Washington DC - The US will provide $3.6 million in humanitarian aid to Nepal, the State Department announced Saturday, including emergency food assistance.
"The United States is standing with the people of Nepal by providing more than $3.6 million worth of life-saving humanitarian assistance, including up to three months of emergency food assistance to up to 10,000 flood-affected households," the State Department wrote in a post on X.
This came after Washington pledged $500,000 in the initial aftermath of the disaster. Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said the reconstruction bill could run into "billions of dollars".
"The urgency is on rescue and saving lives as much as we can," he said, appealing for specialised assistance, including heavy-lift drones and technology to help locate people who are trapped.
He also called for forensic testing kits to identify bodies and freezer units to store them, saying bodies that have been in water could decompose at a faster rate.
Fears of further flooding have compounded the search for the missing.
The deluge of ice and mud caused huge lakes, and one of these formations has become a risk of further floods. The Chinese and Nepalese foreign ministers spoke Saturday and discussed sharing satellite and hydrological data, both sides said.
Rescuers in Nepal and China on Saturday battled to locate thousands of people missing days after a deadly, tsunami-like wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayan region, engulfing entire villages.
Figures from both countries put the number of missing close to 3,000, with 682 bodies recovered – and reports of some dead possibly swept downstream as far away as India.
In a breakthrough late Saturday, the Nepali army was able to insert a pipe into a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site where workers are believed to be trapped.
"We have already started sending air through the small opening, and we will now begin excavation work and send the rescue team inside," Home Minister Sudan Gurung said in a statement.
A total of 2,141 rescuers were near the Gyirong site, the Xinhua state news agency reported, including the more than 500 in the worst-hit area.