Our team is currently stationed at Dandagaun High School in Dandagaun, alongside a Nepal Army unit led by Captain Rajan Raj Nepali. The area from Mailung to Sallahtar is swampy and filled with pebbles, sand, and mud. At the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydroelectric Project site, which is severely flooded, only the top floor of a single building remains visible. Acting on reports of a foul odor in Sallahtar over the past few days, the army conducted a search today and recovered a body part, suspected to be female. Tomorrow morning, the combined SAR and army teams will relocate to Simley to establish a camp near the local holding center, followed by a coordinated, large-scale search of the Sallahtar area starting at 10:00 AM.

The incident occurred just past Malekhu while traveling from Pokhara, where our response team had spent the night about thirty minutes away. Today's original plan was to drive toward Nuwakot.

By the next morning, severe flooding of the Trishuli River made searching along the riverbanks completely impossible. Authorities issued a fresh warning just before a major landslide struck. Several homes were destroyed, though early reports confirm that no one was injured or killed.

This specific area suffered major landslides years ago, which led to years of extensive repairs to completely rebuild the slope supporting the road from the ground up. The Prithvi Highway had only just been fully reopened to traffic yesterday before this new disaster happened.

Right now, the only way to reach the disaster zone is from the southern Terai region via Kathmandu.

These hazardous conditions and blocked roads made it unsafe to continue, our team has returned to Pokhara for now. We are closely monitoring the situation and remain fully prepared to head back to the Nuwakot and Rasuwa disaster zone to resume our search efforts as soon as conditions improve.

The catastrophic flash flood and landslide that struck Rasuwa district on August 26, 2026 (Bhadra 11, 2083 BS), was triggered by a massive high-altitude ice-rock avalanche and glacier collapse near the Nepal-China border, which sent an unprecedented wall of water, mud, and boulders roaring down the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli river corridors. Striking with virtually no warning, the sudden deluge obliterated entire settlements, hotels, roads, bridges, and critical hydropower infrastructure in frontier areas like Timure, Rasuwagadhi, and Syabrubesi, severely paralyzing the vital overland trade route with China. As the violent surge rushed downstream, it inflicted heavy secondary impacts across riparian areas in Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha, Tanahun, Chitwan, and Nawalparasi, sweeping away property and leaving widespread devastation in its wake. The disaster has resulted in a mounting death toll and hundreds of missing individuals including locals, security personnel, and tourists prompting the urgent mobilization of joint security forces equipped with helicopters and drones for intensive search and rescue operations. Amid lingering dangers of secondary blockages and high water levels, local administrations have issued strict high-alert warnings, strongly urging vulnerable riverside communities to evacuate immediately and stay well away from dangerous riverbanks.

Search and rescue operations are proceeding intensively across the affected river corridors, involving a coordinated mobilization of the Nepal Army, Nepal Police, and the Armed Police Force. Security forces and private operators have deployed numerous military and civilian helicopters to airlift trapped residents, workers, and stranded tourists including groups from hydropower sites and border areas like Timure out of high-risk zones. To support the response, emergency medical teams have been stationed at operational hubs such as the Military Training Centre in Trishuli, while major hospitals in Kathmandu and surrounding districts remain on high alert to provide immediate treatment to the injured. Simultaneously, rigorous search efforts and debris clearance operations continue along the Trishuli and Narayani river basins as local authorities maintain strict high-alert warnings for vulnerable riverside communities.