Himalayan Landslide Triggers Catastrophic Flood at Nepal-Tibet Border

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A catastrophic wall of mud, rock, and floodwater has turned a remote Himalayan border region into a disaster zone.

In Nepal’s Rasuwa district and across the border in Tibet, a massive landslide swept away entire settlements, roads, vehicles, and power infrastructure.

In a still-unfolding disaster, verified videos showed dozens of people swept away at the border, with authorities on ‌both sides fearing far higher casualties and massive destruction.

Houses, roads and power projects were washed away in Nepal, while officials in Tibet said they feared “major casualties” after a mudslide hit a border land crossing in the county of Gyirong.

“It 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’s hand and take her to the terrace. But she was swept away by the mud,” said Keshav Prasad Baral, a 68-year-old survivor, who was being treated at a small hospital.

“Four or five hours later, a helicopter came to rescue me. My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud. She’s gone.”

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the event was initially identified as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake. Further analysis of long-period seismic waves showed that it was actually caused by a glacial collapse and debris flow. Scientists estimated the event’s location using satellite imagery.

Essentially, the landslide looks to have temporarily created a dam…which then broke, causing the massive flash flood.

Nepal’s disaster authority (NDRRMA) described that a chunk of snow and rock broke off near the glacier zone on the Nepal-China border, about 20km northeast of the Rasuwagadhi border crossing.

That avalanche either fell into a glacial lake or blocked the river channel, and the resulting surge, carrying glacial ice, meltwater and debris — “glacier-inclusive flood” — swept down the Lhende Khola into the Bhote Koshi river.

Hundreds are missing, including over 40 Americans.

Sunil Sharma, a tourism board spokesperson, said 133 were from India on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus. Also missing were 47 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 24 from Canada, he said. How many local people were also ‌missing was not clear.

A State Department spokesperson said it “is aware of Americans impacted by the floods in Nepal and is closely tracking the situation.”

The region lies on a popular route to Kailash Manasarovar in Tibet, a site visited annually by hundreds of Hindu pilgrims from India and elsewhere, particularly at this time of year.

The landslide also impacted Tibet and triggered alerts in northern India.

The disaster also affected China’s Tibet region, where officials reported three deaths and 265 people missing in Gyirong.

The mudslide struck the Gyirong border port, damaging roads, communications and power connections. China deployed drones to assess the damage and prepared aircraft and helicopters for rescue operations.

The flooding also prompted alerts in northern India, where authorities evacuated thousands of people in Bihar as rivers flowing from the Himalayas rose. People had been evacuated from six districts, with plans to move as many as 10,000 to 12,000 people from areas at risk.

The Himalayas have once again delivered a brutal reminder of this region’s deadly beauty.

Here’s hoping that the death toll does not grow and the region is able to recover quickly.

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