Nepal Faces a $2.56 Billion Rebuild After Catastrophic Flooding

Nepal’s catastrophic August 26 flood has moved rapidly from an emergency response into a reconstruction crisis. Property, housing and infrastructure worth at least 387.5 billion Nepalese rupees, or about $2.56 billion, has been lost, according to Reuters, citing Dharma Raj Upreti, chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. The human toll is even more severe. More than 1,250 people have been killed, more than 4,200 remain missing and thousands have been displaced after the collapse of a glacier sent ice, rock and mud down the Trishuli River in Nepal’s border region with China, devastating settlements along its…