Smell of death hangs over rescue efforts in Nepal as deaths pass 1,000

BIDUR, Nepal — The overwhelming stench of death is crushing hopes that more survivors will be found in this Nepalese town devastated by last week’s catastrophic floods.

Workers in white hazmat suits unload bodies from a stream of ambulances in Bidur, a town in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on Tuesday. They place the wrapped bodies onto blue tarp in a cordoned off area.

Helicopters, both military and civilian aircraft that in better days would be used for commercial tours, take off packed with aid before returning with survivors in need of medical care.

Kalpana Shrestha, a nurse who works in capital Kathmandu, is desperate. Ten members of her family are missing — her two sisters and their children — are missing.

“I have shared their photos with journalists, on social media and YouTube but I have not got any response at all,” she said speaking with NBC News in Kathmandu. She added that her loved ones disappeared in Betrawati, a town some 60 miles from the capital that was obliterated in the flooding.

“I have posted so much that my fingers started shaking and trembling,” said Shrestha, 35. “My mind has stopped working. But even so, we have not stopped posting.”

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/world