*Massive flash flood affects nearly 558 residents, leaving 300 foreign nationals from countries, such as India, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, United States and Australia are unaccounted for, over 24 hours after the devastating mudslide flattened buildings and washed away roads and bridges in Nepal’s mountainous Rasuwa district
Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect
Hundreds of people are missing after a flash flood swept through a Nepalese valley near the Chinese border, killing at least 175 and prompting evacuations and alerts in neighboring India.
Nearly 558 residents, including 300 foreign nationals from 28 countries are among those missing in the rugged mountainous region, which is popular with pilgrims and trekkers.
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Affected missing foreigners are from countries, including India, Malaysia, the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (US) and Australia are unaccounted for, over 24 hours after the devastating mudslide flattened buildings and washed away roads and bridges in Nepal’s mountainous Rasuwa district, agency report said.
Specifically, they include 177 people from India, 63 from the U.S., 53 from Ukraine, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain, 28 from Malaysia and 25 from Canada, according to Nepal’s Embassy in India.
It was also gathered the massive flash flood on Nepal-Tibet border had left hundreds missing, including US tourists
Relating the incident also, Chinese officials affirmed that about 558 people were missing after a mudslide at a land crossing in Tibet’s Gyirong county, including over 260 foreign nationals.
It was not immediately clear whether China and Nepal were counting some of the same people, report said.
Videos show bridges being cracked apart and swept away in Nepal’s hardest-hit Rasuwa region by the force of raging waters filled with mud and debris.
The exact cause of the disaster was not immediately clear.
Disruptions to communication networks, electricity supplies
Experts said it was most likely caused at least in part by a partial glacier collapse that sent tons of ice and rock crashing down into the valley below, setting off a powerful landslide.
Officials in China and Nepal have said that severe disruptions to communication networks and electricity supplies have hampered efforts at getting in touch with those who are missing.
On possible cause of massive flood
Reports indicated that a glacial avalanche likely caused the flooding, according to scientists.
An ice-rock avalanche from a high-altitude glacier may have triggered the flooding, with a large volume of ice and rock debris entering the Lende Khola tributary, researchers have said in a preliminary assessment, agency report stated.
The Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, in a statement, also said: “The event could have generated a sudden surge that carried water, sediment and large boulders downstream.”
On one section of the Trishuli river, which the Lende Khola feeds into, water levels rose by as much as 30 feet in half an hour.
Experts are also examining whether the jolt as the avalanche hit the river may have caused the 4.4-magnitude earthquake recording observed by the U.S. Geological Survey yesterday.
USGS later updated the event, saying it was a 5.2-magnitude glacial collapse.
Qianggong Zhang, head of Climate and Environmental Risks at ICIMOD, stated: “With a blockage still lodged upstream on the Nepal-China border, authorities warn a second flood is imminent.”
The assessment is preliminary, the scientists have said, but they noted that the same site was also devastated in flooding last year, report stated.
Meanwhile, as of 8 a.m. Thursday (8 p.m. Wednesday ET), two Resuo villagers have been rescued, and three bodies have been recovered, Norbu Tsering, Deputy Party Secretary and Acting Mayor of the city of Shigatse, said at a news conference.
The number of missing people has more than doubled from an earlier estimate of 265.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has ordered “all-out” efforts to search for the missing and called for strengthening monitoring and early warning systems to prevent secondary disasters, according to Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency.
Roads leading to the Gyirong Port land crossing on the Chinese side have been cut off along with communications and power supplies, hampering rescue efforts, Xinhua said.