Newsroom
At least 469 people have been killed and more than 1,300 remain missing after a devastating flash flood tore through Nepal’s northern border region, wiping out villages, roads, bridges and power facilities.
The figures were still changing Friday as rescuers searched through thick mud and debris across Nepal and neighboring Tibet. Hundreds of tourists and religious pilgrims from more than 30 countries are among those unaccounted for.
The video accompanying this story gives some idea of what people in the area faced. A wall of brown water bursts through a barrier, bridges disappear within seconds and a boulder weighing many tonnes is pushed downstream as if it were a child’s toy.
It is difficult to imagine anyone standing in its path having much time to escape.
How the disaster began
The flooding began Wednesday morning, Aug. 26, high in the Himalayas near the Nepal-Tibet border.
Early reports suggested an earthquake may have triggered the disaster. Scientists later said the seismic activity detected in the area was more likely caused by an enormous collapse of glacier ice and rock.
That collapse sent water, ice, mud and boulders racing down mountain rivers toward villages and settlements below. One Chinese geologist estimated that the debris was moving at around 50 meters per second, roughly 180 kilometers per hour.
By the time the flood reached communities along the river system, it had become an unstoppable wall of water and rubble.
The torrent struck the important route connecting Kathmandu with Lhasa in Tibet, an area used by traders, construction workers, trekkers and pilgrims heading toward the sacred Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar.
Dozens of bridges were destroyed and around 40 kilometers of roads were damaged, leaving entire communities cut off and making it extremely difficult for rescue teams to reach survivors.
Bodies have been recovered hundreds of kilometers downstream from the worst-hit areas, showing just how far the floodwaters traveled.
A new flood threat
The danger is not over.
All the rock and mud carried downstream created natural dams in the rivers, trapping millions of cubic meters of water behind them. On Friday, one of these newly formed lakes began overflowing near the Nepal-China border.
Residents in Nepal’s Rasuwa district were seen running up hillsides as river levels rose. Helicopter operations were temporarily suspended, while Chinese rescue crews were ordered to pull back to safer ground.
Authorities fear the natural barrier could give way completely, sending another surge of water into areas already devastated by Wednesday’s flood.
At the same time, the Nepali army was trying to reach about 100 people trapped inside a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project. Around 350 workers and residents had already been rescued from the area.
The Nepal Red Cross estimates that about 93,000 people may have been affected and has launched an international appeal for emergency shelter, medical care, food and clean water. Reuters reported that helicopters were being used to search isolated valleys and deliver supplies to people stranded by destroyed roads.
Why this disaster feels close to Cyprus
Nepal may be thousands of kilometers away, but for Cyprus this is not simply another disaster happening somewhere on the other side of the world.
Around 17,000 Nepalis currently live in Cyprus, according to Nepal’s Foreign Ministry, with many working in hotels, restaurants, construction, private homes and the care sector.
They are the people looking after elderly relatives, cleaning homes, working in kitchens and helping keep Cyprus’ tourism industry moving. Many send a large part of their wages back to parents, children and relatives in Nepal.
For them, the frightening images are not just dramatic footage on a screen. The destroyed towns may be places they know. The missing may include friends, distant relatives or members of their wider communities.
As rescue teams continue searching, thousands of Nepalis across Cyprus will be doing what families always do when disaster strikes from afar: calling home, checking messages and hoping the next name they hear is one of the survivors.
*With information from Reuters and Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
