Originally published at The Crux
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The death toll topped 1,300 with 5,600 persons missing Friday, nine days after a disintegrating glacier at the headwaters of a Himalayan river system triggered catastrophic flash flooding along the Nepal-China border.
Emergency responders at a hydro-electric facility on the Chinese side of the border rescued two plant workers Friday, a rare and welcome bit of good news amid appalling destruction and dwindling hope.
Among the many daunting challenges people in the affected regions are facing, the task of identifying remains is a logistical challenge and a spiritual trial.
The apostolic administrator for Nepal – a nation of 31 million, only 10 thousand of whom are Catholic – Fr. Silas K. Bogati told Crux Now some of the bodies were already decomposing when they were discovered, and could not be kept in refrigerators.
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“They have therefore been placed in specially dug graves in the soil as a preservation technique,” Bogati said. “DNA samples have been collected,” he said, “and the bodies have been properly marked and documented.”
This arrangement, however, is not permanent.
