Nepal holds a day of mourning after floods kill at least 1,300 people

Relatives of recent flash flood victims hold banners urging authorities to step up efforts to find their missing loved ones during a demonstration in Kathmandu [AP Photo]

Nepal held a day of mourning yesterday to remember those killed in the Aug. 26 floods, with flags lowered at government offices and families concluding mourning rituals.

Monday was the 13th day since the flooding which killed more than 1,300 people in Nepal and Tibet and left some 5,000 missing, including foreigners, according to Nepal’s disaster management agency.

In predominantly Hindu Nepal, mourning periods last 13 days, during which close family members stay home and relatives visit to pay their respects. Rituals are held on the final day to pray for the souls of the departed.

Several people whose relatives remain missing performed symbolic funerals. Cremation is an important final rite in Hindu tradition, and performing the ceremony even without the bodies of their loved ones provides some families a sense of spiritual release.

The government had declared Monday an official day of mourning and ordered flags at government offices lowered to half-staff.

Meanwhile, search efforts continued for the missing, but some protested that not enough was being done.

In Kathmandu, relatives gathered near the offices of the prime minister and key ministries to demand the government speed up search and rescue efforts for hundreds of people who had been working at hydropower plants and were either swept by the rushing Bhotekhoshi River or buried under debris.

Sumana Shrestha stood with her family members holding a poster with the photo of her 55-year-old husband, who has not been heard from since the day of the flood.

Her husband, a consulting geologist, had promised to return home after his shift at the project office for the Trishuli hydropower plant on the day of the flood. The 2 1/2-story office was completely buried by debris.

“We are here because we have not heard of any rescue attempt on this project, but it has been 13 days already,” she said. “The only thing we have been able to do is pray to God and hope for a miracle.”

Another protester, Mahesh Prasad Shrestha, held a photograph of his brother Niraj Shrestha, a 52-year-old engineer who worked at the same site. He said authorities only sent a small excavator by helicopter on the sixth or seventh day after the disaster, adding: “They should have ordered big helicopters from places like China or India to fly in equipment.”

Rescue efforts have focused on 12 hydropower projects, where about 900 workers are missing and roughly 500 are believed to be trapped in various tunnels, authorities said. Specialized rescue teams from India, China, South Korea and the United States have been searching through debris, damaged structures and tunnels at the projects.

Two Nepalese workers were rescued from the plant Friday, and rescuers pulled out a Chinese man from the facility on Saturday. BINAJ GURUBACHARYA, KATHMANDU, MDT/AP