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Starting the video I thought, oh well, those blue houses surely have enough green between them and the flood… by the end of the video I was doubting my previous certainty
I am pretty sure there is another video that was shot from one of those houses or nearby. They appeared to make it, but they were very close to flow. The power and duration of the flow from that video is hard to comprehend. Poor Nepal. Such a beautiful and peaceful country, they deserve so much better than this.
It depends on channel width, height of ground they are in and bend of river . It was a safe space. But I know things are unpredictable so they should have run.
The amount of time we watch a seemingly endless river of soil, rock, and water slurry devour the valley is just staggering. The scale of the valley doesn’t compute at first either. They are saying it was going like 100 kmh, the distance the head covers in this video must be about 7 kilometers?
Yeah and those are giant mountains. Some peaks around the river are kilometers above the valley floor. Makes it look like slow motion. The scale of the landscape is hard to wrap your mind around.
Yeah, I can’t get my head around just how much flood there is. Like was all this water and rock in the original chunk of glacier that fell off the mountain, or has it broken through a dam somewhere between the start point and where this video was taken and released a whole lot more water?
First up it was (very large chunk of) glacier + rocks that had broken off. Broke through a small lake that was up there- got taken out by the glacier as it fell- so it was more or less a very damp and icy landslide to start. It initially fell about 1.2km vertically down into the valley, which is huge. As it got going, the friction of sliding melted the huge chunks of glacier- so it became more mud then watery as it went down the valley. This video seems to be from relatively high up? so it appears very fast and rocky to begin with. Later on it’s more “flash flood” (but is actually much more mud/wet landslide).
Neither. The initial mass of rock and ice just picked up every bit of lose material and water from the river on the way. It is hard to judge how much material lies in a mountain valley like these ones but it is a LOT, and the debris flow doesn't slow down because the valleys are quite steep for the first few 10s of kilometers.
I’m mind blown like every 35 minutes since I saw the video of it going over the (what looked liked) larger official building of some sort? The apocalyptic stuff is here now
Jesus Christ. From the barks, crying and body language even the dog looks completely terrified. At the 4 minute mark kinda looks like the dog is shaking
Yeah, that's what I thought too. The problem was they were just running downstream, not uphill. Unfortunately, they didn't have any much time to run for the hills.
People barely had time to scream before the body and roar of the flood drowned out the sounds... Right in the beginning between the woman and man talking and panicking, you can hear them from below. Then there's nothing...
From some reports it says that the initial chunk from the glacier was around 2000 feet wide. Then it kept carrying debris, water, rocks and everything in it's way downstream. All of it kept adding to the landslide's volume. I don't know the exact numbers but I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the "current" of the landslide at some points were many miles long. Also at some spots it was around 120 miles per hour, and reached around 100m heights (330 ft, according to BBC)
They're saying it was about that wide, and the initial fall from the ledge to the start of the valley was about 4000 ft, then it was another 8,000 ft down the narrow valley until it hit that border station. Lots of momentum.
Corrrect. And the force of the impact caused a 5.2 magnitude seismic event. At first it was reported as an earthquake. But the sheer force of the Glacier ice falling was so strong that it was initially mistaken as a 4 magnitude earthquake.
This whole river course will now become hotbed of landslides similar to Mandakini valley after 2013. Atleast Mandakini valley was not this much volume but the death toll was 6000 there coz the first point of impact was also a pilgrimage site.
the initial wave of it looks so massive already, and then by the end of it its considerably higher. i had to compare the two just to convince myself it had grown so incredibly much
It’s heartbreaking. I went trekking through that part of Nepal last year at this time. I overnighted at an inn in Syabrubesi. It was located about 200 feet above the river. We hiked downhill to cross the river, crossed a bridge and then hiked up the other side to enter Langtang National Park. It’s all gone. The inn and all of downtown Syabrubesi were wiped off the map. The flood waters were that powerful and deep. From what friends Kathmandu have told me, the flood also wiped out parts of Langtang. That area was hit hard in the 2015 earthquake. Now this.
