Catastrophic Flash Flood In Nepal

 

A horrific wall of water, ice, mud, and debris hit Gyirong Port Wednesday near the Nepal-China border.  From AP:

Rescue teams searched Thursday for hundreds of missing people along the Nepal-Tibet border after the collapse of a glacier sent a deadly wall of water and mud several stories high tearing through communities a day earlier.  [snip]

Police in Nepal said Thursday that the death toll in the flash floods that hit communities along the Nepal-Tibet border a day earlier has risen to 353.

Abi Narayan Kafle, the central spokesman for the Nepal Police, told The Associated Press 353 people were dead in the floods as of Thursday.

Rescue teams were searching for hundreds of people after the disaster, which has left more than 1,300 are missing, including scores of foreigners and pilgrims. Hundreds others have been displaced across the Himalayan region. [snip]

The U.S. Geological Survey first reported a magnitude 4.4 earthquake early Wednesday, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Kathmandu, near the border.

The USGS later updated its analysis to say the seismic event was instead a magnitude 5.2 glacier collapse that sent debris flowing downstream.

Climate experts at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development said an avalanche from a glacier likely caused Wednesday’s flash flood.

Here's the moment it hit the border crossing: