KATHMANDU, Sept. 23 -- The morgues in Rasuwa district could not hold them all. By Sunday, local authorities had begun mass burials, laying to rest unidentified victims at sites hastily cleared along the river valleys - an acknowledgment written in earth that the flooding which swept through Nepal's mountain communities on August 26 had killed more people than the country's emergency infrastructure could process one by one.

The confirmed death toll passed 1,000 by Monday. Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority reported at least 987 deaths on the Nepali side, with the number still climbing as search teams reached previously inaccessible communities. Chinese authorities in Gyirong added 16 more. Altogether, 3,916 ...