Nepal Flood Missing Count Passes 2,400, Includes 90 Americans and 933 Hydropower Workers

Since scientists confirmed Thursday that a glacier collapse, not an earthquake, triggered Wednesday's flash flood, the numbers have only gotten worse. Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority put the confirmed death toll at 586 as of Friday, according to Euronews. More than 2,400 people are now listed as missing across Nepal and Tibet, per Euronews, up from the roughly 2,000 reported by CBS News earlier Friday.

The jump partly reflects bureaucratic catch-up, not necessarily new casualties. Nepal's disaster authority added 933 hydropower workers to the missing list Friday, on top of trekkers and pilgrims already unaccounted for, according to Euronews. That single addition explains much of the spike between CBS News's count of 1,924 missing in Nepal and the newer 2,400-plus regional figure.

On the American side, the State Department said Thursday that three U.S. citizens have been rescued safely and it is not aware of any American deaths so far, according to The Guardian, which cited USA Today's reporting. But at least 90 Americans remain unaccounted for. Many were on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a site sacred to Hindus and Buddhists.

Sadhguru Vasudev, founder of the Isha Foundation, said in a statement reported by The Guardian that 22 Americans who traveled with a foundation-hosted pilgrimage are among 80 foundation members not yet located. Leslie Crespi, a community liaison for the foundation's U.S. campus in Tennessee, said the group's coordinator confirmed arrival in the area at 9:05 a.m. Nepal time Wednesday. The flood hit nine minutes later.

Individual families are living that math in real time. Dennis Patel told The Guardian his brother, 45-year-old Venus Rajnikant Patel of Cincinnati, had planned the Kailash trip for two years and was staying in a hotel inside the flood zone. Sunny Patel said his 72-year-old father, Jitendra Patel of Long Island, called Wednesday morning to say he'd crossed into Tibet. The family later realized that put him at the center of the disaster zone. He has not been reached since.

A new dam scare, then a walk-back

Nepal Police issued a fresh alert Friday after receiving reports that a dam on the Tibetan side was overflowing again, according to CBS News. Rescuers and relief workers were told to stay on high alert and move to safe ground immediately if needed. Nepal police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle said the rescue operation "hasn't stopped" despite the warning, a line also carried by the Times of India.

China's state broadcaster CCTV reported the barrier lake, formed by debris from Wednesday's collapse, sits more than six miles from the Gyirong Port border crossing and about 3,280 feet above it in elevation, per CBS News. China suspended rescue operations at Gyirong over the renewed flood risk Friday, according to Euronews, before CCTV reported the lake's water level had dropped and rescue work was "proceeding in an orderly manner." Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired a meeting on the response and offered Beijing's help to Nepal, Euronews reported.

The scare-then-stand-down pattern reflects how unstable the terrain remains three days after the initial collapse. The U.S. Geological Survey has confirmed the disaster, the deadliest in Nepal since the 2015 earthquake, was caused by a glacial collapse that sent a massive flow of ice and debris downhill, according to Euronews.

Rescues and aftermath

Nepali Army rescuers pulled survivors, some crawling through thick mud, from a flooded tunnel at the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Rasuwa, according to footage described by both CBS News and the Times of India. Army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet said teams struggled to even locate the tunnel's entry and exit points because mud had covered them. "Our first priority is rescuing the stranded people," Basnet said.

More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal overall, CBS News reported, with over 3,200 airlifted out by helicopter per the Times of India. Al Jazeera reported one of those survivors was 8-year-old Zoyal Ghale, who escaped by fleeing into a forest and climbing trees, breaking his leg, before being reunited with his mother in Rasuwa after she spent days searching for him and his brother.

The Red Cross estimated Friday that roughly 90,000 people have likely been affected by the flooding, according to CBS News. UNICEF said 17,000 children now need aid, per Euronews. Bodies have been recovered as far downstream as India, Euronews reported, and Samjhana Thing, 27, told AFP she still has no word on her missing brother three days on: "We lost everything. He is our everything."

Local Nepali media have floated figures as high as 12,000 unaccounted for, but CBS News noted that number has not been confirmed by any official source. With hydropower workers only now being added to the missing list and communication in remote areas still cut off, the gap between confirmed deaths, confirmed missing, and unconfirmed rumor is likely to persist for days. Whether the barrier lake above Gyirong holds is the immediate question rescue crews on both sides of the border are watching hour by hour.