National Day of Mourning and Cultural Rituals on Day Thirteen

Government buildings across Nepal and diplomatic missions stationed abroad lowered their national flags to half-mast on Monday, marking the thirteenth day since the devastating disaster, according to a public statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Within traditional Hindu practices, this thirteenth day marks the conclusion of the formal mourning period. During this solemn stretch, immediate family members remain at home while relatives and community members visit to offer condolences. Concluding rituals are performed on this final day to offer prayers for those who lost their lives in the sudden deluge.

Despite the solemnity of the national observance, authorities refrained from scheduling larger public gatherings or official state ceremonies. The decision stems from the ongoing, urgent nature of recovery efforts in the hardest-hit regions. As Phanindra Paudel of the National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC) explained to the Reuters news agency, “There are no government programmes organised as the rescue and search operation is still going on in the flood-hit areas.” President Ram Chandra Paudel, the ceremonial head of state, spent Monday traveling to impacted areas to personally inspect the widespread wreckage, according to statements from his official aide.

The August 26 Disaster: Glacier Collapse and Catastrophic Toll

The disaster unfolded on August 26 when a massive wall composed of mud, rock, and debris crashed into a river along the rugged Himalayan frontier shared by Nepal and China’s Tibet region. The cataclysm was triggered when a glacier broke apart, sending a lethal surge of water and sediment rushing down the valley. The ensuing floods killed at least 1,380 people and left more than 5,500 individuals unaccounted for. The Bhotekoshi River bore the brunt of the initial surge, sweeping away infrastructure and workers in its path.

Amid the grim statistics, rescue operations have yielded a few glimmers of hope in recent days. Search teams successfully rescued four people over the weekend. On Saturday, workers pulled a Chinese national alive from a tunnel located at a hydropower site. This followed Friday’s extraction of two hydropower workers from another compromised tunnel, alongside the dramatic rescue of a Nepali woman who was pulled out from her buried home on Saturday.

Families Protest in Kathmandu Over Slow Search Operations

Frustrated by the pace of rescue efforts, families of the missing gathered in Kathmandu near the offices of the prime minister and key ministries. Demonstrators demanded that authorities drastically accelerate the search for hundreds of individuals who were working on hydropower projects when the catastrophe struck. Many of these missing workers were either swept away by the raging Bhotekoshi River or trapped beneath thick layers of debris.

Among the protesters was Sumana Shrestha, who stood with her relatives holding a poster featuring a photograph of her 55-year-old husband, a consulting geologist assigned to the Trishuli hydropower plant project office who has not been heard from since the flood struck. Pointing to the delayed response, she stated, “We are here because we have not heard of any rescue attempt on this project, but it has been 13 days already.” She added, “The only thing we have been able to do is pray to God and hope for a miracle.”

Another demonstrator, Mahesh Prasad Shrestha, displayed a photograph of his brother Niraj Shrestha, a 52-year-old engineer stationed at the same hydropower site. Criticizing the delayed deployment of heavy machinery, he noted that authorities only dispatched a small excavator by helicopter nearly a week after the disaster occurred. “They should have ordered big helicopters from places like China or India to fly in equipment,” he remarked.

International Rescue Teams Target Damaged Hydropower Sites

Current rescue operations are heavily concentrated around 12 distinct hydropower projects scattered across the disaster zone. Authorities estimate that roughly 900 workers remain missing across these sites, with approximately 500 believed to be trapped inside submerged or blocked tunnels. To bolster domestic response teams, specialized international rescue squads from India, China, South Korea, and the United States have deployed to the region, utilizing heavy equipment and trained personnel to comb through unstable structures, deep debris, and flooded tunnels.