ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
The scale of the deadly flooding along the China-Nepal border on Wednesday is still coming into focus. Hundreds of people are dead, and thousands are missing, according to authorities on both sides. The numbers are still expected to increase as rescue workers reach the worst-hit areas. Joining me now is NPR's Jennifer Pak, who has been following this from Beijing. Hi, Jennifer.
JENNIFER PAK, BYLINE: Hi, Adrian.
FLORIDO: We have mostly heard so far from the authorities in Nepal. What are the Chinese say?
PAK: So the first Chinese rescue team had reached the hardest-hit area in Tibet Friday afternoon. This is the Gyirong-Rasuwa checkpoint. It's a vital trade and travel route between China and Nepal. And Chinese state media had showed aerial shots of this area, which is completely buried under mud, including a six-story building. Also as of Friday afternoon local time, state media says the officials there had relocated nearly 1,000 people out of the area. Just over half are tourists.
But unlike in Nepal, officials here are not breaking down which countries the foreigners are from. They've been really slow overall in updating numbers. But that's all I have to rely on because the Chinese government tightly restricts foreign journalists like myself from accessing Tibet. But what is known is state broadcaster CCTV. They said the rescue operations were temporarily halted Friday before resuming again.
FLORIDO: What is hampering those rescue efforts?
PAK: Well, today's fear was about flooding. So let's go back to Wednesday morning when an enormous chunk of ice had appeared to have snapped off a glacier. It triggered waves of mud, water and ice barreling down the Himalayas. They took along trees and homes. Some of them were submerged. And some of this debris have now jammed up the water, and a lake started forming upstream, and it's been filling up. It's also been raining.
So today, the lake has been overflowing, and that meant rescue teams in China and Nepal had to pause their operations before resuming again. On top of that, you have roads, power and communication lines cut off. And so that means that worst-hit areas in Nepal, for example - the teams there can only access it via helicopters, whereas here in Tibet, they arrived on foot.
FLORIDO: A very complex situation for rescues. A large number of the missing are foreigners, we understand. The U.S. State Department says that dozens of Americans have been affected. Do we know why so many foreign visitors were in the area when this happened?
PAK: So this area is the entry point for people on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash on the Tibetan side. This is a sacred mountain for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and those following the Tibetan Bon tradition. I followed this route actually 20 years ago, and this terrain was not easy to trek even in the best of times. Add on global warming, and scientists say glaciers are more unstable. One of the residents in the flood-affected areas in Nepal, Sabitri Gurung, told NPR she managed to flee just in time.
SABITRI GURUNG: (Non-English language spoken).
PAK: She says, "I saw the disaster happen right in front of my eyes. I want people to focus on saving nature because," she says, "if nature is preserved, then we can save our own lives."
FLORIDO: Well, that is NPR's Jennifer Pak in Beijing. Jennifer, thanks for covering this story for us.
PAK: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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