Joanna Lumley Joins London’s Nepalese Community for Vigil

Dame Joanna Lumley stood alongside members of London’s Nepalese community today at a candlelit vigil for victims of the catastrophic floods that have now killed more than 1,250 people.

The disaster began on August 26, when a glacier collapse unleashed a torrent of ice, boulders and mud across Nepal’s remote border area with China, tearing through villages, destroying settlements and leaving many homes either flattened or badly damaged.

Lumley, best known for Absolutely Fabulous and long admired for her work with Nepalese charities and her campaigning on behalf of Gurkha veterans, joined mourners at Panas Restaurant in Blackheath, south London, where she lit candles in memory of those who died.

Another vigil took place in Kent this morning for Sarada Simkhada, a senior nurse at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, who is among those missing after the floods. She is one of 33 Britons currently unaccounted for in the disaster.

Search and rescue teams are still trying to reach workers believed to be trapped inside tunnels connected to hydropower schemes, while thousands of people remain missing more than a week after the calamity struck.

Officials say at least 1,252 people were killed in Nepal last week after floodwaters swept away homes, roads and schools in towns and villages close to the border with Tibet.

More than 4,200 people are still unaccounted for, and thousands have been forced from their homes. In Tibet, Chinese authorities have reported 21 deaths, with a further 541 people listed as missing.

Nepalese officials said today the country faces an enormous rebuilding effort, with around 20,000 homes needing to be reconstructed in areas devastated by the floods.

‘Our preliminary estimates are that 7,500 houses have been completely destroyed, either washed away or buried under debris and mud,’ Dharma Raj Upreti, chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, told Reuters.

Even houses still standing were not habitable, Mr Upreti said, with authorities estimating that around 20,000 houses would have to be rebuilt in different, safer locations.

More than 9,300 Nepali army troops are on the ground in the affected areas of Timure in Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Chitwan and Nawalparasi East, coordinating search-and-rescue of the injured and helping with management of bodies, clearing blocked roads, and providing emergency medical treatment, an army statement said on Thursday.

An Australian medical student whose partner went missing near the Nepal-China border urged tech companies to do more to help find him and others caught up in the disaster by sharing tracking data that could narrow the search areas for rescue teams.

At least 583 foreign nationals were missing in the floods, Nepal said on Thursday, many of them pilgrims and trekkers.

An army officer who spoke on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said the search was continuing with experts from India, South Korea and China for at least 900 survivors believed to be trapped in the tunnels related to hydropower projects.

‘The search–and–rescue operation will continue as long as there is any hope of finding survivors. Even if there are no survivors, we will recover the dead bodies,’ he said.

Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet said two bodies had been recovered from the tunnel of Langtang Khola hydropower plant.

Australia pledged additional support and said it would also share telecommunications data with Nepali authorities.

China has sent a third batch of aid to Nepal including tents, blankets, medical protective suits and satellite communication equipment, the foreign ministry said on Thursday, adding that the weather offices of the two countries were in contact with each other.

‘China will continue to provide emergency assistance based on Nepal’s needs and carry out international rescue cooperation,’ foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a daily briefing on Thursday.

Reports on the rescue efforts in Tibet, largely provided by Chinese state media as foreign reporters’ access to the region is restricted, have slowed a day after the G216 national highway leading to the site was reopened.

Since Wednesday morning, rescue teams have been able to enter the site where the Gyirong border crossing complex once stood, bringing excavators and specialised equipment with them.

‘People have lost everything. They don’t have citizenship IDs or passports,’ said Phanindra Paudel, an official at Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Center.

Authorities were working to restore regular routines as much as possible, with a focus on getting children into makeshift schools.

More than a week after the flood, at least 22,000 children urgently need safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene support, Unicef said in a statement.

‘Our priority is to restore normal life. We are considering if children can be taught in the holding centres,’ Mr Paudel said.

Finding safe buildings in which to hold classes was a challenge, teachers said.

‘We are looking for safe, empty buildings or other schools where we can resume classes. The school building was completely washed away, so we will have to build a new one in a safer location,’ said Rajendra Dawadi, headmaster of a school who helped save about 900 students by evacuating them in time.

Shanti Sunar, 45, escaped the disaster with her husband but lost her house and a small shop she ran.

‘I have been visiting the site almost every day. I can recognise where our house stood, but there is no trace of it now.’

‘We cannot rebuild at the same location because it is not safe. I expect the government to relocate us to a safer place.’

Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged £5million to help the Nepalese government respond to the devastation caused from the floods, describing it as a ‘very distressing and devastating situation’. 

Scientists have blamed climate change for the natural disaster, which came just one month after an ominous study was published, warning that global warming could spark glacial collapse in the region.