US Geological Survey says massive glacial collapse caused catastrophic flash floods in the Himalayan border region of Nepal and Tibet
By Mark Saunokonoko, Nick Evershed, Mike Hohnen, Paul Scruton, Harvey Symons, Glenn Swann and Lucy Swan
At 8.37am on Wednesday, an enormous section of a glacier in the Himalayas sheared free and crashed on to the valley floor in Nepal’s Langtang national park, about 35 miles (60km) north of the capital, Kathmandu, near the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border.
Such was the force of the event, it was initially reported as an earthquake of magnitude 4.4. The US Geological Survey later determined the tremor was caused by glacial rock and ice collapsing, registering a magnitude of 5.2. The collapse triggered a huge release of water, mud, rock and ice that thundered down valleys and swept down the Lhende Khola, Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers.
The high-speed flash floods careered towards northern Nepalese towns, including areas popular with mountaineering tourists and pilgrims. Horrifying videos from the Gyirong border post, which connects Nepal and Tibet, showed people running for their lives as the wall of debris obliterated buildings and swept away lines of buses.
In Nepal, houses and roads were washed away in seconds. “It was a huge gush of mud coming straight towards us,” said Keshav Prasad Baral, 68, a survivor who was being treated at a small hospital. “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. Four or five hours later, a helicopter came to rescue me. My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud. She’s gone.”
In a stark illustration of the deluge’s deadly power, a bridge crossing the Trishuli River was shown in a video being washed away in a tsunami-like flood. Multi-storey homes were quickly submerged as the torrent gouged through the riverside town….
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After the truth-shower 