Flash flood warning in Nepal after 5.1 magnitude earthquake hits China; evacuation at Trishuli

A new flash flood warning for Nepal hit China’s Sichuan province on Friday after a 5.1-magnitude earthquake struck on Friday. Nepalese police have launched an operation to evacuate local residents near the Trishuli area as the torrential flow of water from above threatens to raise the level of the river, news agency ANI reported.

A 5.1-magnitude earthquake was recorded in the city of Longchang in southwest China’s Sichuan province, the China Earthquake Networks Center said, according to ANI, citing CGTN.

Amid these developments, the Nepalese police issued another warning after receiving information that the dam on the Tibetan side had burst again.

The In a post on X, Nepal Police urged security personnel, rescue teams involved in rescue and relief operations and members of the public to remain alert, move to safer areas and warn others if necessary.

Meanwhile, the death toll from a devastating flash flood in Nepal’s Rasuwa district rose to 469 on Friday. Nepalese police said 1,545 injured had been rescued.

What caused the flash flood in Nepal?

According to a news report, the tremors were initially reported as an earthquake “instead of a glacial collapse and debris flow” that “caused catastrophic downstream effects.” More than 165 people were reported dead and nearly 1,000 missing in torrents of water and debris that tumbled downstream on both sides of the Nepal-Tibet border, AFP reported.

What the preliminary findings indicated

This discovery of the cause dismisses initial reports that suggested the earthquake was likely to have triggered a landslide. Even Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal suggested the same. Other theories, meanwhile, blamed the flooding of a glacial lake, suggesting that water gushed downstream after the collapse of a fragile scree wall holding back the melting water, triggering an ice avalanche-like event.

The Kathmandu-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) found “no anomalies” from the Chinese side of the border. “We believe there was an ice and rock avalanche in Nepal that blocked the Lhende River and caused a cascading flood,” ICIMOD remote sensing and geoinformation analyst Sarthak Shrestha was quoted as saying by AFP.

Hatim Sharif, a hydrologist at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said, “It defeats basically every functioning flood warning system in the world,” because rainfall is usually considered a precursor to such a tragedy.

India enters with more than 10 tons of humanitarian aid

India stepped up its humanitarian response on Wednesday evening, sending the first tranche of more than 10 tonnes of aid as the Himalayan nation grapples with devastating flash floods. External Affairs Minister Kirti Vardhan Singh said that India is working closely with the Nepalese government to search and rescue the missing Indian citizens.

MoS Singh said, “We are receiving reports of flash floods in a river in Nepal; many lives have been lost and many people are missing. Among the missing are approximately 130 to 133 individuals from India with whom contact has been lost. Our national rescue teams are on the ground, actively involved in search and rescue operations. We are making all possible efforts, in cooperation with the Government of Nepal, to locate them and save as many people as possible from ANI. report.