Nepal Glacier Flood Leaves Thousands Missing

A glacial collapse triggered catastrophic flash floods in Nepal last week. It killed more than 1,200 people and left thousands missing. The disaster also impacted the Tibet region of China. Entire villages were erased, overwhelming rescue operations.

The Moment of Impact

At 8.37 am last Wednesday, a melting glacier high in the Himalayas on the Nepal-Tibet border crashed into a valley. This set off deadly flash floods down Nepal's Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers. By 8.50 am, the settlement of Betrawati was engulfed. It had only minutes of warning. Dil Bahadur Shrestha, 70, was tending his rice fields on the opposite bank. He felt the ground tremble. He saw a black wave hundreds of metres high coming down the valley. He said everything was destroyed within two minutes.

A Landscape Erased

Betrawati was a once-thriving market town. It is now submerged under thick mud. Only the top two floors of a six-storey building remain visible. Most houses were washed away or flipped on their sides. The river has diverted to a new path. It cuts through where the highway once was. Fragments of lives lie scattered in the debris. There are kettles, teddy bears, and medicine packets. Further upriver in Rasuwa district, the destruction is worse. The mountain village of Syabru Besi was wiped clean away. Even the road is gone. Local officials report at least 500 people missing there. That is a quarter of the population. The village now resembles a muddy riverbed. Just one building is standing.

The Search for the Missing

Rescue workers have struggled to reach the worst-hit areas. In the border village of Timure, police search teams only recently began ground operations. They have recovered 90 bodies. A week after the disaster, army helicopters were still evacuating survivors. They were taking people from mountainsides to the army base in Dhunche. Dil Bahadur Shrestha searches the mud where his home once stood. He looks for his wife, Jamuna. She was last seen trying to usher chickens to safety. More than 5,000 people are reported missing in Nepal. A further 546 are missing in the Tibet region of China. Santamaya Lawat, 57, shook dirt from a few salvaged belongings. Her house was built with her life's savings just 10 months ago. It remains filled with mud. Five members of her family are gone. She said it was supposed to be the house she lived in for the rest of her life. It was like heaven here, she said, and now it has been turned into hell.

Children and Aid Cut Off

The floods have severed critical infrastructure. This hinders aid. The only road from Kathmandu to Rasuwa is now a perilous 12-hour track of mud and stones. Many aid trucks are stuck in Dhunche. They cannot travel further north. The disaster has hit children particularly hard. At a relief camp, doctors said dozens of children had lost their parents. More than 200 children from the local Nilakantha school are missing. Most were aged between five and 11. They are believed to have been washed away while walking to morning classes. Teacher Prakash Nepal said the school received a warning just ten minutes before the waters hit. A school bus was recalled, saving those aboard. However, many children from families displaced by a 2015 earthquake lived in informal riverside settlements. He said they could not save the students who were still on the road. His eyes welled with tears.

Amid the tragedy are small stories of hope. In Lachyang, Ram Krishna Neupane, 69, and his wife Muiya, 66, feared their son was dead. He is a vet in Syabru Besi. After two days of silence, he called from a Kathmandu hospital. He had been rescued by the army. He was crying too much to speak.