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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Nepal Death Toll Reaches Over 1,000 As Nearly 4,000 Still Missing; Rescuers Race to Save Workers Trapped In Hydropower Tunnels; Nepal's Foreign Minister Speaks To AC360; Families In Nepal Long For Closure As Death Toll Rises After Flooding; State Department: Around 75 Americans Still Missing In Nepal; American Searches For Missing Family Members In Nepal; School Bus Driver Saves Dozens Of Children, Narrowly Misses Flood. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired September 01, 2026 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Maybe, I guess he didn't try to rename a lake, so they had other things to focus on. Thank you so much, Tom Foreman, and thanks so much to all of you for being with us as always. "AC360" with Anderson begins right now.

[20:00:26]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": It is early Wednesday morning here in Kathmandu, Nepal, 5:45 local time and two hours and 52 minutes, 8:37 A.M. it will be exactly seven days since that glacier in a National Park about 35 miles north of here, fractured, sending millions of tons of ice and rock into the river valley below. A landslide so large it registered as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event, barely three minutes later, at 8:40, a wave that Nepal's Foreign Minister calls an inland tsunami hit the border crossing with China.

The flood water traveling an estimated 120 miles an hour, leveled the five-story building and washed away everything in its path. Even a week removed the images, the sounds, they are almost beyond comprehension. Those are cars. A truck size of entire buildings moving past those people trapped on a balcony, surrounded by it all.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

COOPER: That is all too real and it happened in communities like that all along that river. We have new video tonight. I want to play for you in just a moment. It shows how survival on that day was a matter of split seconds for many.

You'll see a woman in two school children scrambling to safety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(VIDEO OF PEOPLE RUNNING AWAY FROM THE FLOOD.)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, many, though, simply could not climb high enough or fast enough to survive. Even if they'd had enough warning, which most did not. Even though a new report today from a group of earth scientists points to signs of cracking in the glacier prior to the landslide that now seem beyond important in hindsight, at least 1,050 people right now are known dead. Nearly 4,000 remain missing.

Now, a good deal of the search effort is focused on hydropower projects right now along the river, where authorities believe at least 900 workers are unaccounted for in tunnels in the mountainsides. Teams of engineers and Nepali troops, Indian ones as well, are using every means they can to gain access, drilling and digging from above, or trying to wade or even paddle their way in directly. But so far, the Army today said that responders have found the tunnels in their words, either completely buried, blocked, or impossible to enter.

Though we saw some remarkable rescues from one power project last week. Hope for more is hard to find, but it's not vanished. As I discovered when I visited a site yesterday where as many as 50 people were working when the flooding hit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Do you have any sign that they're alive?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, earlier, earlier we tried to we tried a vertical drilling there so that there might be some presence of oxygen so that we can send some more in there. I hope, I hope they are --

COOPER: But you haven't had signs of life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have nothing yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, there is criticism, though, that comes with the search, not of the effort, which is heroic, but of the regional and global resources. The search teams may have sooner had but didn't.

According to Reuters two days after the flood, a spokesman for Nepal's Foreign Ministry said, "the offer for help is natural, our security agencies are doing the search and rescue operation. For now, we don't require such help."

In a moment, I'll have my conversation with Nepal's Foreign Minister, who joined me earlier. But first, someone who has played a key role advising teams on the ground in search for survivors. Arnold Dix is a disaster and tunnel rescue expert. He's joining us from Australia. He helped rescue more than 40 workers in a collapsed tunnel in India in 2023. Arnold, we talked yesterday how, how have things changed today at this hour? How hopeful are you tonight? What's number one in mind for you?

ARNOLD DIX, DISASTER AND TUNNEL RESCUE EXPERT: Look over the last 24 hours since you spoke to me, we've made terrific progress at 3A, which I see you've got the video that you just showed your audience. What's truly remarkable is we've now got down to the tunnel. As you saw, we've got the portal open, which you've seen. We're busy now building an artificial drain back to the river and what we're planning to do is to drain the tunnel, which should relieve pressure in the powerhouse. And then that should allow us to get up to what we're calling the Goldilocks zone.

So, people, if they're in there and they're alive, we're on our way to get them now. But as you saw, it's no mean effort. This is, just extremely difficult. But we're now about to tunnel in the tunnel towards the powerhouse.

