Fatalities are increasing and emergency teams are searching for the missing. This is the scenario in Nepal, a Southeast Asian country that suffered a catastrophic flood on Wednesday, following the rise of the Bhotekoshi River in Rasuwa, a mountainous district near the border with Tibet, China.
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According to official figures, so far the tragedy has left 359 dead and about 1,400 missing. Among the rubble, emergency teams have rescued 445 people alive. In addition, it was confirmed that at least 63 people are receiving medical care in various hospitals in Kathmandu.
The sudden landslide caused the rise of the Bhotekoshi River that crosses the country from north to south. The flow increased and dragged mud, rocks, debris, and everything in its path. According to reports, at least 19 bridges and about 40 km of roads were destroyed.
The landslide occurred in a few minutes, at the moment when a quake was recorded in the locality of Rasuwa. Nepal’s Foreign Minister initially reported that an “earthquake” had occurred at the border.
The diagnosis was that the seismic movement had caused the avalanche. However, that option was discarded.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) confirmed that a quake was recorded, but specified that the movement did not have a tectonic origin.
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The USGS detailed that, after analyzing the “nearby seismic stations, long-period seismic waves, and satellite images,” they determined that “the seismic event was, in fact, a glacier collapse and a debris flow, and that no earthquake had occurred.”
Along with this, the agency specified that the earth movement, which reached a magnitude of 5.2 degrees, was caused by the massive debris detachment.
The professor of Energy, Environment, and Safety at the University of Dundee (United Kingdom), Simon Cook, explained to the BBC that “climate change could have an impact.”
“Permafrost partially holds some mountain slopes together; this permafrost is warming, thawing, and degrading, so more landslides will occur,” he warned.
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