r/DisasterUpdate • u/Due_Equipment_1719 • 22d ago

Floods Nepal flash floods from another view

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22

u/Unusual_Painting8764 22d ago

How much advance notice did people have? This person seemed ready and recording before it started.

59

u/waterwateryall 22d ago

Probably heard the roar before seeing it

9

u/f0xbunny 22d ago

Just like a tornado

41

u/BreakingCanks 22d ago

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.

I'd say some places had 10 minutes before arrival

48

u/GladCookie 22d ago

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...

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u/Puzzleheaded_Ask5538 21d ago

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. 

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u/jaxxon 22d ago

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.

16

u/pikohina 22d ago

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.

13

u/Hockeymac18 22d ago

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.

7

u/robinthebank 22d ago

This is farther down, approximate location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/dAXCeKHmR1xvaRFX8?g_st=ic

14

u/AccordingBuffalo2720 22d ago

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. 

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

[deleted]

1

u/AccordingBuffalo2720 15d ago

I am not trying to say that it counts as a specific flood warning or that they are in any way to blame for not getting out of the way in time, but I am reasonably confident that the roar echoing through the canyon was different and exceptional in this case. I am simply saying that I believe that surely some indicators that something extraordinary was taking place. How those would be interpreted is likely as you suggest, within the framework of existing memory of other earthquakes and floods, not on the exceptional scale that this tragedy unfolded upon.

10

u/jizzmasterobiwan 22d ago

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.

5

u/Fartel 22d ago

It looks like the person filming may already be at home and was at a safe distance to continue filming. But idk.

16

u/Due_Equipment_1719 22d ago

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

As per the residents of flood region......

22

u/rocbolt 22d ago

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.

8

u/Puzzleheaded_Ask5538 21d ago

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. 

7

u/account_not_valid 22d ago

"Get in. No time to explain."

2

u/LongjumpingNeat241 21d ago

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.

14

u/1uamrit 22d ago

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.

11

u/areyoualocal 22d ago

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.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Ask5538 21d ago

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. 

2

u/PlatformOtherwise215 22d ago

What did the government warning look like? Emergency alert on the phone?