Homes and bridges swept away as fresh floods hit Nepal
Nepal is still trying to recover from catastrophic floods that hit less than two months ago, leaving thousands dead and missing.
Homes and bridges swept away as fresh floods hit Nepal
A major river in Nepal has overflowed, washing away houses and bridges and damaging part of a hydropower station, authorities said.
About 50 people have been rescued from the bank of the Budhi Gandaki River in the central Gorkha district, the army confirmed. No deaths have been reported so far, but five people are missing.
Nepal remains on high alert and is still struggling to recover from catastrophic floods that struck its border towns with Tibet two months ago, killing more than 1,400 people and leaving thousands missing.
Sunday’s flood ripped through Gorkha district as children and communities were preparing to mark the first day of the Dashain festival, a major event in the Nepali calendar.
Families have been forced to leave their homes, with many unsure where they will find safe shelter and access to essential supplies.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said the flood swept away about a dozen houses and several suspension bridges, while a hydroelectric project was damaged and some construction equipment was carried off.
Officials said that within a couple of hours, water levels in the river at one location rose from two metres (6ft 5in) to nearly 8.5m (27ft 9in).
Binod Parajuli, a meteorologist working with the Nepalese government, said: "Our hydrological station was swept away and we are not getting any data from that location."
Experts, however, say the debris-flow is much smaller and moved more slowly than the devastating flash floods in August.
The cause of the latest flood remains unclear. Some say a landslide may have blocked the river or one of its tributaries for a time, causing the backed-up water to burst through, while others say people upstream saw an ice-avalanche.
Save the Children is sending an emergency team to respond to Sunday’s flood.
"Children's lives have been ripped apart in an instant yet again", the charity's director in Nepal, Tara Chettry, said.
"We are yet to see the full scale of the damage, but they may have lost their homes, schools and communities. Many children in Gorkha will still be in shock and distress after the mega floods in August, barely having a chance to get back on their feet."
The Budhi Gandaki is a tributary of the Trishuli river, downstream from another tributary where a glacier collapse caused the earlier disaster.
Many Nepalis swept away in the floods are not officially dead, leaving families in limbo.