Nepal flood deaths pass 1,100 as hope fades in the search for survivors

UNITED STATES: BIDUR, Nepal, At the Nepal army staging area in the heart of the flood zone, the roar of helicopters overhead carrying flood aid mixes with the rumble of a bulldozer digging a mass grave.

The overwhelming stench of death is crushing hopes that more survivors will be found in Bidur , a town in Nepal's Nuwakot district, devastated by last week's catastrophic floods .

Workers in white hazmat suits unload bodies from a stream of ambulances. They place the wrapped bodies onto a blue tarp in a cordoned-off area.

Helicopters, both military and private aircraft that in better days would be used for commercial tours, take off packed with aid before returning with survivors in need of medical care.

Kalpana Shrestha, a nurse who works in the capital, Kathmandu , is desperate. Ten members of her family are missing, her two sisters and their three children.

"I have shared their photos with journalists, on social media and YouTube, but I have not got any response at all," she told NBC News in Kathmandu on Tuesday. She added that her loved ones disappeared in Betrawati , a town some 60 miles from the capital that was obliterated in the flooding.

"I have posted so much that my fingers started shaking and trembling," Shrestha, 35, said. "My mind has stopped working. But even so, we have not stopped posting."

This Bay News report is based on originating coverage from NBC.