Two Portuguese Siblings Are Found Alive Near the Tibet Border, but Three Nationals Are Still Missing After the Himalayan Flood

Two Portuguese siblings reported missing after Wednesday's flood on the Nepal-Tibet border have been located in safety, the Ministerio dos Negocios Estrangeiros confirmed. The pair were on holiday in Nepal; the woman lives in Portugal, the man in Australia. A third Portuguese man, resident in France, had already been found earlier in the week, in good health and near the Tibetan border but away from the incident.

The relief was partial. In the same statement the ministry said that "two national citizens were located in safety (the two siblings reported missing yesterday) but there are two new disappearances", leaving three Portuguese nationals unaccounted for. Sunday morning's Lusa update places at least one Portuguese among those still missing on the Tibetan side of the border.

The scale on both sides of the border

By the count published at 06:37 on Sunday, drawing on Nepal's national disaster risk reduction authority and Chinese state media, at least 750 people had died and 3,044 remained missing across the two territories. Nepal accounts for 734 of the dead and 2,498 of the missing; Tibet for 16 dead and 546 missing, of whom 261 are foreign nationals. Nepal's figure rose by 59 in a single day.

The trigger, according to the working explanation from Nepalese officials and seismologists, was a glacier collapse that sent a wall of water and debris down the valley. The United States Geological Survey recorded a magnitude 5.2 event associated with the surge, along with numerous landslides. Nepalese authorities warned on Sunday that water levels in the affected area were rising again.

How the consular count moves

The Portuguese figure has changed almost daily, from two to four to six and back down, and that volatility is the ordinary shape of a consular emergency rather than a sign of confusion. Names arrive from families in Portugal, from relatives abroad, and from trekking operators; people walk out of valleys with no signal and are struck off the list; others are added when a booking or a message goes unanswered.

Portugal's diplomatic representation for Nepal is run from outside the country, which is precisely the situation the ministry's permanent emergency line exists for. It is the same machinery that Madeira leaned on after the Venezuela earthquakes and that has been carrying an unusually heavy load this year, from the mobile desk at Catia La Mar that saw more than 300 Portuguese in a day to the suspension of Australia's working holiday visa.

What this means for expats

• If you hold Portuguese nationality and travel: register your trip with the MNE's Registo Viajante before you go. It is free, takes minutes, and is what turns you from a name in a newspaper into a file with a phone number.
• Dual nationals: Portugal will assist you as a Portuguese citizen regardless of where you reside. Two of the three located this week live outside Portugal.
• Reporting someone missing: contact the MNE's permanent emergency service rather than waiting for a local embassy. Give the last known location, the operator or hotel, and the passport number.
• Do not treat the counts as final: both the Nepalese and Chinese figures are provisional and have moved every day this week, and so has the Portuguese one.

For families in Portugal waiting on three names, the arithmetic of the wider disaster is beside the point. What the week has shown is how quickly a holiday in a remote valley becomes a consular case worked from Lisbon, and how much of the resolution has come from people simply reaching a place with a signal.