{"id":581706,"date":"2026-08-27T07:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/581706\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T07:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:14:10","slug":"how-the-deadly-nepal-and-tibet-flash-flood-unfolded-a-visual-guide-nepal-tibet-flood-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/581706\/","title":{"rendered":"How the deadly Nepal and Tibet flash flood unfolded \u2013 a visual guide | Nepal-Tibet flood disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

The massive glacial collapse that caused catastrophic flash floods in the Himalayan border region<\/a> of Nepal \u2060and Tibet has killed at least 165 people, though the number of dead is set to rise, with local officials saying more than 1,000 were missing.<\/p>\n

Officials said 826 people were missing in Nepal, among them 579 tourists from two dozen countries, including India, the US, Australia, Britain and Canada. Chinese \u200cstate media said 558 people were missing \u200bin Tibet\u2019s Gyirong \u2060county. It was not immediately clear if the missing counts were separate or some people been counted twice.<\/p>\n

At 8.37am on Wednesday, an enormous section \u2060of a glacier in the Himalayas sheared free and crashed on to the valley floor in Nepal\u2019s Langtang national park, about 60km north of the capital Kathmandu, near the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border.<\/p>\n

Map showing the flood-affected locations from the Nepal flash flood<\/a><\/p>\n

Such was the force of the event, it was initially reported as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake. The United States Geological Survey later determined the tremor was caused \u200bby glacial rock and ice collapsing, registering a magnitude of 5.2.<\/p>\n

The collapse triggered a huge release of water, mud, rock and ice that thundered down valleys and swept down the Lhende Khola, Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers.<\/p>\n

The high-speed flash floods careered towards northern Nepalese towns, including areas popular with mountaineering tourists and pilgrims.<\/p>\n

\"DeadlyDeadly flash flood hit Nepal and China<\/p>\n

Horrifying videos from the Gyirong border post, which connects Nepal and Tibet, showed people running for their lives as the wall of debris obliterated buildings and swept away lines of buses.<\/p>\n

In Nepal, houses and roads \u2060were washed away in seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a huge gush of mud coming straight towards us. As it got closer, it kept rising higher and higher. When I saw it enter our home, I tried to grab my wife\u2019s hand and take \u2060her to the terrace. But she was swept away by the mud,\u201d said Keshav Prasad Baral, a 68-year-old survivor, who was being treated at a small hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour or five hours later, a helicopter came to rescue me. My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud. She\u2019s gone.\u201d Another survivor described being saved by clinging to a mango tree as he watched the house where he had been \u2060working disappear.<\/p>\n

In a stark illustration of the deluge\u2019s deadly power, a bridge crossing the Trishuli river was shown in a video being washed away in a tsunami-like flood. Multi-level homes were quickly submerged as the torrent gouged through the riverside town.<\/p>\n

\"FlashFlash flood destroys bridge and buildings along Nepal\u2019s Trishuli river<\/p>\n

Bibek Kumal, a Nepali labourer, was working in Bidur when others sounded the alarm. \u201cI started running. Then a wall of water came thundering down as if it was an earthquake,\u201d \u2060Kumal said from his bed at Kathmandu\u2019s National Trauma Centre.<\/p>\n

The torrent swept him downstream amid mud and debris, \u200bbut \u201cluckily I was stuck up in a mango tree, he \u200csaid. \u201cHad there been no mango tree, I would \u200chave been washed away to death.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a location just north of Kumal\u2019s lucky escape in Bidur, a video shows an immense flood swallowing a river valley as it surges towards Betrawati Bazaar, an important historical and pilgrimage town.<\/p>\n

\"DeadlyDeadly flash flood shown sweeping through valley towards Nepali village<\/p>\n

Mud and water moving at such high speeds forms a lethal combination \u201clike liquid concrete,\u201d said Hatim Sharif, a hydrologist at the University of Texas San Antonio, adding that it cannot be outrun.<\/p>\n

Satellite view of flooding in Betrawoti Bazaar, Nepal<\/a><\/p>\n

Nepal\u2019s tourism ministry said hundreds of people were believed to have been trekking in Rasuwa, one of the worst hit districts. Officials said 133 tourists \u200cfrom India and the Indian diaspora were missing, as they made their pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus. <\/p>\n

Rescue operations were difficult on Wednesday because of damage to infrastructure and higher than normal river levels. Helicopters could not land in Nepal\u2019s affected areas of Syapru Besi and Timure in the Rasuwa region, which has a population of about 50,000.<\/p>\n

Rescuers waded through mud and sludge, looking for survivors after flood waters buried the lower floors of multi-storey buildings.<\/p>\n

Rescuers carry a victim of the flash flooding to safety along the Trishuli River in Nepal\u2019s Nuwakot district. Photograph: Niranjan Shrestha\/AP<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is devastation everywhere we \u200blook,\u201d Tula Bahadur BK, a health worker in Rasuwa, told Reuters. \u201cThe settlements next to \u200bthe river have been completely swept away. Five of my own relatives are missing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Petley, an earth scientist with Nottingham Trent University, described the scale of the event as close to \u201capocalyptic\u201d. The huge volume of water was possibly a combination of ice that converted to water as a result of the initial collapse and river water. But until the exact cause of the disaster could be confirmed by scientists, that was just speculation, he noted<\/a> in the science outlet Eos.<\/p>\n

The Himalayan mountain range spans several countries in South Asia and has many of the world\u2019s highest peaks and remaining glaciers.<\/p>\n

Satellite view of flooding<\/a><\/p>\n

The steep slopes and the lush valleys below are especially vulnerable to flooding and landslides, and extreme weather events like intense monsoons and melting glaciers have become more common because of warming due to human-caused climate change.<\/p>\n

An aerial view shows houses deluged in sludge after flash floods at Devighat, Bidur municipality in Nepal\u2019s Nuwakot district. Photograph: Prabin Ranabhat\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Researchers in Kathmandu found earlier this year that glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region are melting faster, with ice loss rates doubling since 2000.<\/p>\n

With Reuters and Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The massive glacial collapse that caused catastrophic flash floods in the Himalayan border region of Nepal \u2060and Tibet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-581706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}