Slow Rescue Operations Raise Alarm Over Body Storage Crisis

[Anchor]

Search operations for the missing continue on the ground, but they are facing difficulties amid the risk of additional accidents and adverse weather conditions. Assessments indicate that the capacity of hospitals across Nepal to accommodate bodies has exceeded its limits.

Reporting by Kim Hye-min.

[Reporter]

A village is rendered unrecognizable, with buildings half-buried in mud and debris.

Rescue workers carry bodies wrapped in plastic in Nuwakot, adjacent to Rasuwa, which was hit hard by the massive floods.

Nearby, long lines form as people search for the whereabouts of missing family members and relatives.

In the capital of Kathmandu, located over 50 kilometers away, a woman posts a notice bearing a photograph and personal information of her family member.

Hospitals and morgues are crowded with people searching for unreachable family members and relatives, and the families of the missing are too anxious to sit down even for a moment.

[Sushila Gurung / Family member of a missing person: I called my missing son, but the phone isn't going through. We still haven't found him...]

Rescue operations using military and police personnel continue to clear out the ruined areas, and helicopters are deployed to search areas that are otherwise inaccessible. However, adverse conditions such as severed roads, unpredictable weather, and the risk of further collapses make it insufficient to pick up the pace.

Amid this situation, local Nepali media outlet Ratopati reported that hospitals nationwide can accommodate only about 350 bodies, diagnosing a "nationwide body storage crisis."

In Nepal, where the majority of the population is Hindu and Buddhist, the general cultural practice is to cremate or bury bodies shortly after death rather than storing them for long periods.

Because there is no demand for long-term refrigeration, even major hospitals have only two to four freezers for bodies, and many regional hospitals have none at all.

This makes responding to large-scale disasters like the current massive floods impossible, and if time passes while search efforts remain slow, even identifying the bodies could become difficult.

With rain forecasted locally through Sunday, followed by reports of additional overflowing rivers, concerns are growing that rescue and search operations will become even more difficult.

[Video Editing: Ahn Yeo-jin]
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.