On Thursday evening, I witnessed heart-wrenching scenes at a Kathmandu temple, where family members of missing people cremated effigies of their loved ones, including one of a hydropower worker. The successful rescue of at least two workers on Friday will revive some hope for people who were not only grappling with loss but also facing the possibility that the bodies of their relatives and friends might never be found.
While officials have said more than 900 people are missing, others say it is hard to know how many were trapped in hydropower project tunnels and how many had been swept away by floodwaters. That figure is only a small portion of the more than 5,000 people missing after the disaster last week.