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Flash floods swept away villages, roads, and bridges in Nepal and Tibet, killing at least 22 people. The disaster, which appears to have been caused by a glacier lake draining, has left hundreds missing and rendered rescue efforts by helicopter impossible until the waters recede.
killed at least 22 people and destroyed roads, bridges and power projects on Wednesday, as authorities in both countries braced for more casualties and worse damage.
Houses and roads were swept away in Nepal while officials in Tibet said they feared “major casualties”, with some people missing in the county of Gyirong after a mudslide hit a land crossing between the neighbours. Rescue helicopters could not land in Nepal’s affected areas of Syapru Besi and Timure in the mountainous district of Rasuwa, with a population of about 50,000, officials said, with the river flowing above its normal course.
Natalie Harp: The ultra-devoted Trump aide who fascinates and frustrates other people around himAt least 384 travellers, including 291 foreign nationals, have been reported missing, Nepal’s tourism board said. The missing foreigners include 105 Indians and 12 people from the UK, it said. Television broadcast images of crumbled homes in the flood waters, floating cars and a metal bridge being washed away, while witnesses told Reuters the waters engulfed entire villages.
“There could be heavy casualties or loss of property,” said district administrator Narendra Pariyar, who urged dwellers on the banks of the Bhote Koshi river to move to higher ground, after reports of villages and project sites being swept up. “There is devastation everywhere we look,” Tula Bahadur BK, a health worker in Rasuwa, told Reuters. “The settlements next to the river have been completely swept away. Five of my own relatives are missing.
” Rescuers carry a victim after flash floods at Devghat in Nepal's Nuwakot district. Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP via Getty Images Nepal’s rescue helicopters would be unable to land in the affected areas until the waters recede, an army spokesperson said. The cause of the inundation was not immediately clear, but a deadly flash flood on the same river last year was eventually traced to the draining of a glacier lake.
China’s official Xinhua news agency said the mudslide occurred on the Nepali side and hit the Gyirong port to cut roads, communications and power links in the Shigatse region near the border with Nepal, but did not elaborate. China’s president Xi Jinping urged “all-out” search efforts for the missing as well as stronger monitoring and early-warning systems to prevent secondary disasters. Police and military were joining in the rescue effort, said prime minister Balendra Shah.
“Instructions have been given ... to move the people living in the lower areas to safer places,” he said. “People along the river are advised to exercise extra caution and remain alert. ” From its origins in Tibet, the Bhote Koshi river empties into Nepal’s Trishuli river that eventually flows into India as the Gandak river.
Last year’s Bhote Koshi flood killed nine people, with 24 missing, as it washed away a Friendship Bridge linking Nepal and China to disrupt trade and transport for months. That flood was triggered by the draining of a supraglacial lake in Tibet, a regional climate monitor said. – Reuters Houses arepartially submerged in muddy water along a riverside after flash floods at Trishuli Bazar in Nepal.
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