Nepal Flash Floods: Medical Teams Deploy to Emergency Zone

Medical providers from Dhulikhel Hospital are going beyond hospital walls this week to bring emergency care to flood-impacted communities in Nepal. Devastating floodwaters and debris flows swept through northern Nepal and southern Tibet on Aug. 26, likely resulting from a glacial lake outburst.

More than 389 people had been reported killed on Thursday, with more than 1,400 still missing, including people from more than two dozen countries, including the U.S.

With rescue operations continuing and many communities cut off due to infrastructure damage, Dhulikhel Hospital deployed medical teams Thursday equipped with Direct Relief-provided field medic packs and emergency supplies. The hospital is also preparing to receive injured patients evacuated from hard-hit communities.

The hospital is located in Dhulikhel, Kavrepalanchok, Nepal, east of the country's capital of Kathmandu, and is a long-time partner of Direct Relief. The 475-bed hospital has received more than $2.5 million in medical support since April 2026 from Direct Relief and is now deploying some of that medical support into mountainous communities that have been flooded.

Emergency Medical Response Operations Expand in Northern Nepal

Another medical group has also deployed this week in northern Nepal with Direct Relief support. Mountain Heart Nepal, which connects medical care and outreach to the country's hard-to-access areas, will receive an emergency operating grant to support emergency medical teams for immediate deployment to flood-affected communities, equipped with previously pre-positioned Direct Relief field medic packs.

Direct Relief is also preparing its medical inventory to respond to any needs requested, and has shared a list of available support with Nepal's Ministry of Health, hospitals in the country, as well as NGO partners responding locally and regionally.

In addition to immediate emergency needs, such as search and rescue support and trauma care, medical needs are expected to increase around displacement, lack of clean water and sanitation infrastructure that has been destroyed, as well as inundated roads and mountain areas now unpassable to functioning medical facilities where people can receive care.

Direct Relief's Long-Term Commitment and Humanitarian Impact in Nepal

Direct Relief has a long history of support for Nepal, including during the country's devastating 2015 earthquake, which killed 9,000 people and caused massive damage to infrastructure, including health services.

Since 2009, the organization has provided more than $119 million in medical aid to Nepal across 48 partner organizations, 206 shipments, 638,000 lbs. of aid, and 34.9 million defined daily doses of medicine - including a $287,000 shipment of diabetes and cancer medications delivered this month, before the flood struck.