Nepal holds national day of mourning as floods kill over 1,300

Nepal held a national day of mourning Monday, the 13th and final day of traditional Hindu mourning after devastating floods that killed more than 1,300 people across Nepal and Tibet.

Government offices lowered flags to half-staff as families concluded mourning rituals. In Hindu tradition, a 13-day mourning period allows close family members to stay home while relatives visit to pay respects. On the final day, rituals are held to pray for the souls of the departed. For families unable to recover bodies, performing symbolic funerals provided spiritual release.

The death toll, according to Nepal's disaster management agency, exceeds 1,300, with roughly 5,000 missing, including foreign nationals. About 900 workers remain missing at 12 hydropower projects that were swept by the Bhotekhoshi River or buried under debris on August 26. Roughly 500 are believed trapped in tunnels at the projects.

Search efforts continued Monday with specialized rescue teams from India, China, South Korea, and the United States searching through debris and tunnels. Two Nepalese workers were rescued from a plant on Friday.

Some relatives protested near offices of the prime minister and key ministries in Kathmandu, demanding government speed up search and rescue efforts. Sumana Shrestha, whose husband—a 55-year-old consulting geologist—has been missing since the day of the flood, told the Associated Press: "We are here because we have not heard of any rescue attempt on this project, but it has been 13 days already. The only thing we have been able to do is pray to God and hope for a miracle." Mahesh Prasad Shrestha, protesting with a photograph of his brother Niraj, a 52-year-old engineer missing at Trishuli hydropower plant, said authorities sent a small excavator by helicopter on the sixth or seventh day after the disaster. "They should have ordered big helicopters from places like China or India to fly in equipment," Shrestha said.