Nepal flood toll tops 700 as hospitals become hubs of hope and mourning

Kathmandu,UPDATED: Aug 30, 2026 14:46 IST

Four days after the August 26 flash floods tore through northern and central Nepal, hospitals have become centres of both treatment and mourning, as families search for missing relatives and forensic teams try to identify bodies recovered far downstream. The death toll crossed 700 on Sunday, while around 2,500 people remained missing.

Across hospitals in Kathmandu and beyond, relatives have gathered with photographs, checked lists of the missing and scanned images of recovered bodies, holding on to hope as the search continues. For many, the wait has been marked by desperation, long journeys and painful uncertainty.

Outside Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, grief-stricken families searched for answers. "Will your cameras bring our people back?" a woman looking for her missing relatives asked journalists filming there, the Nepali Times news website reported. Nearby, Dil Kumari Masrangi Magar was putting up photographs of her missing brother-in-law and nephew at the hospital gate, alongside pictures of the dead and long printouts of missing people. She asked journalists to share their story in the hope that someone might have seen her relatives. "There is nothing left to do but hope," she told Nepali Times. "Even if it's just their bodies, at least we'd know."

For some families, the search has stretched across several hospitals. Sonia KC of Chautara in Sindhupalchok spent three days moving between hospitals in Kathmandu looking for her missing brother Shivaram, according to myRepublica. Three of her sisters and another brother joined the search, while relatives in Chitwan were asked to look along the Narayani River. "As long as they are not found, there is still hope," KC told the news portal. Another relative, Lokmaya Yonjan, was searching for her 35-year-old son-in-law Som Bahadur Tamang, who went missing after contacting his family from Syafrubesi. Of the six people travelling with him, only one had later made contact, she told the portal.

The search has also involved families of security personnel. Ratopati reported that Manju Paudel had been looking for her 28-year-old brother, Nepali Army soldier Tapendra Jung Kunwar, who went missing from the Timure barracks in Rasuwagadhi. She said she had searched at the military hospital, Army headquarters and other hospitals but was repeatedly told that he remained missing. "Either give us hope that he is alive, or show us his body," Paudel told Ratopati.

At hospitals downstream, the effort has increasingly shifted to identifying the dead. The Kathmandu Post reported on Sunday that more than 1,000 relatives of missing people had arrived at Pokhara Academy of Health Sciences to search photographs of 102 bodies recovered from downstream areas. In some cases, identification has depended on small details. Raj Kumar Tamang of Bidur, Nuwakot, identified his five-year-old son Prince from a school tie, a necklace and an earring after seeing photographs of recovered bodies on the Nepal Police website, the newspaper reported. Prince's body had been recovered from the banks of the Narayani River in Nawalparasi, far downstream from the flood-hit areas. Another family identified a body through a tattoo on the shoulder. The newspaper reported that Satya Krishna Prajapati recognised his elder brother Satya Sundar Prajapati, who had been working as a site engineer at the under-construction Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project in Rasuwa.

The identification process has become harder because of the condition of many of the remains. Ratopati reported that 47 bodies had been recovered from the Trishuli river area in Gorkha, but only 20 were intact enough for their faces to be visible. Police told the portal that tattoos and other distinguishing marks could help identify some bodies, while others would require DNA testing. As the flood toll continues to rise, hospitals remain places where families search for survivors, wait for confirmation and try to identify those who have been found.

With PTI Inputs

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