Ramesh Kumar, a journalist primarily based in Kathmandu, on Thursday (August 27, 2026) posted {a photograph} of a clock tower, its arms stopped at 09.29.
Round 600 kids lacking in Nepal’s Rasuwa, Nuwakot after flash floods; toll rises to 1,282
“A clock that may by no means present the time once more,” he wrote on X, previously Twitter. “Betrawati.”
Additionally Learn: Nepal observes nationwide mourning on thirteenth day of flash flood tragedy
Mr. Kumar had reached Betrawati in Nuwakot district, a city devastated by yesterday’s flood within the Bhotekoshi River in neighbouring Rasuwa district, which borders Tibet. After touring Betrawati, the place he was born and raised, he made a grim evaluation: “Will Betrawati ever revive as a bazaar once more? Nearly unattainable.”
The extraordinary velocity and scale of the flash flood within the Bhotekoshi River at round 8.40 a.m. on Wednesday (August 26, 2026) have left greater than 600 useless and near 2,500 lacking, together with overseas nationals, largely from India.
The Nepal authorities promptly bought into motion, mobilising personnel from the Nepal Military, Nepal Police and the Armed Police Drive, because it mounted a large search-and-rescue operation.
Scientists, in the meantime, struggled to piece collectively the chain of occasions and decide the origin of the flood, as they puzzled in regards to the enormity of the catastrophe, with some describing it because the worst for the reason that 2015 earthquake.
Concerning the origin, the Nepalese and Chinese language sides have concluded that the supply was within the Langtang Lirung space. Figuring out the precise level the place the preliminary collapse occurred and which aspect of the border it was on could also be troublesome.
In keeping with an official at Nepal’s Division of Hydrology and Meteorology, satellite tv for pc imagery shared by the Chinese language aspect pointed to a mix of an ice avalanche, permafrost motion and a rockslide alongside the Nepal-China border, with the rockslide occurring on the Chinese language aspect and its affect extending into Nepal.
“The avalanche originated on the Nepalese aspect of the territory, however very near the boundary, and induced flooding that crossed the Nepal-China border, inflicting in depth harm on either side,” mentioned Binod Parajuli, a senior divisional hydrologist on the division’s flood forecasting division.
The situation scientists are pointing to is within the Lhende Khola, a transboundary high-altitude river that originates in Gyirong County in Tibet and flows south into Nepal, the place it’s a tributary of the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river techniques.
Flooding within the Bhotekoshi River will not be unusual. Final 12 months, in July, a flood — brought on with out rainfall — within the Bhotekoshi wreaked harm and destruction. Scientists later concluded that the catastrophe was related to a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF).
Completely different angle
Whereas scientists initially thought-about whether or not this 12 months’s flood may even have been linked to a GLOF, its velocity and ferocity, which washed away villages downstream in three districts — Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading — prompted specialists to look at it from a unique angle.
Dr. Ranjan Kumar Dahal, an affiliate professor on the Himalayan Geodisaster Analysis Centre on the Central Division of Geology, Tribhuvan College, described the mass motion that triggered the flood as a sturzstrom.
“A sturzstrom is a large rock avalanche during which a big quantity of rock immediately collapses and strikes at extraordinarily excessive velocity over an extended distance,” Mr. Dahal advised The Hindu from Trishuli, one other space hit exhausting by Wednesday’s (August 26, 2026) flood. “In high-mountain environments, when rock is combined with ice, snow, firn and frozen soil, it may be understood as a rock-ice avalanche.”
Rasuwagadhi in Rasuwa is a border checkpoint by means of which most of Nepal’s commerce with China takes place. From Might to September, a whole bunch of pilgrims use this border level to cross into Tibet for the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. Indians make up the most important share of the pilgrims.
It may take weeks, if not months, to evaluate the complete scale of the harm, officers mentioned, including that the toll may additional rise.
The Worldwide Federation of Crimson Cross mentioned the remoteness of the affected areas, mixed with broken infrastructure, was making it tougher each to evaluate the complete scale of the catastrophe and to ship help to individuals who want it.
“Present estimates counsel round 93,000 individuals could have been affected,” it mentioned. “Many properties have been severely broken, chopping off among the worst-affected communities.”
Within the aftermath of the catastrophe, two extra essential questions have additionally emerged — whether or not the early-warning techniques had been activated and whether or not local weather change had a job within the catastrophe. Specialists say early-warning techniques had labored as meant however had been rendered ineffective given the staggering velocity of the flood.
Kamal Kishore, the pinnacle of the UN Workplace for Catastrophe Threat Discount, mentioned the floods had as soon as once more highlighted how fragile mountain ecosystems are and the way difficult it’s to arrange early-warning techniques in mountain environments.
Scientists haven’t dominated out the affect of local weather change, saying the rising temperatures are inflicting the Himalayas to heat and glaciers to soften sooner, however they stopped in need of immediately linking the catastrophe to international warming.
“We had not seen such a catastrophe in Nepal involving a sturzstrom. Nonetheless, in 2021, there was an analogous occasion in India,” mentioned Mr. Dahal, referring to the Chamoli catastrophe in Uttarakhand, the place a bedrock failure beneath a glacier triggered a large rock-ice avalanche that subsequently remodeled right into a particles move and flood.
The 2021 Chamoli occasion has been scientifically described as a rock-and-ice avalanche and, in some literature, explicitly as a sturzstrom. Analysis discovered that greater than 25 million cubic metres of rock and ice broke free excessive within the Uttarakhand Himalaya earlier than transferring quickly downstream.
Catastrophic sturzstrom
“A sturzstrom begins when an unstable rock-ice slope immediately collapses. The collapsing mass quickly accelerates, fragments and mixes with ice and snow,” Mr. Dahal defined.
“Strain and friction can generate meltwater, which can improve lubrication inside the transferring mass and alongside its base, lowering resistance and contributing to exceptionally lengthy runout,” he added.
In keeping with him, this course of can unfold inside only a few minutes.
“Because it strikes downslope, it might incorporate extra ice, snow, rock, soil and water, probably reworking into a large particles move earlier than lastly depositing its materials,” he mentioned.
In the meantime, rescue operations have continued on the fourth day, with Prime Minister Balendra Shah saying greater than 15,000 personnel have been deployed.
For communities alongside the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli hall, the fast priorities are discovering the lacking, restoring entry and assessing whether or not among the locations destroyed by the flood will be rebuilt in any respect.
It’s a race in opposition to time.
