Nepal-Tibet Floods Kill 160; Hundreds Missing

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

KATHMANDU/BEIJING (Worthy News) – Residents were left grieving Thursday as massive flash floods in a border area of Nepal and China-ruled Tibet killed at least 160 people and left hundreds of tourists, workers and others missing, authorities confirmed.

The floods swept through Himalayan communities, destroying homes, roads and bridges and bringing travel in some areas to a halt, according to witnesses and officials.

Dramatic video footage obtained by Worthy News showed people shouting warnings as workers near a dam ran for their lives while a huge wall of muddy water and debris thundered through the valley.

Elsewhere, crowds could be seen desperately fleeing the approaching torrent, with some people disappearing from view as the powerful flood engulfed the area. Other footage showed muddy water surging through built-up communities, striking buildings, buses and other vehicles.

Experts suggested an avalanche of ice and rock from a glacier was the likely cause of the disaster in the warming Himalayan region.

GLACIER AVALANCHE SUSPECTED

Satellite imagery indicated that the lower part of a glacier broke off at an altitude of about 5,200 meters (17,000 feet) and crashed roughly 1,200 meters (3,900 feet) onto the valley below, carrying rock and sediment with it.

Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority reported that preliminary analysis indicated an ice-rock slide near the Nepal-China border sent a debris-laden flood into the Lhende River and downstream communities.

An earthquake reported minutes before the disaster was initially considered a possible trigger by Nepali officials. However, the U.S. Geological Survey later concluded that seismic activity initially classified as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake was actually generated by the massive landslide.

Nepal Police reported at least 157 deaths, while China’s state broadcaster CCTV put the toll in Tibet at three dead and 265 missing in Gyirong County near the Nepalese border.

Officials in Nepal reported 403 people missing, including 341 foreign nationals. They included 133 Indians, 47 Americans, 34 Australians, 33 Britons and 24 Canadians.

FOREIGN TOURISTS MISSING

Many of the missing Indians were reportedly pilgrims traveling toward Mount Kailash in Tibet, considered sacred by Hindus. South Korea also reported citizens missing at a hydropower project, while Malaysia and Russia indicated that nationals were unaccounted for in the affected region.

Images showed buildings in Nepal’s hard-hit Nuwakot district covered in mud after the torrent rushed downstream. Debris hung from tree branches and wires, vehicles were buried and stunned survivors were seen caked in mud.

Damaged homes stood precariously near the swollen, debris-choked banks of the Trishuli River, while survivors suggested there had been little time to escape.

“When I reached Dhunge bazaar, in half an hour, the flood came and damaged all the market. People were preparing to go to office then,” resident Shoyam Rajbhandari recalled. “How many people are missing or dead, we don’t know.”

At least 62 missing Nepalese were among hundreds of people trekking around Gosaikunda Lake in hard-hit Rasuwa district bordering Tibet’s Gyirong region, officials reported. Some 28 Nepalese police officers were also listed as missing.

RESCUE EFFORT EXPANDS

Authorities warned residents in several districts to remain away from the Trishuli, Bhotekoshi and Narayani rivers. At least 19 bridges and nearly 40 kilometers (25 miles) of road were swept away.

“We have asked both India and China to help us with the rescue efforts,” government spokesperson Sasmit Pokharel explained as emergency teams continued searching for survivors.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah and offered assistance. “India is prepared to provide Nepal with all possible types of humanitarian assistance,” Modi pledged.

United Nations agencies were also mobilizing assistance to meet what U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric described as an expected “massive humanitarian need.”

Australia, Britain, the European Union, Finland, France, Norway and Switzerland expressed solidarity with Nepal and urged people in affected areas to follow official safety instructions.

WARMING HIMALAYAS CONCERNS

Climate experts at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development noted that hydrological observations showed the exceptional speed and magnitude of the flood, with the Trishuli River reportedly rising by as much as nine meters (27 feet) within half an hour.

“The Lhende Khola has flooded twice in 14 months, this time triggered by an ice rock avalanche from a glacier on the Nepal side that blocked the river and released a sudden surge downstream,” disaster risk reduction specialist Saswata Sanyal explained.

He stressed the importance of better early-warning systems in what he called “a warming Himalaya.”

The same region suffered flash flooding in August last year when a glacial lake in Tibet overflowed amid high temperatures, killing nine people and damaging infrastructure, including a bridge linking Nepal and China.

Scientists say the wider Hindu Kush Himalayan region is particularly vulnerable to rising temperatures, melting glaciers, floods and landslides. They point to research suggesting its glaciers are losing ice at “an accelerating rate,” though other experts have questioned aspects of that assessment and argue that urbanization and development in vulnerable areas also contribute significantly to the human toll.

For grieving families and communities across Nepal and Tibet, however, attention remained focused Thursday on finding hundreds of people still missing as rescuers continued searching the disaster zone.

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