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Rescuers scouring Nepal's central Annapurna region after severeflash flooding said Sunday that there was almost no hope of findingsurvivors and that the final death toll could be more than 60. The bodies of 17 people have been recovered but district policesuperintendent Sailesh Thapa told AFP that 47 missing people,including three Ukrainian tourists, were feared dead. "So far, 12 of the 17 bodies have been identified. An excavator hasreached the worst affected areas and is clearing the mud," he said. "We have a list of another 47 people who have gone missing. Theirchances of survival are almost zero. The three Ukrainians are stillmissing." Just eight people have been rescued since the Seti burst its banksnear the city of Pokhara, a popular tourist hub, on Saturday,sweeping away an entire village, and swamping families enjoyingpicnics on the river banks. Most of the missing are thought to be local. One witness, named as Uddha Bahadur Gurung, described how the riverhad suddenly swollen with water and turned into a lethal surge. "There was nothing unusual. People were enjoying picnics, some wererelaxing in the hot spring pools by the river and others working,"he told the Kathmandu Post. "Out of nowhere came this swelling dark murky water with debris,sweeping away many people." Sniffer dogs have been sent 200 kilometres (125 miles) from thecapital Kathmandu to search for bodies along the banks of theriver, which has now subsided, while police and army personnelhunted for survivors. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai broke off from key politicalnegotiations over forming a new government to visit Kharapanivillage, which was washed away by the flood, his spokesman toldAFP. "He has instructed the authorities to bring 20 excavators so thatthe dead bodies of those who have been buried by the floods can berecovered," said Bishwadeep Pandey, personal secretary to thepremier. "The prime minister has also committed the government to provideexpenses for the last rites to family members of those who died." A landslide caused by days of heavy rain had blocked the Seti nearits origin in the snow fields and glaciers of the Himalayas, saidNepalese Army spokesman Ramindra Chhetri. "Then there was a powerful outburst, which resulted in a flashflood in the Seti river that entered human settlements and createdhavoc," he told AFP, adding some houses were covered with mud up to12 feet (3.5 metres) deep. "We have mobilised a company, an engineer platoon and soldiers fromspecialised troops for search and rescue operations," he said. The 8,091-metres (26,545-feet) Mount Annapurna attracts thousandsof trekkers, both local and foreign, each year as well asday-trippers who enjoy picnics on the banks of the Seti river. The mountain is considered both technically difficult andavalanche-prone and has a much higher death rate among climbersthan Everest, the world's highest peak. I am an expert from dustfilter-bag.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Nomex Bag Filters , China Dust Collector Equipment, P84 Filter Bag,and more.
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