[20:05:36]

COOPER: Yes. I mean, at that 3A tunnel, which is one of the sites I visited yesterday. I mean, first of all, it was hard for them to even find where the tunnel was. They had to dig down, not horizontally, but vertically. And you have those earth movers there that is to build that drain you were talking about. So, if you're going to drain the water can get out to the river. They were using like a jackhammer to try to break into the tunnel. Where do you think the workers would be if they were able to have made it to some area that might protect them?

DIX: Well, that tunnel connects back up to a powerhouse where the turbine rooms are, and the turbine rooms also have offices up at the top. So, what we're looking at it's a cylinder-shaped building, large like a block of flats inside the mountain. And the tunnel that you saw used to be up the side of a hill. Now it's underground. And as you say, we couldn't even find that for the first few days. And we had to use satellite imagery and all sorts of data analytics to even work out where to dig.

But we got it right. We found it. We've used explosives also to blast in there. You would have seen the huge rocks that were having to move as well. So, it's quite a contradiction. On the one hand, we've got mud, like I've seen you show your viewers. And on the other hand, we've got rocks as big as motor cars. And so, the this is incredibly difficult technically, but we're getting there.

Now once we relieve the pressure that's in that tunnel that you saw and we get the water coming out, then that also allows us to consider an intervention from the top, because at the moment we were very concerned about water rising where the men may be. And so, we didn't want to punch a hole in the top of the powerhouse for fear that that would accelerate a water rise. So, it's quite a quite a balancing act in terms of the engineering and the Nepalese crew, you saw them on the ground, plus the guys that I'm working with, you can't see really juggling.

What's the next thing that we do? How do we do it in a way to make sure we don't jeopardize that Goldilocks zone we're hoping exists up in there? And now's the really critical phase. We're going in.

COOPER: You know, I one of the Indian Colonel who is leading one of the operations that I witnessed. He talked to me about what happens to people who are in tunnels and how panic can set in very early on and disorientation. Can you just talk about what it's like to be trapped in a tunnel? DIX: So, again, it's something that the Colonel knows well, and those of us who work underground know well. The blackness of being trapped in a tunnel is unlike anything you'll experience as a human being. Unless you're in a tunnel because there's not even an led, not even the faint glow of a star. it's a black unlike you, you can sense.

So, when you're trapped in the underground and you're in complete black, you feel it like you feel it on your eyes and it can. You get completely disoriented and it's very stressful because your body, your body knows somethings wrong because we as a species evolved on the Savanna. You know, we, we like the stars. We say it's dark as night, but actually the night is not so dark. And we can see in the dark. But you, you can't see in a tunnel. It's nothing, it's completely black.

So, it plays havoc on you psychologically. So, the colonels right. We need hopefully because of the explosives, people who may be in the Goldilocks zone will have heard those explosions, and they will know were coming.

Hope is the most important ingredient we could send to someone in there.

COOPER: Well, let's hope that they are there and they are holding on to that hope. Arnold Dix, I really appreciate it. You're doing incredible things. Thank you, Arnold.

We mentioned at the top Nepal's initial decision to decline outside assistance in the search effort. I spoke to the Foreign Minister, Shisir Khanal, earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: In a few hours, it will be one week since this disaster happened. At this moment, what is your government's biggest priority?

[20:10:11]

SHISIR KHANAL, NEPAL FOREIGN MINISTER: We're still, for the most part in rescue stays, trying to save lives. There are reports of many people, hundreds of people trapped inside hydroelectricity power plant tunnels. So, we're trying to save lives even today, based on all the reports we have seen that most likely a large number of people are likely to be in hydroelectricity power plant tunnels.

COOPER: I've been to two locations, two tunnel locations just yesterday. At both places, there's a lot of hard work being done. Both places they have not heard any signs of life. Do you believe that there are people still alive in there?

KHANAL: Based on the reports and the people who designed these plants, they say that deep inside these tunnels, there could be air pockets. So based on this sort of engineering analysis, we are very hopeful that there could be many people still alive.

COOPER: You've, I know you've heard the criticism by people that there could have been greater expertise brought in from India or China search and rescue expertise earlier. Why wasn't that done? Because your government made an announcement that foreign help was not required in search and rescue.

KHANAL: There was a massive misunderstanding, we never announced that we would not take foreign support. What we had always said that we would take foreign support in the areas we need most help in and by the second day of the disaster, we knew that we would need support internally, specifically on tunnel rescue. So, we began to reach out and by the day three, Indian teams and Chinese teams were arriving in Kathmandu, so --

COOPER: There was a statement put out, I think it was august 28th by foreign minister spokesman, who said the offer to help is natural. Our security agencies are doing the search and rescue operations for now. We don't require such help.

