LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Rescue teams are racing against the clock to find more than 4,700 people still missing, including dozens of Americans, in the deadly floods that struck the border between Nepal and China last Wednesday. As teams approach the worst-affected areas, authorities in China and Nepal have revised the numbers up, with the death toll now over 900. NPR's Jennifer Pak has been following the developments from Beijing, and she joins me now. Good morning, Jennifer.
JENNIFER PAK, BYLINE: Morning, Leila.
FADEL: So what's the latest on the rescue efforts?
PAK: Here in China, on the Tibet side, rescue efforts have been focused on two things - finding survivors and clearing a path to the worst-hit area, which is the Gyirong-Rasuwa border checkpoint. Rescue teams have had to reach this area on foot, sometimes hiking for days. And state broadcaster CCTV journalist Zhang Congjing (ph) followed one of the teams and sent this report from the border.
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ZHANG CONGJING: (Speaking Mandarin).
PAK: "Do you see the mountain," she says, "pointing across? See how the base of the mountain is bare? That's how high the floodwaters were - nearly 200 feet up, almost 20 stories high."
FADEL: Wow.
PAK: Chinese rescue teams have been filmed crawling in the mud to avoid sinking in, and none of this has been helped by all the rain. And that's also hampering rescue efforts in Nepal, too.
FADEL: I mean, these feel like impossible conditions as these rescue workers work against the clock to try to find people alive. What do we know about the victims and survivors?
PAK: So on the Nepal side, a lot of the missing are residents. They're also looking for over 900 workers stuck on hydropower plant sites, according to the Nepalese authorities. On the Tibet side, there were tourists, adventure travelers headed to Mount Kailash - also pilgrims, including Hindus and Buddhists, because they see Mount Kailash as a holy site. Now, the Nepalese side has been giving regular updates - names and nationalities. But in contrast, for days, we only got numbers of the missing and dead in China.
FADEL: Wow.
PAK: And it took five days before officials actually gave the nationalities of the missing foreigners. Now, part of this is because the Chinese government likes to control the narrative, especially during major disasters. But also, this is Tibet. It's a politically sensitive region, so foreign journalists like myself are restricted from going. So we are reliant on state media. And they've been wholly focused on the rescue, which is entirely important, but we're not really hearing from many of those affected or those with missing loved ones.
FADEL: What are the Chinese saying? Why was this disaster so big?
PAK: A Chinese researcher on Sunday told reporters in Tibet that there was just no time to warn anyone or flee. So to remind everyone, last week, a huge chunk of ice broke off from a glacier in Nepal. It fell 4,000 feet, speeding down the Himalayan valley, tearing through - along with water, ice and mud - through Tibet and Nepal. And the researchers said this happened within minutes, and it was caused by global warming, they say. It makes glaciers unstable. Now, the Isha Foundation, a spiritual group in southern India, had 80 pilgrims at the border when the flood struck. The founder, Jaggi Vasudev, widely known as Sadhguru, was speaking to his followers on Sunday.
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JAGGI VASUDEV: Himalayan region needs, if not a common administration, at least a common consultative process.
PAK: He says there should be more coordinated efforts between governments.
FADEL: That's NPR's China correspondent, Jennifer Pak. Thank you, Jennifer.
PAK: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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