It is time to respond and not delay.”
Shopkeepers in Kathmandu said that damage to intercity roads had drastically cut the supply of fresh fruit and vegetables into the capital.
“The farmers have their produce ready but with the highways blocked, all of it is stuck,” said Binay Shrestha, who works at one of the city’s main produce markets.
Nepal’s weather bureau said preliminary data measured record-breaking rain in the 24 hours to Saturday morning.
A monitoring station at Kathmandu airport recorded about 240mm (9.4 inches) of rain, the highest figure since 2002.
Climate expert Arun Bhakta Shrestha of ICIMOD said that by late September, rainfall should be decreasing with the end of the annual monsoon.

“Rainfall of this kind has to be described as abnormal,” he said. “It is an extreme event … I see the possibility of the role of climate change to some extent.”
But he added that unplanned urban development had also worsened the impact of the disaster.
The summer monsoon from July to September brings South Asia 70-80 per cent of its annual rainfall and is vital for agriculture and food production in a region home to around two billion people.
But monsoon rains also bring widespread death and destruction in the form of floods and landslides.
Experts say climate change has worsened their frequency and intensity.
More than 300 people have died in Nepal in rain-related disasters this year.


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Nepal

A view of a flooded area in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Monday. At least 198 people have died in  landslides and floods across the country in recent days. Photo: EPA-EFE

A man walks past mud by a vegetable market on Monday in a flood-affected area following heavy monsoon rains in Kathmandu. Photo: AFP

An overturned car lies among the debris after water recedes in an area flooded by the overflowing Bagmati River, in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Fears of ‘catastrophic’ flooding as US hurricane deaths rise to 44

A man paddles a canoe in flooded Atlanta streets to rescue residents and their belongings at a flooded apartment complex, after Hurricane Helene passed the area, on Friday. Photo: AP

A tree that fell on a house after Hurricane Helene tore through Steinhatchee, Florida, on September 27, 2024. Photo: Reuters

Jamir Lewis and his two daughters wade through the floodwaters caused by Hurricane Helene’s storm surge. Photo: Tampa Bay Times/dpa

Unicoi County Hospital patients and staff await rescue on the hospital’s roof amid flooding from Hurricane Helene in Erwin, Tennesse, on Friday, in this still image obtained from social media video. Photo: Reuters/Virginia State Police

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A street in the Chang Khlan area, Chiang Mai, which was flooded due to the Ping River overflowing into urban areas. Photo: dpa

Rescue workers searching for victims in flooded areas in Chiang Rai province, Thailand. Photo: AP

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra talking to flood victims during a visit to monitor the flood situation in Mae Sai district, Chiang Rai. Photo: EPA-EFE

Japan floods kill at least 7 on earthquake-battered peninsula

A flooded residential area in Wajima city, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan. Photo: Kyodo via Reuters

Firefighters in Wajima city search for missing people on Sunday night after torrential rain and heavy floods. Photo: Jiji Press/EPA-EFE

A flooded residential area is seen in Wajima city, Ishikawa prefecture, on Saturday. Photo: Kyodo via Reuters

Rescuers search for missing people on Sunday in Wajima, where splintered branches and a huge uprooted tree piled up at a bridge over a river. Photo: Jiji press/EPA-EFE

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The prison where nearly 300 hundred prisoners escaped. Photo: Reuters

Death toll rises as Storm Boris lashes central and eastern Europe

A view of the overflowing of the Staric River on Sunday following heavy rain that hit the village of Lipova-Lazne in the Czech Republic. Floods have been battering central and eastern Europe since Friday, with at least four dead in Romania, one dead in Poland and four missing in the Czech Republic. Photo: EPA-EFE

A resident waits to be evacuated from his flooded house in Jesenik, Czech Republic on Sunday. Photo: AP

Firefighters help a resident during floods in the Czech Republic on Sunday. Photo: AP

This aerial photograph taken on Sunday shows a view of the flooded city centre in Glucholazy, southern Poland. Photo: AFP

Parts of the Czech Republic are seeing major flooding following intense rainfall. Other parts of Europe are also being affected, with several deaths. Photo: EPA-EFE

Evacuees stand on the back of a lorry following floods caused by heavy rainfalls in Visnova, Czech Republic on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

A road destroyed by floods near Boeheimkirchen, Austria, on Sunday. Photo: AFP

News

Asia

South Asia

Floods and landslides are common during monsoon season but experts say climate change is making them worse


Floods and landslides are common during monsoon season but experts say climate change is making them worse.


Climate change

Natural disasters

Extreme weather