KHANAL: So initially, what was coming to us and with a lot of good will and faith, was that general support was available to us. So general search and rescue. But given you've been to the area, the, the terrain is very difficult. You cannot really land helicopters there. You cannot bring big equipment. So generalized, sort of traditional rescue support would not be very helpful to us

So, instead of sort of very general support, what we need and when we need very specialized support, we would ask for that. And we did.

COOPER: Right, there's been a number of people who have remarked that your carbon imprint as a country is minimal. You are feeling the effects of climate change in ways that maybe some other countries have not yet.

KHANAL: I mean, if you look at data, even our overall carbon footprint, greenhouse emission is less than a 10th of a percentage. The glaciers are melting. The permafrost are thawing and there is a risk of glacier flood at the same time, this was a glacier collapse. So, given all that, what we are telling to the world is, look, we our contribution in this changing climate is almost negligent. And even then, we are trying to work to save the Himalayas. But saving Himalayas has to be part of a global effort because today it's impacting Nepal but it also impacted China.

But you know, if you look at our geography, eventually all our rivers end up in India, and then even some of them to Bangladesh as well. So, these river systems that originate in Himalayas are also a source of fresh water for agriculture, for drinking water for over two billion people.

A global communities have to come together and this cannot be seen merely as a charitable giving, but has to be part of a compensation process as well.

COOPER: You don't want foreign governments to look at this as giving aid to Nepal. You want this to be compensation.

KHANAL: Exactly, this should be seen from the perspective of justice and fairness. How fair is it for Nepali people and people of Himalayas to bear the burden of the climate change, where we have had very little contribution to it.

COOPER: Do you see this as a direct result of climate change?

KHANAL: Absolutely, you know, there is no question that there is evidence.

COOPER: Mr. Foreign Minister, I appreciate your time.

KHANAL: Thank you, Anderson, thank you for coming to Nepal and telling our story to the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, much more ahead. Next, you're going to meet two men from here in Kathmandu, who set up their own aid convoy in the hours after the flood.

And later, what survivors told me in one town about the body of water that once brought them life and livelihoods, but looks different to them now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:19:31]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: In town after town along this river, the scenes are in Many ways the same devastation is complete. This is the formerly the Trishuli Market. This is what remains.

Residents, people from other areas have been coming down here throughout the day, taking pictures, staring, trying to comprehend what has happened and what happens now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[20:20:09]

COOPER: Well, there are so many people here who have pulled together and are doing extraordinary things. I want you to meet two of them. A new report today from Nepal's disaster response agency says that it is compounded by the difficulty in accessing some of the hardest hit areas.

Our next guests know that firsthand. I want to show you footage of one of their aid trucks trying to make its way along a road, in name only part of an effort that they themselves organize here from Kathmandu, just hours after word came the flood. They are Suraj Raj Pandey and Chirag Goyal, and they join me now.

Thank you so much for being with us. It's incredible what you're doing. Where did you learn how to do this? What, tell me how you go about it?

SURAJ RAJ PANDEY, ORGANIZING AND DELIVERING AID IN NEPAL: Well, it started from the earthquake that happened in 2015. So, you know, Nepal being still a developing country, we don't have much resources, especially to be deployed during crises as such. So, we young people, private citizens, we generally, you know, assemble and try to help the government and the people affected in the affected regions as much as possible. So, it has been the case since earthquake. It has been the case for COVID, and it has been the case of this massive flood.

COOPER: I mean, these mountain roads are tough even in normal times. In conditions like these, the roads washed away. How do you how do you get things in places?

CHIRAG GOYAL, ORGANIZING AND DELIVERING AID IN NEPAL: I mean, so it was pretty difficult because we had, first we were like, once we started, we were like, we were planning to go to Nuwakot and then after Nuwakot, we realized that Rasuwa is the most affected place and it is far away and not a lot of relief is being reached there. So, we went to Rasuwa and we had in our mind, that --

COOPER: Rasuwa is the district that's really probably hardest hit.

GOYAL: Yes, it's the hardest hit and then it's six or seven hours away from Kathmandu. But then we started our journey on 29th, which was a Saturday on, I mean, I'm sorry, I don't remember the date. It was a Saturday and it was we started in the morning. We thought we would be back by evening, but it took us four days because the roads are pretty bad and because of the weather conditions, it's raining heavily.

