Canadian Safe Following Nepal Floods but 29 Remain Missing

One of the 30 Canadian citizens and permanent residents who were reported missing following the devastating flooding in Nepal has been found safe.

Contact with the unnamed person was successfully established on Sept. 2, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand has announced.

“The individual was unreachable due to communication outages and established contact yesterday,” Ananad said in a Sept. 2 statement. “To date, 29 Canadians and permanent residents remain unaccounted for.”

Global Affairs said it is starting to collect DNA samples from the families of 29 people still considered missing, with assistance from the RCMP and police forces in Nepal and China.

The DNA sample collection is a bid to help with identification efforts if necessary, the federal agency said in a press release.

The Nepal police are also appealing to families to provide any information about the Canadian, foreign, or local phone numbers of their missing relatives, in order to assist with ongoing search and operational efforts through geolocation, Global Affairs said.

Flash flooding was triggered a week ago following the collapse of a glacier in the Himalayan border area between Nepal and China.

The Aug. 26 flooding killed at least 1,118 people and left more than 3,900 missing. The Foreign Ministry of Nepal reported that 324 foreign nationals have been rescued to date, but roughly 590 individuals from 39 nations are still unaccounted for.

Landslides and ruined roads have severed access to remote areas. Anand said search teams in China and Nepal are using a range of specialized tools and technologies including drones, helicopters, search dogs, and other advanced equipment as the ground search continues, despite the severity of the catastrophe hindering rescue efforts.

Rescuers are also urgently trying to reach hundreds of hydropower workers who are trapped within tunnels while police in Kathmandu have resorted to burying dozens of unidentified bodies in trenches because there are too many to identify or store. 

Global Affairs is continuing to ask all Canadians in the region to contact the Emergency Watch and Response Centre for emergency consular assistance. A team of Canadian consular officials is serving as the primary point of contact for affected families.

“We have a 10-person team on the ground in Nepal,” Anand added. “I am in continuous touch with my colleague, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal, and we will leave no stone unturned to help Canadians in need.”

Canada is set to send more than 18,000 emergency items from the Canadian Red Cross stockpile to the affected area, alongside the $5 million in humanitarian aid that Ottawa has previously pledged, Anand said. The stockpile includes items like shelter kits and tools, hygiene items, and solar lights.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.