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A former honorary consul of Nepal says an immigration checkpoint was swept away in catastrophic flash flooding, as family of missing New Zealanders appeal for any information on people in the area.
New Zealand consular staff have arrived in Kathmandu and are working with authorities to gather further information and support for families affected.
The flooding, triggered by a glacier collapse on Wednesday, sent a huge torrent of rock, ice, mud and debris cascading through Himalayan mountain river systems, sweeping through villages and key infrastructure down a route thronged by trekkers and pilgrims that links Kathmandu with Lhasa in Tibet.
At least 359 people have died and nearly 1000 people are missing in the region. At least 540 of the missing are foreigners from more than two dozen countries,
Rajeev Reddy, whose sister Suhasini is one of the five known missing New Zealanders, said in a Facebook post he was trying to work out the level of the damage around the immigration checkpoint between Nepal and Tibet, and if anyone was able to make it to higher ground.
He said Suyhasini was with a group of hikers due to meet with Chinese authorities to get permission to cross the border close to the time the raging flood hit.
"We have confirmed that Suhasini did not cross the border. We therefore believe she may have been near the immigration/checkpoint area when the flooding hit."
Former honorary consol of Nepal to New Zealand Dinesh Khadka says the checkpoint was swept away in the flooding, and nobody has made contact with anyone who was in the area.
Khadka said there was no further information on the five missing Kiwis. Four have been named: Reddy, a mum of two who lives in Australia, Auckland man Dejan Kuzmic, and Hamilton couple Mihir and Kinnari Patel.
Others missing include 288 people from India, 63 from the United States, 51 from Malaysia, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 25 from Canada.
Authorities in Nepal used helicopters to search for survivors and drop emergency supplies to thousands cut off in towns and valleys, while emergency services recovered dozens of bodies swept down into the plains.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Friday New Zealand would contribute a $2 million package of humanitarian assistance for Nepal.
"This will support the Nepal Red Cross Society to deliver emergency assistance including shelter, water and sanitation and restoring family links.
“Funding will also be made available to other international humanitarian partners with the capacity to provide essential relief and early recover assistance."
MFAT said it was aware of five New Zealanders believed to be in the impacted region and whose whereabouts have yet to be established.
"For privacy reasons, MFAT cannot confirm the names of the New Zealanders affected. We are still awaiting official information from authorities on the ground. The widespread and significant destruction is likely to mean verified information will take some time to emerge.
"Contact has also been made with all New Zealanders registered on SafeTravel (12 as of Thursday night). They are all safe.
"If New Zealanders have concerns for loved ones in the Rasuwa region, along the Nepal-China border, they should contact MFAT’s Emergency Consular Line (+64 99 20 20 20)."
Meanwhile, Australia will provide $A3.6 million ($NZ4.3 million) in aid for communities hit by floods along the Nepal-China border and deploy extra consular staff to the area, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Friday as the number of missing Australians rose to 39.
The funds will be split between the United Nations' World Food Programme and Australian non-government organisations.
Further disaster feared
Sir Edmund Hillary's grandson, Peter Hillary, told RNZ’s Morning Report programme on Friday the flash flooding showed the importance of early warning systems.
"People have cell phones and if you can only get them to go to high ground people will be safe. They may lose their homes and their possessions, but they won't lose their lives."
The region, like many others around the world was seeing "major glacial recession" which was forming glacial lakes, he said.
“Terrain in the Himalayas of course is the steepest in the world. So you've got these lakes... they're up at like 4500 metres."
"If they burst their banks and these are called glacial lake outburst floods, they just surge down the valley carrying huge boulders, mud and silt and whatever they pick up and they're unstoppable, literally unstoppable."
The sheer amount of water and debris stirred up now risks triggering a further disaster, Reuters reports.
Nepal's disaster management authority warned that a lake formed by debris blocking the Bhotekoshi River at the flood site was rising and at risk of bursting, while on the other side of the border China said that some 3 million cubic metres of water - the equivalent of about 1200 Olympic-sized swimming pools - was expected to flow into an already dammed lake over the next three days.
There is a high risk the lake could breach, with peak flow expected about September 1, Chinese state media said, citing the water resources ministry.
"The volume of water is continuing to increase, and so is the risk," Zhu Jinfeng, a researcher at the ministry's hydrology department, told state broadcaster CCTV.
Chinese rescuers had yet to reach the worst-hit area on the Chinese side of the border, the Gyirong border crossing, by Thursday evening, state-media reports indicated, as crews worked to clear debris from the key access road leading to the area.
Meanwhile, 350 labourers and locals have been rescued after being trapped inside the tunnel of Upper Trishuli Hydropower in Nepal since Thursday, the Nepal Prime Minister's Office said.
- Allied Media, Reuters and RNZ