Army says that more than 4,000 people had been rescued as at least 35 of those killed were buried alive
\n KATHMANDU
\nSearch and rescue teams in Nepal\u2019s capital picked through wrecked homes on Monday after waters receded from monsoon floods that killed at least 209 people around the Himalayan republic.
\nDeadly floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September but experts say climate change is making them worse.
\nEntire neighbourhoods in Kathmandu were inundated after the heaviest rains in more than two decades, with the capital temporarily cut off from the rest of Nepal after landslides blocked highways.
\nNepal\u2019s Home Ministry said 209 people had been killed across the country with another 29 still missing.
\n\u201cWe intensified aerial rescue for people who are sick or still need to be brought to safety,\u201d home ministry spokesman Rishi Ram Tiwari told AFP.
\nPolice said at least 35 of those killed were buried alive when earth from a landslide careened into vehicles on a highway south of Kathmandu.
\nBulldozers were being used to clear nearly two dozen sections of major roads leading into Kathmandu that had been blocked by debris.
\nThe home ministry said it was working to rescue numerous people who had been stranded on the highways.
\nMore than 400 people were rescued from various districts on Monday.
\nRescuers in knee-high rubber boots were using shovels to clear mud from the worst-hit riverside neighbourhoods around Kathmandu, many of them unauthorised slum settlements.
\nThe International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a Nepal-based think tank, said the disaster had been made worse by unplanned urban encroachment around the Bagmati River, which flows through the capital.
\nNepal\u2019s army said more than 4,000 people had been rescued, with helicopters, motorboats and rafts bringing stranded people to safety.
\nNilkantha Pandey of the humanitarian organisation CARE Nepal said many of those affected by the floods needed safe drinking water and temporary housing.
\n\u201cMostly informal settlements have been affected,\u201d Pandey said. \u201cIt is time to respond and not delay.\u201d
\n\u2018An extreme event\u2019
\nMerchants in Kathmandu said damage to intercity roads had drastically cut the supply of fresh fruit and vegetables into the capital.
\n\u201cThe farmers have their produce ready but with the highways blocked, all of it is stuck,\u201d Binay Shrestha, who works at one of the city\u2019s main produce markets, told AFP.
\nNepal\u2019s weather bureau said their preliminary data measured record-breaking rain in the 24 hours to Saturday morning.
\nA monitoring station at Kathmandu airport recorded about 240 millimetres (9.4 inches) of rain, the highest figure since 2002.
\nClimate expert Arun Bhakta Shrestha of ICIMOD told AFP that rainfall should be decreasing by late September with the end of the annual monsoon.
\n\u201cRainfall of this kind has to be described as abnormal,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIt is an extreme event… I see the possibility of the role of climate change to some extent.\u201d
\nBut he added that unplanned urban development had also worsened the impact of the disaster.
\nThe summer monsoon from July to September brings South Asia 70-80% of its annual rainfall and is vital for agriculture and food production in a region home to around two billion people.
\nHowever, monsoon rains also bring widespread death and destruction in the form of floods and landslides.
\nExperts say climate change has worsened their frequency and intensity.
\nMore than 300 people have been killed in rain-related disasters in Nepal this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Army says that more than 4,000 people had been rescued as at least 35 of those killed were buried alive KATHMANDU Search and rescue teams in Nepal\u2019s capital picked through wrecked homes on Monday after waters receded from monsoon floods that killed at least 209 people around the Himalayan republic. Deadly floods and landslides are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-434487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n