At Least 104 Die as Monsoon Rains Inundate Nepal

Disasters in the small Himalayan nation have become more frequent as the effects of climate change intensify.

At least 104 people have died in Nepal, the authorities said, after three days of incessant monsoon rains unleashed flooding and landslides across the small Himalayan nation, which has been increasingly pummeled by the effects of climate change. In addition, at least 73 people have been injured, and 64 are still missing, the Nepal Police said. Most of the deaths were reported on Saturday.

As the rain relented Sunday, rescuers were able to use helicopters to reach more remote areas affected by the disaster. Some people were pulled alive from houses destroyed by landslides, while in other cases rescuers were able to able to recover only the bodies of those who had perished.

Fourteen such victims were retrieved from two buses in the district of Dhading that had been buried in a landslide, local news media reported.

Binod Ghimire, a senior superintendent of police, said that more than 5,000 police personnel equipped with helicopters, rafts, ropes and vehicles had been deployed.

Rescuers have evacuated more than 3,000 people, but flooding victims complained of delays. A video circulating on social media showed people who were swept away by the floods after waiting on the roof of a hut for hours.

Nepal’s prime minister, K. P. Sharma Oli, who was in the United States to attend the U.N. General Assembly, faced criticism at home for the rescue operations.

Many parts of the country were without power. “Several districts are disconnected from communication, so we are struggling to compile loss of lives and properties,” said Dan Bahadur Karki, a spokesman for the Nepal Police.

The authorities asked people to stay indoors if possible. The government has said that schools and other academic institutions will be closed for three days.

The disaster occurred just as Nepalis were preparing to celebrate the Hindu festival of Dashain, set to begin on Thursday. Hindu devotees travel for days to far-flung villages to obtain the blessings of their elders.

Nepal, with a population of about 30 million, is the fourth-most-vulnerable country to climate change, according to UNICEF. In recent years, the frequency of disasters — including the bursting of glacial lakes as temperatures rise — has increased, claiming more lives.