NUWAKOT, Nepal (AP) — Most arrive with nothing except the clothes they are wearing.
As rescue efforts in communities buried by catastrophic flash floods along the border between Nepal and China entered their fourth day Saturday, authorities continued finding survivors and transporting them to safety. At relief centers, as some arrive, families wait anxiously for news of their loved ones as the death toll and the number of people unaccounted for continued to rise.
After Nepali authorities updated their figures Saturday, the combined toll in Nepal and Tibet rose to 676 dead and nearly 3,000 people missing. Chinese authorities have reported seven deaths and more than 550 missing.
In Nuwakot, one of the Nepali districts devastated by the floods, helicopters resumed operations before noon Saturday after poor weather temporarily hampered aerial rescue activities.
Some helicopters were loaded with boxes and bags of aid, including clothes, instant noodles, crackers and rice. Others returned from the flood-hit areas carrying survivors.
An older man was carefully helped off one helicopter, while a soldier carried an older woman on his back to a medical tent. There, medics checked her blood pressure, breathing and heartbeat, as well as her teeth and gums.
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About a dozen people emerged from another helicopter. Soldiers carried several babies who had been evacuated.
The evacuees had been brought from the nearby community of Trishuli.