Nepal flood toll rises to 35, Myagdi recommended for crisis status

Thirty five people are now confirmed dead and 15 injured in the floods and landslides that have hit Nepal since Thursday, September 24, Nagarik News and Nepalnews.com reported on Tuesday, September 29. A Central Police News Desk breakdown reported by Asianet Newsable shows 12 deaths in Baglung, seven in Myagdi, five in Palpa, four in Manang, and one each in Dhanusha, Makwanpur, Dhading, Kavre, Rolpa, Dolpa and Rukum West.

If you travel the Kaligandaki corridor, or have family along it, this is not over. The road has stayed blocked for six days straight, The Rising Nepal reported on Tuesday. Bed Bahadur Thapa, chairperson of Kaligandaki Rural Municipality, told Nagarik News that dozers and excavators started clearing the landslide only once the rain eased on Monday.

Myagdi's district disaster management committee met on Tuesday and recommended the district be declared "disaster crisis-affected," Ratopati reported. That is a recommendation, not a final order. It still needs approval higher up before any extra relief money or rules kick in.

The damage stretches wider. In Palpa, four straight days of rain wrecked roads on the main highway and rural routes, and floodwater on the Kaligandaki River damaged both a permanent bridge and a suspension bridge, DC Nepal reported. In Baglung, the Maldhunga bridge connecting Baglung and Parvat districts has been cut off since Sunday, September 27, after floodwater damaged its foundation, and repair work has only just begun, Ratopati reported. In Manang, tourists remain stranded after Sunday's rain blocked the Marsyangdi River in lower Manang and dropped snow on upper Manang, Ratopati reported.

An earlier count from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, NDRRMA, Nepal's disaster response agency, had put the toll at 21 dead, five missing and five injured for the September 24 to 27 window, an NDRRMA spokesperson told Republica. That figure predates the police desk's later, higher count, and neither agency has explained the gap between them.

What the coverage missed

The Rs 21 billion insurance figure in this week's news is not money for this disaster. It is the outstanding claims pool from a separate, far larger flood that hit the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli river corridor in Rasuwa on August 26, more than a month earlier, Republica reported. That flood killed more than 1,453 people and left more than 5,000 missing, according to a rapid damage assessment by NDRRMA and the National Planning Commission cited by Republica. That count is provisional and has risen over past weeks.

The claims totals reported by different outlets do not match. On September 1, insurers had received NPR 25.87 billion in preliminary claims from 583 policyholders, with just eight policies at Oriental Insurance seeking NPR 13.04 billion, more than half the pool, BeemaPost reported. A small number of large corporate and hydropower policies, not individual households, account for most of that pool, BeemaPost reported. By September 29, the total stood lower, at Rs 20.98 billion, even as the number of policyholders filing claims had nearly quadrupled to 2,180, Republica reported. BeemaPost has separately reported problems in early claims data and published a lower, cross-checked figure. No insurer or regulator has said how much of the gap that explains.

What we still do not know

• Which single agency, NDRRMA or Nepal Police, keeps the authoritative national toll for the September 24 disaster, and why their counts diverge.
• Whether Myagdi's crisis-affected recommendation needs provincial or federal Cabinet sign-off, and what relief it would actually unlock, a question for the Ministry of Home Affairs or Myagdi's Chief District Officer.
• How much of the gap between the early NPR 25.87 billion total and the Rs 20.98 billion total reflects data corrections, a question for the Nepal Insurance Authority or insurers such as Oriental Insurance.
• How many of the 2,180 Rasuwa claimants have actually received the 50 percent advance payment the insurance regulator ordered, a question for the same regulator.