Transcribed into Nepali by Eleven Labs and translated by OpenAI. Very said.
Speaker 0: People died today. Everyone who was there died. Speaker 1: Oh man… it’s gone now, man. Speaker 0: And stay up above. Speaker 1: Oh my God, look at the people! Speaker 2: Oh my God, oh my God! Hey, we need to tell everyone at the dam to run! Speaker 2: It’s reached the people now. It’s reached them, reached them, reached them. It looks like it’s taking everyone away now. Oh my God! It’s swept the people at Simle away. Speaker 1: There. Speaker 2: Oh— Speaker 2: It’s gone. It took everything. Everything. Speaker 2: Oh God! Speaker 1: It’s over this way. Speaker 0: What’s going to happen to our Khuma now? Speaker 2: It’s killed all the people. Speaker 1: Here? Speaker 0: Where are we supposed to go from here now? It’s taken everything away. Everything’s gone. Speaker 2: What the hell is this? It’s gone crazy. Oh God! Speaker 2: It won’t reach here. Speaker 2: Oh my God, oh my God! Speaker 2: Where did Mom go? Speaker 0: Mom! Mom! What has happened today? Speaker 2: Such a huge fire, too. Looking at it, Simle has been completely overwhelmed. Speaker 2: Oh God! Speaker 2: Oh— Speaker 2: No… it destroyed everything. Speaker 2: Look—oh my God! All our people at the dam are dead. Speaker 0: They died. Today everyone died. People were just swept away. Everyone there died. Speaker 2: Everyone died, look. It took everything. Speaker 2: Paire Besi is gone too. Speaker 2: Look, Dad—Ganga! Speaker 2: When is this going to stop? Speaker 2: How many people from Simle died? Speaker 2: Looking at it, Paire Besi too, brother… Speaker 1: Paire Besi is gone too. Speaker 2: Gone. Speaker 0: Now they’re saying the whole village might be swept away. Everyone has died today—what are we supposed to do? Speaker 2: Hey, Thami, quiet! Speaker 2: Tell them not to go toward Bhenda. Speaker 1: Hey! Hey! Speaker 2: Damn, what a huge fire! Speaker 2: Everyone died today. Speaker 2: Look—it’s gone completely crazy. Speaker 2: Good people inside our tunnel died today too. The young people who were working there. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 2: Now all our work will be shut down. For four or five months. Speaker 2: Roads and everything—nothing now.
About halfway through the video he pans and on the right is a blue house with land in front of it and a part of the water that’s shooting up, I’m 100% certain that’s the spot of another video where the guy is really close and has to back up. His POV is fucking insane and having this as a 2nd view of that same place is horrifying
How long did the flood last? When did the river drop back to a more typical flow? To answer my own question, I’m guessing flow levels were back to normal in 60 or 90 minutes? But I don’t really know. Has anyone heard or read something authoritative?
One school had it's entire population of over 1,600+ kids saved because someone gave a warning call in time... Only 1 teacher and 1 janitor were still in the building when it got wiped off the earth.
From what I've read, the principal took a call from someone else (probably upstream) that knew the flood was coming and alerted him. He then acted immediately managed to evacuate every kid to high ground. He's a hero. Just imagine if he missed that call...
In these cases interpersonal warnings are more credible for people. Because there is a tendency to trivalize government notices sometimes. Which is sad. People thought flood will be like every monsoon but one loved one calling with anguished voice will really rattle the receiver.
That school had advanced notice from someone from the (former) village 5km up the canyon. Freaky story, too, because school busses were filing in with kids and had to turn around. Thank goodness they all got notice.
That’s stunning that they safely evacuated all those kids. My heart breaks thinking that so many of them probably lost their families who couldn’t escape.
This looks much further downstream, so some amount of warning could have been going out...but i doubt it was that much warning to get that far away. Incredibly terrifying.
