August 30, 2026. Five days after a glacier broke off near Langtang Lirung, Nepal and Tibet are still counting. Nepal’s disaster authority has 781 confirmed dead and about 2,500 missing. China has reported 16 dead and 546 missing on the Tibetan side. Combined, that is about 797 dead and just over 3,000 unaccounted for. The number will move again before night.

A wall of ice, rock, and mud went down the Lhende into the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli on Wednesday morning. Riverside settlements vanished. Hydropower tunnels still hold workers. Overnight rain and a new barrier lake keep interrupting the search.

What happened

Wednesday morning, August 26. Some Nepali officials first called it an earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey later said the tremor was the collapse itself—seismic energy from ice and rock, then debris flow. Not a tectonic quake that set it off.

Dan Shugar at the University of Calgary, reading Planet Labs imagery for Reuters, put the break at about 5,200 metres. The lower part of a glacier crashed onto the valley floor about 1,200 metres below. Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority called it an ice-rock avalanche on the Nepali side of the Lhende, roughly 20 km northeast of a Nepal–China border crossing. Whether a warm spell the day before helped loosen it is still being studied. Climate’s exact role in this collapse is not settled.

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development said the surge ran through the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli. Downstream at Galchhi, water levels reportedly rose by as much as nine metres in 30 minutes.

Gyirong Port on the Tibetan side was wrecked. In Nepal the worst-hit districts include Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Dhading. Some bodies have been found far downstream, including in rivers on the Indian side.

The tunnels

About 933 hydropower workers are among the missing, across 11 project sites. More than 100 may still be alive inside mud-swamped tunnels. Rescue has focused on Trishuli 3A and 3B.

Saturday, the army drilled into the upper part of a tunnel at 3A, started pumping air, and sent a camera in. Home Minister Sudan Gurung said they would excavate and send a team in next. Overnight rain after about 2:00 a.m. filled the pit. The army paused, then went back when the water eased.

At Upper Trishuli-1, the army has already pulled 254 workers out. At the 22 MW Chilime plant in Rasuwa, the tunnel is packed with mud. The plant’s executive director told the Kathmandu Post it was impossible to enter.

Nepal says more than 3,700 people have been rescued. Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai put search strength at about 19,000 security personnel and 16 helicopters.

Second flood

A debris dam formed a barrier lake after the collapse. Search paused on Friday when the water rose. Chinese state media said that lake had largely drained by Saturday evening.

It is not over. CCTV reported that on the evening of August 29, drones spotted a landslide 2.8 km downstream of the Purepuqiang Tsangpo barrier lake. A new barrier. A new lake. Rescuers near Gyirong were moved to safer ground. Xinhua put about 2,141 people on the Gyirong operation, more than 500 in the worst-hit pocket.

On the Nepal side, NDRRMA warned that flow in the Bhotekoshi in Rasuwa had risen again. Flood alerts went to phones. In Dhading, people who had already lost homes were running for higher ground at night—again.

China said 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries are missing on the Tibetan side of the crossing, including 104 from Nepal, 49 from India, 33 from Latvia, 18 from the United States, and 15 from Britain. That list is not the same as Nepal’s domestic missing count. Do not add them. The U.S. State Department said Sunday that about 85 Americans remain unaccounted for across the disaster, with nine already evacuated, and that it did not know of any U.S. deaths.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has put about 93,000 people in great need. Nepal’s finance minister has estimated losses at more than $4 billion. Those are working figures, not a final bill.

Sunday, Nepal began temporary burials at Devghat in Chitwan after taking DNA and marking the remains so families can reclaim them. Hindu funeral custom here is cremation. The graves are storage. The foreign secretary asked for more than a thousand freezer units. Morgues are full.

After the rain

Thick monsoon rain that hides the disc cuts ultraviolet. A break that throws a sharp shadow does not. Search lines, high-ground waits, and helicopter pads sit at elevation. Cool, wet air is not a low-UV signal. UV still rises as the atmosphere thins—see higher elevation, stronger UV. We are not publishing a local index for the valley today. If you are on a ridge when the sun comes back, cover skin the way you would on any bright Himalayan day, then get back to the flood warning.

If you have people there

Through tonight:

1. Do not travel into Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, or the Gyirong crossing unless you are with an official team. Roads and bridges are gone. Fresh water is still moving.
2. Treat phone flood alerts as live. A drained lake on Saturday did not cancel a new landslide on Sunday.
3. For missing relatives, use hospital lists and embassy channels—Kathmandu hospitals have been posting names. Do not walk the river.
4. Foreign ministries, not social media counts, for nationality totals. The Tibet-side and Nepal-side lists overlap in confusing ways.
5. If you are already on high ground when the rain breaks, keep cover on. Altitude does not wait for the heat to return. Check the live UV index only if you are actually in the sun; the emergency is still the water.

Figures will change. Defer to NDRRMA, the Nepal Army, and Chinese local authorities at Gyirong for the next hour’s risk.

Sources and limits

This brief summarizes public reporting as of Sunday afternoon, August 30, 2026 from Nepal’s NDRRMA, Reuters (USGS, Planet Labs, University of Calgary, ICIMOD), the Guardian, France 24 / AFP, Al Jazeera, the Kathmandu Post, Xinhua / CCTV, and the U.S. State Department. Tibet-side figures come only from Chinese authorities; foreign journalists have not been allowed in. Death and missing counts were still rising through the day.

UV readings on UV Index Today are estimates for everyday sun-safety planning, not medical advice. This is not a diagnosis, and it is not a substitute for official rescue or consular guidance. For SPF and related Q&A, see the Guide. For a location’s current numbers, open the live UV index.