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Nepal-Tibet floods updates: Over 360 dead, 1,400 missing, rescue continues

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Here's a recap of the day:
- Authorities in Nepal say at least 359 people have been killed in the floods caused by a glacial collapse in the Himalayan region.
- At least three have died in neighbouring Tibet region, while nearly 1,400 are missing, more than 600 of them tourists, including 517 foreigners, Nepal's tourism board said.
- A lake, formed at the site where the floods occurred, is rising and is at risk of bursting, Nepal's disaster authority said.
- The chief of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says $2m will be allocated from the UN's Global Emergency Fund CERF for Nepal relief efforts. Several other nations and global organisations have pledged support.
- India has evacuated thousands from the states bordering Nepal, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, as the floods threaten the Gandak River Basin.

Rescuers face challenges accessing flood-affected areas
By Minelle Fernandez, reporting from Kathmandu, Nepal
Getting to the survivors is proving to be a huge challenge. Roadways have been damaged. People are trying to help identify the dead, many majorly disfigured by that wall of water. People are scanning lists - there is a list of the survivors that were lucky enough to be brought to this hospital in Kathmandu.
So far, what we're being told is that there is only access is by air, so there are helicopters, government helicopters, private commercial helicopters that have been drafted in to fly into these areas, to bring out as many survivors as possible.
But as the doctor here told us, the nature of injuries is quite significant. People with their rib cages broken from the sheer impact of the water, their scalps torn off, their skin also badly injured.
You also have members of the security forces manning a desk for registration. Now, this is for people who are coming to record their family members who are missing, that they have no trace of - so they are being listed in a central database.
Meanwhile, experts are warning that there is a massive sort of a body, a pool of water, which is collecting, which can be deadly if that natural sort of dam safeguard that's holding it back. If that bursts again, we could see potentially another deluge.

Floods highlight growing glacier risks in warming Himalayas
The deadly flash floods was likely caused by a huge chunk of a glacier that broke off and temporarily dammed a river, according to preliminary investigations by scientists. That may have led to the backed-up water surging downstream with enormous force a few hours later, they suggested.
Scientists are still piecing together information from satellite and ground-level data to figure out exactly what caused the floods.
The United States Geological Survey on Wednesday reported a magnitude 5.2 glacier collapse that sent debris flowing downstream with catastrophic impact on communities.
"A lower part of a glacier has really come off," said Jakob Steiner, a geoscientist at the University of Graz in Austria who is currently based in Bangladesh. "If you look at the imagery, it's like someone cut with a huge knife through the whole lower part and it fell off."
Steiner said a mass of glacial ice dropping from a great height could have felt like a bomb exploding, resulting in the chaos that followed.
Scientists said it is too early to draw a direct connection between global warming and Wednesday's catastrophe.

Nepal warns of more risk as lake in flood area threatens to burst
A lake formed at the site where the flood in Nepal occurred is rising and is at risk of bursting, the country's disaster authority says.
Authorities have appealed to residents and rescuers to stay away from the river banks.
The blockage of a river on Wednesday led to the lake's formation, the authority said.

Nepal police say 359 killed in flash floods
Floods along the Nepal-Tibet border have killed at least 359 people, Nepali police said in their latest update.