Shrestha said she felt that the government was “not doing enough work to search and rescue to locate” her family. She also noted that access to her village, Betrawati, was still difficult after the floods.
“Our brothers did try but failed to reach them and had to return home,” she said. “The road is gone. There is no access at all.”
Access remains the single biggest obstacle to response efforts, with roads passable only as far as Nuwakot and some sections of highway linking Kathmandu to the hardest-hit areas still completely blocked, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
And the bodies that have been recovered pose a huge challenge to authorities, who are using at least 21 hospitals in a string of districts to store remains, according to Nepal’s disaster agency. In some cases, bodies are being buried to prevent any risk of infection, with hopes they will be later identified so the remains can be returned to loved ones.
Speaking with NBC News in Pokhara, Nabin Karki, a superintendent of police, said authorities were collecting DNA samples and displaying photos of the bodies found in hopes that family members might be able to identify them.
Relatives of those missing can provide blood samples for DNA testing, he said, and if a match is found, the body can be taken from the burial site and handed over to the family for a funeral.
Khularam Thing, 41, a guide with Kailash Journeys, a popular tour company, said he was coming to the army staging area every day to check the names on the lists of survivors. One of the agency’s groups was about 5 miles from the border crossing with China, heading to Mount Kailash in Tibet.
He said there were 31 people in the group of tourists, including “several Americans” as well as five staff members.
Asked what made him hopeful the group could be found, he said, “I think it’s 0.0% chance. There are no chances right now. It’s a big flood.”
Janis Mackey Frayer and Dawn Liu reported from Bidur, Michael Fiorentino and Surendra Phuyal from Kathmandu, Nepal, and Sunil Pandey from Pokhara, Nepal.
