Nepal Flash Floods: Direct Relief Mobilizing Aid Around Medical Needs

At least 160 people have died and hundreds more remain missing after a catastrophic flash flood tore through border areas of Nepal and the Chinese territory of Tibet on Wednesday.

Infrastructure in and around the Bhotekoshi River — bridges and buildings among it — was swept away during the disaster, which officials believe may have been triggered by an ice avalanche off a breaking glacier. Rescues are continuing across the region, and health needs are expected to grow. Providers on the ground expect to be treating trauma and wounds, performing surgery, and administering blood products and antibiotics, and say emergency medical teams and first responders will need continued resupply.

Direct Relief is organizing support around anticipated medical needs in the region and staying in close contact with partner organizations. The group has already shared a list of its available medical inventory with Nepal's Ministry of Health and with nonprofit partners, including Mountain Heart Nepal, which links medical care and outreach to the country's hardest-to-reach communities.

Direct Relief is providing an emergency operating grant to Mountain Heart Nepal to support the group's work, including sending medical teams into flood-affected areas equipped with field medic packs Direct Relief had positioned there in advance.

Direct Relief's support for Nepal stretches back years, including through the country's devastating 2015 earthquake, which killed roughly 9,000 people and severely damaged health infrastructure.

Since 2009, Direct Relief has delivered more than $119 million in medical aid to Nepal across 48 partner organizations — 206 shipments, over 638,000 pounds of aid, and close to 35 million defined daily doses of medicine, including a $287,000 shipment of diabetes and cancer medication delivered earlier this month, just before the flood hit.

The organization says it will keep responding to medical needs in the region as they become clear.