A wall of mud, rock and water tore through the Nepal-Tibet border corridor Wednesday, swallowing roads, bridges, power projects and entire settlements with terrifying speed.

By Wednesday evening, Nepalese authorities had confirmed at least 72 deaths. Hundreds of tourists and workers were still missing or out of contact as rescue crews fought broken roads, deep sediment and devastated communications.

The first footage showed the scale of the disaster from above:

The flood surged into Nepal through the Bhotekoshi River from the Tibetan side of the border. Timure and Syabrubesi in Rasuwa district were among the hardest-hit places.

Another clip captured the muddy torrent crushing everything in its path:

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The Kathmandu Post reported that roughly a dozen settlements along the river were affected, including Syabrubesi, Betrawati, Mailung, Salletar, Shantibazar, Pairebesi, Khalti Basti, Sole, Trishuli and Battar.

Market areas in Syabrubesi suffered some of the heaviest destruction. Police posts at Timure, Syabrubesi and Rasuwagadhi were damaged as the flood moved downstream, leaving emergency crews without normal communications or dependable road access.

The government mobilized the Nepali Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police. Helicopters were sent toward the disaster zone, while medical teams, ambulances, the Red Cross and Scouts were pulled into the relief effort.

Authorities also ordered people along the Trishuli River to leave vulnerable homes and market areas and move to higher ground.

By Wednesday afternoon, the flood had already reached Galchhi in Dhading. Officials warned that the surge would continue toward Muglin and could disrupt the Prithvi Highway and the Muglin-Narayanghat road.

The destruction extended far beyond homes:

The exact trigger was still under investigation Wednesday.

There was no heavy rain around Rasuwa’s district headquarters when the flood appeared. Officials said the surge came from Tibet, where satellite imagery showed significant rainfall.

A magnitude 4.4 earthquake was recorded shortly before the time stamped on border security footage. Scientists were also examining whether an ice-rock avalanche or another upstream collapse unleashed the flood, but neither explanation had been confirmed.

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Video of bridges being battered and swept away showed how quickly access routes disappeared:

A Reuters report republished by Investing.com said Nepal’s tourism authority listed at least 384 travelers missing from the region, including 291 foreign nationals and 93 Nepalese citizens.

The preliminary list included 105 Indian citizens, three Americans and 12 British nationals. Authorities warned that the roster was still being checked and did not prove that every listed traveler had been swept away.

The flood also knocked out roads, communications and power links around the Gyirong border crossing. At least 574 rescuers were deployed on the Tibetan side, where deep sediment blocked access to the worst-hit zone.

Nepal’s energy ministry said roughly 430 megawatts of electricity supply was affected, representing more than 12 percent of the country’s hydropower capacity.

The most chilling video came from a fixed security camera at the border. People can be seen running seconds before a wall of debris engulfs the crossing:

A later Kathmandu Post update, citing Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, said 72 bodies had been recovered across seven districts.

The confirmed deaths included 28 in Chitwan, 18 in Dhading, 11 in Nuwakot, nine in Gorkha, four in Tanahu, one in Rasuwa and one in Nawalparasi East.

Thirty-two Nepal Police and Armed Police Force personnel were missing in Timure. Sixty people connected to the Langtang Khola Hydropower Project were also out of contact, including 35 workers who had been inside a tunnel.

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Fifteen customs employees were missing, and nine bank branches were swept away with about 26 employees still unreachable. Search teams were deployed across the affected districts as officials worked to reconcile overlapping lists.

The district-by-district recovery count showed how far the disaster had traveled beyond the border. Communications failures and blocked roads meant those figures remained a floor rather than a final accounting.

Some people escaped by seconds:

The disaster was still unfolding long after the initial surge.

A rescue helicopter trying to reach Timure had to turn back because the local helipad had been swept away. The pilot said there was no safe place to land and that the village was barely visible from the air.

Downstream, floodwaters moved from Rasuwa through Nuwakot, Dhading and beyond. Families along the Trishuli were warned that the danger had not passed.

More footage showed water and debris tearing through populated areas:

One widely shared report put the missing count above 1,000. The verified reporting available Wednesday evening supported a figure in the hundreds, and the fast-moving lists were not yet a final casualty count.

The final clip gives another view of the flood’s reach:

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What is already clear is catastrophic: whole riverside communities disappeared beneath mud and water in minutes, and hundreds of families were left waiting for news.

The official toll will almost certainly change as rescue teams reach areas that remained cut off Wednesday night.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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