Nepal flood update: toll passes 1,100 as some missing tourists make contact
KATHMANDU, September 2 — The confirmed death toll from the Nepal flash floods has risen to at least 1,118, while more than 3,900 people remain listed as missing a week after the August 26 disaster. The latest verified update also brought a limited sign of progress: several tourists who had been uncontactable have reached authorities or relatives.
Nepal’s Foreign Ministry said 324 foreign nationals had been rescued and roughly 590 people from 39 countries remained missing. These figures are not a count of deaths by nationality. Missing-person lists can shrink when communications return, names are reconciled or survivors reach a reporting point, and they can also grow when isolated communities submit delayed reports.
What changed on September 2
Five Australians were confirmed safe overnight, reducing Australia’s missing count from 43 to 38. Nepal Tourism Board spokesperson Sunil Sharma also said at least five other foreign tourists previously reported missing had made contact by email or telephone in recent days. The latest field report places those contacts against the much larger unresolved search.
On the Chinese side of the border, crews completed a temporary access road to the destroyed Gyirong Port area so heavy machinery could reach the search zone. China’s most recently cited official count remained 16 deaths and 546 missing. Different update times and reporting systems mean Nepal and China’s figures should not be casually combined into a supposedly real-time total.
One disaster, not a verified new flood today
The disaster began on August 26 after a glacial collapse sent rock, ice and meltwater into steep valleys and river channels in Tibet and Nepal. It damaged settlements, roads, bridges, the border crossing and hydropower facilities along the Bhote Koshi–Trishuli system.
Warnings about a temporary upstream barrier lake and a later rise in water levels generated repeated claims of a “second flood.” Authorities did report renewed downstream danger during the evolving event, but the sources checked for this update do not confirm a separate new flash flood on September 2. Readers should distinguish a renewed warning or changing river level from a second independently verified disaster.
Searches, shelter and identification
About 400 survivors, many from Timure, were sheltering at a monastery in Kathmandu with help from relatives and local charities. Search teams continued working through unstable mud and debris, while families awaited formal identification of recovered bodies.
Nepal’s September 1 government briefing said saving lives, locating the missing, relief and reliable family communication remained national priorities. Families should use government, police, embassy or designated consular channels rather than viral spreadsheets, recycled videos or unverified casualty claims.
This article reflects verified information available around midday IST on September 2. Totals will change as search teams reach additional sites and lists are reconciled.
Satellite view of the Nepal flood corridor on 26 August 2026. Image: Landsat 9/USGS, processed by Chorchapu, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