And I mean, to anyone who would want to go there, we would suggest if you do not have a four-wheel drive, do not go there because it's very difficult because of the people who do not have a four-wheel drive, there's a big queue there, which is a there's a big line there which is creating an issue.

COOPER: And where do you, how do you get your supplies? How do you raise funds?

PANDEY: Well, it's mostly social media. And our social circle. So, I was in ground zero that day flood hit. It's my ancestral district so I went back to find my missing families. Fortunately, they were safe.

Meanwhile, Chirag -- and a lot of our friends, they started a social media campaign calling out for volunteers and supplies to be collected and sent to the hard-hit areas. So, it's mostly private individuals contributing on their own. So that's how we --

COOPER: How do people find out about your work?

PANDEY: So, we have six. it's mostly social media. We have six dispatch centers, collection centers across Kathmandu.

COOPER: Via Instagram or --

PANDEY: No, it's just our social media. Social media. We don't even have a formal group or organization.

COOPER: Oh, but how? GOYAL: That's because we've studied in like different places like India and outside. So, we have a lot of friends there. So, everybody is following. That's how we are also getting in touch with people, so that's how.

PANDEY: So, people simply drop the relief materials in one of our six drop locations. And then we sort it there, repack it, label it, and then we dispatch it to various locations after that.

COOPER: What is it like doing this? I mean, seeing the impact of this?

PANDEY: Well, we really think that our work is important because the government has really been focusing on rescue work for now. So, there are still our communities which are cut off and which needs supplies, emergency supplies, like medicines, shelters, temporary shelters and groceries.

COOPER: You're also organizing for mental health help. I mean, there's a lot, I mean, the level of trauma and pain out there is incredible.

PANDEY: Yes, we are we are coordinating with psychologists and mental professionals to be sent to the highlight areas. Even our team needs mental health support after all this.

COOPER: Yes, I would imagine --

GOYAL: So, we have a lot of psychologists who are in touch with us. So, once we went to the place called Kalika. So, there are around 250 families, which have been displaced. So, they are making community centers. So, for the kids who have lost their families and for the families as well who have lost, I mean, one member of their family or something like that.

So those 250 families really need that. And we are really happy to say that we last evening, the people there have coordinated and they've managed five screens for the counseling to happen.

So, from today, we will be doing that for the people there. It will be done by professionals. So, they will first assess their needs and then --

COOPER: The shock so many people feel, I mean, their lives have been completely upended in, you know, the turn of the tide. I mean, once completely out of the blue, it's I think unless you have been through something like that, it's hard to even comprehend what it's like, it's unimaginable.

PANDEY: True, very true. So, lives have been uprooted, I think --

COOPER: And you lose everything. I mean, you lose your family photographs, you lose everything.

PANDEY: Yeah, you lose your land, you lose your property, you lose the family members and the memories that you are associated with and basically your entire life is uprooted, as you said.

[20:25:11]

GOYAL: And that's one of the biggest issues. You're losing your land. So, during the earthquake, when we were doing it, we at least people had land so we could make temporary shelters there. Right now, the problem is they do not have land.

So, rehabilitation becomes very difficult even for the government and us may probably we need to go in a planned way so that people do not, it's just a temporary shelter. And then we don't want people to just keep shifting, because there has to be some sense of belonging that they get. Like you shift them to some place for two or three months, and then again, you shift them. Doesn't make sense.

So, something permanent has to be planned, from now we have to map that so that we would be very happy to work alongside the government if we can. I mean, manage this because we have a lot of, we've also collected data. Probably the government has a lot of data, but we've spoken to a few people there also, and we are collecting a lot of data, but we have data about, Dhunche, Kalika and the most affected areas there right now.

COOPER: You have information from on the ground what you've seen, yes. Thank you so much for what you're doing. It's just incredible.

GOYAL: Thank you. Can I just send a message?

COOPER: Yes.

GOYAL: So, we are having, we're getting a lot of requests from people who want to rescue their people and who they're missing. And we are having a lot of difficulties to even convey it to them. Like, okay, because we do not have the on-ground data of people who are missing. And speaking to the local government officials, they are saying there are a lot of things like because right now the rescue work is being done, but probably if people are missing, it's very difficult.

