A month after catastrophic flooding tore through the Nepal-China border region, dozens of Ukrainian families are still waiting to learn what happened to loved ones who disappeared during the disaster.
More than 50 Ukrainians remain unaccounted for after the Aug. 26 floods and mudslides, according to figures reported by The Associated Press. Many were traveling through the Himalayan region after visiting Mount Kailash in Tibet when the disaster struck.
Among them was a group of 56 travelers, most of them Ukrainian, who had been attending a spiritual retreat. They were making their way from China into Nepal before eventually returning home.
For some families, one of the biggest problems is simply determining which country their relatives were in when the flooding began.
Chinese authorities have told some relatives that their family members had already crossed out of China. But Nepal’s immigration facilities and records at the border were destroyed, making it difficult to confirm whether those travelers had formally entered Nepal before the disaster.
Thousands Remain Missing
The scale of the disaster has made the search and identification process especially difficult.
More than 1,400 people have been confirmed dead, while more than 6,000 remain missing, according to the latest figures cited by AP. Nepal says 636 foreign nationals are among those still unaccounted for, including 54 Ukrainians. China has reported hundreds of missing foreign nationals on its side of the border as well.
Those totals have increased dramatically since the first days after the flood. Early reporting showed hundreds dead or missing as rescue teams struggled to reach communities cut off by destroyed roads, collapsed bridges and damaged communication networks.
The flooding devastated the area around Gyirong Port, a major border crossing between Tibet and Nepal that is also used by tourists and pilgrims traveling through the Himalayas.
Identification Could Take Months
Nepalese authorities have recovered more than 1,450 bodies, but only a small portion have so far been returned to families.
Authorities have also collected DNA samples from more than 2,000 relatives in an effort to identify victims. Officials have not publicly disclosed how many identities have been confirmed.
That leaves families in a painful period of uncertainty.
Some relatives have contacted embassies, police agencies, humanitarian organizations and officials in multiple countries while searching for information. Because people were moving between Nepal and China at the time of the disaster, responsibility for individual searches can also become complicated.
The identification process could continue for months as crews work through the enormous number of missing-person cases and recovered remains.
Families Continue to Hope
Despite the time that has passed, some families have not given up hope that their relatives could still be found.
For others, the immediate goal is simply getting reliable information about where their loved ones were when the disaster occurred.
One month after the flooding, the emergency has shifted from the frantic search-and-rescue operation of the first several days to a slower process of locating victims, identifying remains and giving families answers.
For dozens of Ukrainian families, those answers still have not come.
Source: Associated Press reporting published by ABC News; additional background from Reuters.