About 90 Americans are still unaccounted for after catastrophic floods ripped through the Nepal-China border region, and families back home are waiting for phone calls that haven’t come.

There is some hope: five Americans have been safely evacuated, the State Department said Friday. Officials said they were not aware of any confirmed U.S. citizen deaths.

The search is taking place across communities where roads, bridges and communications have been torn apart.

Being unable to reach someone does not establish that they were killed. For their families, it leaves an agonizing question unanswered.

This footage from Wednesday shows the force of the flood that sent people scrambling for safety:

ADVERTISEMENT

The Washington Examiner reported that State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott gave the updated American tally Friday during an appearance on CNN.

Pigott said approximately 90 Americans remained unreachable as of that morning. The number safely evacuated had risen to five, up from the three reported Thursday, while the department still had no confirmed American fatalities.

He said helping Americans remained the department’s highest priority, with officials committed to reaching everyone they could as the search continued across the devastated border region. The five evacuations offered a reason to keep hoping while rescue crews searched a disaster zone that had swallowed vehicles, buildings and people.

Those figures are a snapshot of an active search, not a final accounting. The missing-person list can change as survivors are located and contact is restored.

For Americans with relatives on the route, the waiting is intensely personal.

CNN spoke at length with Shekhar Agrawal, whose sister, 54-year-old Rekha Shashidharan, and niece, 14-year-old Rashi Shashidharan, were among the missing.

The mother and daughter, both from New York, were traveling toward Mount Kailash in Tibet on a religious pilgrimage. Rashi had been excited about the trip; her mother went along so she would not travel alone.

Agrawal said he last spoke with them Wednesday morning, roughly an hour before the disaster. They had spent several days in Kathmandu before heading north toward the border with a tour group.

After contact stopped, he told CNN the family was trying phone numbers supplied online, on television and by friends. Some did not work; others provided no information.

ADVERTISEMENT

Even so, he was holding onto the possibility that his sister and niece were alive somewhere without a way to reach home.

It is hard to imagine watching those flood videos while wondering whether your own child or parent made it out.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered his condolences and pledged American support as the scale of the disaster emerged:

The flood struck Wednesday along the Himalayan border and moved through Nepal’s river valleys. WLTR’s earlier coverage documented the first reports of settlements and infrastructure being swept away.

FOX Weather reported Friday that the U.S. Geological Survey had identified a glacial collapse and debris flow after initially reporting the seismic event as an earthquake following the August 26 disaster.

The agency’s additional analysis indicated that a landslide produced the seismic energy. Nepal’s disaster-management authority also pointed to a snow-and-rock landslide in its preliminary assessment of satellite images.

Floodwater entered Nepal from Tibet, striking Rasuwagadhi, Timure, Syafrubesi and surrounding parts of Rasuwa district. Roads, bridges, power infrastructure and communications were damaged, making it harder to determine who had survived.

By Friday morning, FOX Weather was reporting more than 550 recovered bodies, citing Nepal Police. That was a Nepalese recovery count, not a count of American deaths.

Officials were still working through missing-person reports as search teams reached more of the affected area.

ADVERTISEMENT

The United Nations described the obstacles at its Friday briefing: some communities were accessible only by helicopter, and one area was still too difficult to reach even for an initial damage assessment.

Nepal had mobilized more than 30,000 military and security personnel. Search teams were working around the clock, but the threat of further flooding remained a serious concern.

Relief officials estimated that roughly 93,000 people might have been affected. UNICEF said at least 17,000 children needed urgent humanitarian assistance, with families separated and homes and schools destroyed.

Clean water, shelter and medical care were immediate needs. The World Health Organization said six health facilities had been damaged and eight health workers were missing.

Its staff had to cut a visit short Friday because flooding was continuing.

American relief supplies are now moving. The U.S. Embassy in Nepal shared Friday’s dispatch of an initial shipment requested by the Nepalese government:

For the families of those still missing, every successful rescue matters.

Five Americans are safely out. About 90 others still need to be accounted for.

Keep them, the Nepalese families facing the same terrible uncertainty, and the crews searching for survivors in your prayers.

ADVERTISEMENT

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.