So, we just want to make it easy for the people. That's what we have also decided that if we want to make it easy for the people to coordinate, because there are people coming from foreign lands and losing someone here, it's a very difficult thing for them to coordinate because they do not know the language and everything.

COOPER: Yes, it's very hard.

GOYAL: So, we would love to be of any help that those people, we might not be of a lot of help because the situation there is very. But anything for related to documents, anything related to coordination here, we would love to go ahead like my friend, Shashan (ph) we are doing that together and all of us.

COOPER: Thank you, appreciate it. Thank you for coming in so early in the morning. I appreciate it.

GOYAL: Thank you, thank you, sir.

COOPER: Ahead tonight along those lines, some of the many other stories here of hope, also loss and waiting.

And next, what it's like for crews doing work that is utterly harrowing and so deeply vital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[20:31:36]

COOPER: In a scene like this, you keep looking and staring because it's hard for your mind to kind of comprehend what happened, and you try to understand the logic of it, why part of this building remains and part of this building and these buildings over here, which are actually closer to the water, and then why all the buildings over there are gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, nearly 4,000 people remain unaccounted for, and the death toll now exceeds 1,000. Seems like nearly everyone you meet here in Nepal has lost someone they know or love. Many of the hardest hit areas remain impassable by roads, complicating recovery efforts, and even when they're found, it can be a very big struggle to identify the -- some of the people who have died.

CNN's Hanako Montgomery has been out with Nepali police as they search for those who have died.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Down in Nepal's plains, the river gives up its dead. Floodwaters carry them far from where they were last seen, scattering them along the riverbanks.

MONTGOMERY: Right now, we're on a search and recovery mission with the Nepali police. They've found hundreds of bodies that have washed downstream from the Himalayas in this river, so we're just going to go and see if we can find any more human remains that might need recovering.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Using sticks to probe the tall grass, they search for what the floods left behind. They find nothing, so the search continues downstream.

MONTGOMERY: They say they found something. I'm just going to put on my mask here in case it's a body. We found an animal carcass, and you can tell that it's been here for a few days. It's pretty badly decomposed.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): The police tell us the same is happening to human remains.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): These scenes are very heart- wrenching, but we're keeping strong and working. MONTGOMERY (voice-over): The places to search seem endless. And what they do recover, they bring here -- a center where photographs of the found dead flicker across screens. Families stare at image after image, looking for a brother, a son, or for this man, his sisters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): I'm still hoping that they come back. We're looking for them and contacting all possible places, but we haven't found any leads.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): The police tell me over 800 people were reported missing at this center alone. Just 12 were returned to families. Some, he says, are so badly decomposed, they're unrecognizable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): The situation is very challenging. We're getting dead bodies, body parts, and we don't have enough people who are able to do this work.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Reunited holds a different meaning here. Finding remains confirms an unbearable truth, but an end to the search for some families, allowing them to lay their loved ones to rest. But they're considered the lucky ones. The hundreds who can't be identified are brought deep into the forest, to a freshly dug mass grave.

Numbers are assigned for the unnamed, with the bleak hope that using collected DNA samples, one day, someone will come looking for them.

[20:35:05]

Back at the river, the police find what they're looking for.

MONTGOMERY: When we were with the Nepali police, we didn't find any remains, but the same team, they called us and they told us they found two bodies in the river. And now begins the really painful process of identifying these people and then reuniting them with their families.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Behind every missing person is a family still waiting. And behind every recovered body, the enormous task of learning who they were.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And Hanako Montgomery joins us now. It's such an extraordinary thing that you witness. Can you talk more about the process of assigning numbers to the remains they find?

MONTGOMERY (on-camera): Yes, Anderson, all the bodies that we were seeing at the mass grave site, they were collected from Bharatpur Hospital. And again, the police, when they go into the rivers and recover those bodies, they bring them to the hospital first to ensure that they're properly cleaned.

And then, of course, as you heard just then, if they can be identified, they will take photos of the bodies so that the families can look through the photos and see if their loved ones are among them. But if they are so badly decomposed or if, for example, it's just impossible to identify them, then they will bring them to this mass grave site.

They will first collect DNA samples and then store that information so that perhaps days, if not weeks after this disaster, when families are finally able to get out of those remote villages that have been so devastated by the floods, they can come to Bharatpur and see if their loved ones can be given a proper burial, Anderson.

COOPER: Hanako, thank you so much. Hanako Montgomery.

