Torrential rains and swollen rivers caused massive floods and dangerous landslides in Tibet and Nepal on Wednesday, sweeping away villages and destroying crucial roads and bridges.
The death toll stood at 95 on Wednesday, with hundreds of people missing, including some 341 foreign nationals.
According to Chinese state media, the flash floods began at around 9:00 a.m. local time in the border region of Nepal, quickly spilling over into Tibet’s Gyirong county. The first report of the disaster came from a border checkpoint that was obliterated in a matter of seconds, as recorded by horrified onlookers:
Nepalese officials reported 72 fatalities, plus hundreds of tourists, workers, and police missing, including 341 foreigners from 26 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, India, Australia, and the Netherlands.
The border region between Nepal and Tibet is a popular tourist destination for hikers, mountain climbers, and Hindu and Buddhist religious pilgrims. The checkpoint destroyed by flash flooding was part of the route many visitors take from Nepal to Mount Kailash in Tibet.
According to the Nepalese tourism ministry and tour operators, many of the missing tourists were traveling on buses when massive landslides slammed into the roads and wiped out bridges. Debris from shattered bridges was swept along by the floodwaters until striking other bridges downstream, creating a cascade of destruction.
The flooding reached all the way to Gyirong Port, the primary trade port in Tibet and a key part of China’s trade route to Nepal. Chinese state media reported “major casualties and missing persons” in the port city.
Chinese dictator Xi Jinping ordered local officials to “spare no effort” on search and rescue operations, dispatching paramilitary law enforcement units to assist with disaster relief operations.
The Chinese embassy in Nepal also activated its emergency response procedures and called on Nepal to assist with rescue operations, while Nepalese officials asked neighboring India to “help us with the rescue efforts.”
Hundreds of homes were swept away by the floods, and the destroyed roads and bridges will make rescue operations more difficult. Power and communications lines were wiped out on a massive scale.
Nepal’s energy ministry said over 12 percent of the country’s hydropower capacity was offline on Wednesday morning. South Korea’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that eight South Koreans who worked at a Nepalese hydropower plant were among the missing. The South Korean government said it would send a rapid response team to Nepal as quickly as possible.
Even air operations were disrupted, as Nepalese officials said river levels were too high for helicopters to land in the affected area. Some of the worst flooding occurred around the Bhote Koshi river, which also flooded badly last year, killing nine people and wiping out a key “friendship bridge” on the China-Nepal trade route.
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