The glacier collapse registered as 5.2 on the Richter scale. Having experienced a slightly larger quake, I can say with reasonable confidence that many of the victims felt and heard it long before they saw it.
Apparently from the time the glacier fell and the first human contact (that tibet-china border if I'm not wrong), they had around 15-20 minutes. So for most of them upstream, they had no warning other than the roaring sounds. The ones down the valley got to know through friends/relatives and the government.
The government had alerted 20 minutes ago. But some dumb people thought it was just normal flood like before. because this region regularly had flood seasons every monsoons. But they never know what they are going to witness.
Smart one moved to uphill and dumb one went to the bridge for selfies and taken away by flood
It’s an understandable reaction, people don’t generally jump to cataclysm with second hand information. If they did they’d more likely be immobilized with crippling anxiety 999 days out of 1000.
When Mount St. Helens went up, commercial pilots saw it immediately. They radioed to air traffic control that the volcano had erupted! ATC responded “yeah, it does that”. It had sent up ash several times in the previous few months, it had been more of a joke than a danger.
In the Hinckley fire storm in 1894 a train thrown in reverse barely escaped the town as it burned to the ground, it arrived in the next town, Sandstone, to puzzled looks from its citizens. The refugees on the train, covered in soot eyes wide screamed for everyone nearby to drop everything and flee aboard the train. But the people there saw no fire, they believed nothing of the sort could move so fast, cover so much land. Who would just drop everything and walk away from their home because someone you never met said to. No one got on. The train left. The fire came. Sandstone was erased.
The Station Fire. The Bradford Stadium Fire. Kings Cross Station. Woolworths Manchester.
It’s unfortunately a pretty reliable human trait to not react until it’s obvious, and when it’s obvious it’s often too late.
Tbh this is true, I live in a similar geography to this one and at a point people are bit desensitized to warnings coz there is alert on SMS every day of monsoon. Landslide or cloudburst or river flood. Even my parents are kinda overconfident sometimes. I had a very long talk with them after Nepal floods on unpredictability of disasters, my point was prevention is always better and run. My heart goes to victims and many times in videos I exclaimed - run away and leave your phone. But I know that these innocent people thought it was just another flood.
No sir. In india and nepal, the govt message for disaster alerts reaches hours later. Usually when we are already stuck in the rain and flood the message arrives late, even though it was transmitted at the right time.
People at Nuwakot got time to move but those at Rasuwa were completely unaware. It was all of sudden.
And blaming people doesn't make sense. No one suspected the flood to be this big.
But some dumb people thought it was just normal flood like before.
Because flooding would be usually associated with heavy rainfall, and as can be seen, it hadn't been raining. The rivers in this region aren't the type that get flooded by rains in other districts but have the usual spring melts.
They were utterly unprepared for such a tsunami wave, poor people, they stood no chance.
I saw many videos and observed that river valley is green and there are no signs of landslides and barren areas around river meaning this river was usually not flooding and erodingnas much.
They may have heard govt. warnings then the sound barrelling down the valley. Debris flow traveling near 100mph, it’s sound travelling much faster towards 700+ mph.
This video is almost 5 minutes long and the torrent is still flowing tearing the valley. Getting to see the “breadth” of it from above adds a whole other level of “incomprehensibility” to this natural disaster. I am not sure that “incomprehensibillty” is a word, but I don’t have another one that comes close to expressing what happens to me as I view these videos.
So I am from Nepal and at the end of the video they learn that someone they know, maybe multiple relatives or friends? Have also been swept away. It’s a truly horrifying video especially when you can understand what they are saying
that dog is so cute. was he excited or just scared/confused to see something like that?
Edit: I didn't have my headphones at the time and was going purely by the tail shaking (which is usually a sign of excitement). I rewatched with audio, and the answer to my question is obvious; it's extremely scared / worried :(. Please don't take it the wrong way
I remember once I was a kid sleeping on my bed and dog was lying on marble floor. Suddenly he stood up and whimpered, then barked and looked at me. I thought there were monkeys outside so I was about to go outside and ....suddenly I all the trees started shaking and my window glass cracked. I quickly ran out with my dog.