Coming up, the story of one young woman who lost 17 members of her family in the flood. And I'll speak to an American who has come here looking for his brother and brother-in-law who were believed to be close to the Nepal-China border when the flood hit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[20:41:19]

COOPER: Talked to a number of people today here in Trishuli who have just been standing on the banks of the river just watching the water, which is higher than normal and faster than normal and muddier as well, they say. But they're just staring in the water, kind of seeing it almost in a new or a different way, trying to make sense of it, I guess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, it has been a week since the flooding here took more than 1,000 lives and left nearly 4,000 people still missing. So much loss and so much longing for any word of a loved one that might end the uncertainty.

One young woman lost 17 members of her family. CNN's Will Ripley has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On this unfinished rooftop of a small municipal building in Bidur, Nepal, 50 men left homeless by the flood try to sleep. But the nights are long and cold, and Subba Tamang says, full of tears and fear.

SUBBA TAMANG, LOST 8 FAMILY MEMBERS: This place is not also safe.

RIPLEY: So you're afraid the floods could even come up to this roof?

S. TAMANG: Yes.

RIPLEY: How do you sleep at night? Do you -- are you able to sleep?

S. TAMANG: No, we cannot. Because many people cry because of -- because they lost their family members too. So many people cry here at night, remembering their members. And every day goes like that.

RIPLEY: You got the helicopters always flying over.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Every day, the choppers fly out, searching for survivors. Every night, they fly back, and those he lost are still gone.

S. TAMANG: And I lost my eight family members there.

RIPLEY: You lost eight family members?

S. TAMANG: Yes. I lost my uncle, aunt, and my siblings.

RIPLEY: I'm so sorry.

S. TAMANG: This one also.

RIPLEY: This is your brother?

S. TAMANG: Yes.

RIPLEY: How old is he?

S. TAMANG: He's two years old.

RIPLEY: What's his name?

S. TAMANG: His name is Sagar Anjana (ph).

RIPLEY: How old is Anjana (ph)?

S. TAMANG: She's two years old. Her name is Dolma Tamang.

RIPLEY: So she's your aunt?

S. TAMANG: Yes.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Camera phone pictures are precious commodities for Subba and his cousin, Kopila Tamang. They have little else left.

KOPILA TAMANG, LOST 17 FAMILY MEMBERS: Videos were likely useful.

RIPLEY: You took this one?

K. TAMANG: Yes.

RIPLEY: How old?

K. TAMANG: One month. She's the first daughter, second daughter. My mom is the third one. This also lost, my mom, and my two siblings also. Two cousins, auntie and our daughter.

RIPLEY: Both were lost?

K. TAMANG: Yes, both lost. This is my sister. She also lost. This is my grandma. RIPLEY: She was also lost?

K. TAMANG: Yes, she also lost. She's so innocent. She used to love me so much.

RIPLEY: Everyone in this picture --

K. TAMANG: Yes.

RIPLEY: -- is gone?

K. TAMANG: Yes. These all are gone. They are like my children. When I came home, they always come back with me and call me pupu. So I miss them.

RIPLEY: Seventeen family members?

K. TAMANG: Yes.

RIPLEY: That's really hard to even wrap your head around.

K. TAMANG: Yes.

RIPLEY (voice-over): The 2015 earthquake destroyed her old family home. Back then, everyone survived. This time, the wall of water consumed her family's new home in Rasuwa, leaving nothing and no one behind.

RIPLEY: So you were trying to call --

K. TAMANG: Yes.

RIPLEY: -- your dad, your mom, nobody picked up?

K. TAMANG: My relatives, there is no answer.

RIPLEY: Because all of them were gone?

K. TAMANG: Yes.

RIPLEY: What do you -- what's keeping you strong?

[20:45:02]

K. TAMANG: I have one small brother. I have to take care of him. Now, I am the mother for him. So I have to be strong. When I cry, he will also cry.

RIPLEY: Hello.

K. TAMANG: This is my brother.

RIPLEY: What's your name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Koguntaman (ph).

RIPLEY: Koguntaman (ph). Nice to meet you.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Time passes slowly here. Most people are still in a state of shock. With only the clothes on their backs.

About 100 women and children sleep in this yoga center. They tell me every time there's a rumor of another flood, everyone runs up this nearby hill and hides. The rumors often come late at night, they say.

There are no showers and everyone shares a bathroom. They get their drinking water from a truck or fill their bottles at nearby waterfalls.

Children like Rojina and Rosita Bhatta can't go to school because it was also destroyed.

RIPLEY: So, what happened when you're on the bus going to school?

"We could see the water chasing us from our window," she says.

ROJINA BHATTA, FLOOD SURVIVOR (through translation): Everyone started crying and shouting. The driver drove very fast and took us to a safer place. I was extremely scared. We thought the flood would not be this big. But when we saw how huge it was, we were terrified.

Her dad, Rajendra Bhatta, says the bus driver saved his children's' lives. He saw dozens of houses being washed away, along with a bridge and a road. The raging water dragged this bus hundreds of feet.

Did you ever think you'd see a flood like this?

"No, I've never seen this type of flood," he says.

RAJENDRA BHATTA, EYEWITNESS (through translation): Not just me, but my father and grandfather also never witnessed such a devastating flood in their lifetimes. I think a large number of school children may have died. Since some of their parents may also have died, there's no one to ask about their whereabouts.

RIPLEY: You really got to watch your step. This is quicksand, probably about 20 feet deep. Some of these guys out here said they've stepped in it and it went right up to their neck. That makes recovering bodies very difficult and dangerous.

Nobody knows how many bodies are buried beneath, or when or where it'll be safe to rebuild all the homes, all the lives swept away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And Will Ripley joins us now. I mean, it's incredible that that level of loss in one family. What are resources for them? And what's going to happen to them?

RIPLEY (on-camera): They're getting their very basic immediate needs met right now. But in terms of medium and long term, particularly housing, where are they going to rebuild? They can't rebuild in the area that flooded. Nobody would feel safe to go back there. It's going to be a real test for the new government here in Nepal, which is mostly cabinet members under 40, they were brought into power because of the Gen Z protests here last year. They've barely been in office, not even a year yet. And now they're going to have to figure out how to deliver for these young people and the thousands of others, tens of thousands who are displaced --

COOPER: Yes.

RIPLEY (on-camera): -- because of this.

COOPER: Yes, I mean, that's the question. Do they rebuild in the same places that are vulnerable to --

RIPLEY (on-camera): Yes, they said they're not willing to live there. They don't feel safe.

COOPER: Yes. Will Ripley, incredible story. Thank you so much.

Countless families across the country are waiting for any piece of news about their loved ones. There's a wall outside of a hospital here in Kathmandu that's now covered with hundreds of posters and missing people, a reminder of the immense scale of the flooding disaster.

My next guest is from Columbus, Ohio. He came here to Nepal to search for his missing brother, who's an experienced trekker and a travel guide, and his missing brother-in-law who operates the tour company Classic Vacations Nepal. They're both Nepali citizens and were part of a group believed to be traveling close to the Nepal-China border when the flood hit. Their phones last pinged near an immigration checkpoint.

Ram Pathak joins us now. Thank you so much for being here. I'm so sorry it's under these circumstances.

RAM PATHAK, BROTHER AND BROTHER-IN-LAW MISSING AFTER NEPAL FLOOD: Sure.

COOPER: How do -- what do you do when you get here? What do you -- have you been doing?

PATHAK: Well, the first thing is right from the airport, I went to the Army camp where all the rescues is happening there to understand what exactly is happening.

COOPER: In Bidur?

PATHAK: In Bidur.

COOPER: Yes.

PATHAK: And I knew the few leaders there and senior Army forces and I tried to get some understanding what exactly is happening on all the rescue process.

COOPER: What area was your brother in? PATHAK: They were right in the -- they crossed to right in the Nepal immigration site.

COOPER: OK.

PATHAK: Around 8:35.

COOPER: OK.

PATHAK: And after 10 minutes, just, you know, flood hit there and they were with their group. I think nine -- 10 tourist foreigners, nine of them from U.S. and one from Canada and five or six, the Nepalese individual, all total 16 people were there all together. And we try to check everybody's kind of the last -- the phone network.

COOPER: Right.

PATHAK: Everybody's -- the network was just hitting the same location.

[20:50:04]

So our thought is they never crossed the Chinese, you know, immigration, all of them should be there at that location. And actually my brother-in-law had talked with my sister half an hour before the incident also.

COOPER: Wow.

PATHAK: I don't know. Now, since then, we -- my family back there in the U.S., my wife and everybody just keep asking 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. in the morning, hey, any updates and keep crying. My family's both side. My sister and my brother and my parents, all these seven weeks is just, you know.