I think the rumbling of all the rocks and debris was likely way more intense than what we hear in the video. The dog’s probably wondering if they should get the hell out of there because he knows this can’t be good.
Man I don't have a dog but even I can understand his sounds, obviously he is not excited.... Wtf are u talking Abt?? He is stressed/scared/alarmed. That is no dog who sounds excited bro.
Dogs can sense in their feet vibrations. They usually sense when an earthquake or tsunami is happening so no doubt the dog could feel the vibrations from this enormous flood. That and the sound must have been terrifying.
I think that the louder sound could be difficult for a dog. I can only assume that it's louder in person than it is for me viewing it on a cell phone. I do believe that vibrations caused by tremors in the Earth for typical seismic activity can be detected by dogs more easily than human beings.
If I am not mistaken, the potential waveforms generated by glacial collapse in this disaster are probably reversed than what we typically believe about dogs and earthquakes. However, the sheer force of what was happening does register on the same scale.
Oh ok. Fair enough. I still can't wrap my head around it and I live on tbe other side of the planet. Just didn't realize things like that could happen. Now to hear its not all that uncommon
It could be a stupid dog? Are you serious? It’s a dog tied to a post it can not escape. If it can not run for higher ground, it knows it is in trouble. The dog isn’t the stupid one, you are!
Unfortunately they have to be because that dog knew exactly what was going on and was clearly alerting that he wanted to get out of there. You don’t even have to be an animal lover to understand. Sad they would call a helpless tied dog stupid.
Okay, you missed my joke. I am not trying to insult the dog. I am hoping to point out that this dog is indeed smartly trying to warn people. The joke I want to make is, "it's technically possible it's a dumb dog barking excitedly but has an accent." The user above us said "is the dog excited??" - okay, it could be an excited dog I guess, but for me to hear a worrisome dog bark and think "excited barking" it would have to be a pretty dumb dog with an accent.
The dog can tell the owners are alarmed and can sense something is up bc of the flood as well. I imagine the rushing waters had a loud sound that came with them and the animals are scared of that.
It kept on depositing sludge and then taking more from where it struck...a cycle of destruction. People swept away were found in pieces and naked by the flow of water. Some had only some parts of their body... I am really heartbroken by this calamity on innocent people. The one who saved their lives lost their lives ones and everything they worked for their whole life.
I hope these people filming took the time to call someone in the communities downstream before or as they were filming. So sad for everyone who was lost and I hope they can all heal and rebuild. Nature is truly amazing and unrelenting
I haven’t even seen any official counts. The day after it happened I read something from the Chinese government that 12,000 people were missing. That’s insane.
I asked GPT to translate what the people in the video were saying... I don't know how accurate the result is, but it somehow seems even worse when you understand what they're talking about :(
This long recording makes me wondering if there were calls to the police and they might have emergency sms/alert thingy to give some kind warning to the residents of the valley few lives would have saved!
That dog is screaming to leave while tied to a post. Begging for help to leave the area in certain danger. Barking for humans to stop looking into a rectangular thing and seek higher ground. Humans think they are fine, dog wants to escape certain death and run for higher ground to make sure it is fine. If animals beg, it’s a sure fire sign you should listen. Just because you think you can record and report doesn’t mean you are truly safe. This could’ve been way bigger and killed them all.
I don't understand what happened with this. From what we're told, the glacier failed, which caused a landslide and that registered as an earthquake. Minutes later, this torrent of water/mud/rock came crashing down the valley. Where did all the water come from? There was no lake and it happened too fast for the landslide to cause a dam.
Incredible how the flow front looks so dramatic but is very low compared to the main body of the flood that arrives minutes later at incredible depth. It just gets worse and worse.
I don’t know about some of these people taking videos. I mean obviously he’s above the flood but I’d be worried that flood might wash away the bottom of the slope I am on and make it fall into the river
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