COOPER: Does it help to be here? I talked to some family members who say that being in the states, at least here, other people are going through this, whereas in the states, regular life continues for so many people.

PATHAK: Yes, yes. It helped. And actually, in fact, I was here in Nepal three, four weeks back and I had a good time with all of them. And suddenly when I hear that, so. But it definitely helped, like when I was in that -- the camp location where all the rescue is happening, it's not only me and my family, it's a lot of people, you know, impacted from there.

COOPER: Yes.

PATHAK: And whatever the rescue thing is happening from the government for the victims like me, we always feel like there's more opportunities to get, you know, the rescue team more in the ground operation. That's where kind of we are right now, it's every second when passed, there's less hope.

So we're kind of thinking if for some reason there is talk around that location, they run through a lot of the helicopter chopper rescue. But physically being there, if there was any possibility there, that's what we're asking. Actually, that's what I thought when I meet with some of the senior -- the leaders there in the camp.

They have more details what exactly is happening at that location.

COOPER: Yes.

PATHAK: We are just hearing the information.

COOPER: Yes.

PATHAK: But from our side is I don't know how long it will go.

COOPER: Yes.

PATHAK: I recently went through my -- our parents DNA testing to check, you know. It's --

COOPER: It's part of the process here --

PATHAK: It's part of their process because when you look into that, some of the, you know, the body, it's -- you cannot recognize it.

COOPER: Yes, of course.

PATHAK: It's -- that's the process we are going through. But it's still a little bit of hope, you know, until we see anything.

COOPER: Yes. Well, I'm glad you were able to be here and at least be with others who are going through this.

Ram, I really appreciate you spending time with us.

PATHAK: Thank you. Thank you.

COOPER: I wish you the best.

PATHAK: Thank you.

COOPER: We'll have more coming up. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[20:57:09]

COOPER: Helicopters pass overhead. There are still people being evacuated from farther up the river, supplies being delivered, in some cases bodies being removed for identification.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: In the middle of so much devastation, we've also heard obviously many stories of remarkable survival. The man driving the school bus managed to save about 50 children. It was included in -- the girl in Will Ripley's report earlier. I spoke with him and others earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): It's been one week since disaster struck, and in Trishuli, this is the end of the road. Once a bustling market, now soggy and cement soaked. It looks like a wasteland.

The river is running fast. The water is still high. Residents and visitors stand and stare.

BIBHU RAJ ACHARYA, NEPALI RESIDENT: This water source has been a life for people living here. And by that, I mean, they've been living here for generations and generations.

COOPER: Looking at the water today, does it look different to you?

ACHARYA: Yes, it does.

COOPER: In what way?

ACHARYA: It makes me sad. It makes me sad and emotional as well because this is one of the sacred water resources that we have. You know, when you mourn for somebody in your family once they have died, people go up across this river and then they do all the rituals over there. So this is kind of like a holy river for us.

(SINGING)

COOPER (voice-over): Buddhist monks came from Kathmandu to pray and offer blessings. Traffic snarls on broken roads. The jackknife truck is hardly noticed.

A local school bus driver, Chhiring Tamang, saved the lives of some 50 children, picking them up just before their school was destroyed and crossing a bridge before it was washed away.

CHHIRING TAMANG, BUS DRIVER (through translation): After two minutes of me crossing the bridge, the flood came on my side. Kids started screaming after seeing the flood. They were shouting. One kid fainted inside the bus. They were asking me to drive faster.

On the road, there were people running like ants to save their lives. After I drove near the uphill, I could see the flood is already ahead of me. I reached a higher location and I felt safe with the kids. I took a long breath and then I continued my duty of dropping the kids, came back and parked the bus at the police station.

COOPER (voice-over): I asked him what it feels like to be a hero.

C. TAMANG: It's a sad time for me. I have lost my nephew. She was working in the same school. I'm very sad that my nephew is dead. My nephew called me before I crossed the bridge. This was right after I informed the principal regarding the flood.

He told me, "Uncle, where are you? There's flood coming in the river." She was a helper at the school. He informed me to not go to the school. He lives in the same school with his family. He has a daughter and his wife is disabled. They are safe now. They have nothing left as my nephew was my only breadwinner of the family.

COOPER (voice-over): Later, he showed us a photo of his nephew. His name was Tridam Lama (ph). There are many heroes here, but even they have heavy hearts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, that's it for us. The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.