A flash flood tore through Nepal’s central Gorkha district before dawn on Sunday, October 11, after a landslide temporarily dammed the Budhi Gandaki River and then gave way — sending a wall of water, mud and debris through riverside villages. Dozens of houses and several bridges were swept away, and between five and ten people are missing.
A river that rose six meters in hours
Within a couple of hours, the river’s level at one monitoring point surged from about two meters to nearly 8.5 meters (almost 28 feet), officials said. The force of the water swept away a government hydrological station entirely.
“A landslide may have blocked the river or its tributary for some time, causing the dammed water to burst out,” officials said, though some witnesses upstream reported seeing an ice avalanche. The exact trigger remains under investigation.
Rescue operation under way
The Nepali Army says about 50 people were rescued from along the riverbank by Sunday afternoon, with some reports putting the number pulled from dangerous currents above 80. Thirty-six people were airlifted to safer locations, and a Joint Rapid Response Team was flown in from Kathmandu.
Nearly 400 security personnel and four army helicopters were deployed. Prime Minister Balen Shah said the army contingent was sent in by air and land, and the national disaster authority sent a text-message alert to residents at 6:40 Sunday morning urging them to move to high ground.
Home Minister Sudan Gurung warned of the flood’s severity on social media as the waters rose.
Conflicting tolls, one certainty: devastation
The scale of destruction is still being assessed, and figures differ by source. The national disaster authority reports about a dozen houses destroyed and several suspension bridges lost, while local assessments put the number of homes swept away at 35 to 65 across Gorkha and neighboring Dhading districts. At least six bridges were destroyed, including two motorable bridges and a Bailey bridge connecting wards of Dharche Rural Municipality.
On the missing, the Armed Police Force reports five people unaccounted for, all in Gorkha district, while district officials told the ANI news agency the figure is ten. No deaths had been confirmed as of Sunday evening.
Dharmendra Kumar Mishra, a senior Gorkha district official, said: “We have asked villages living along the river banks downstream to evacuate and remain safe.”
Second disaster in two months — on festival day
The flood struck on the first day of Dashain, one of the biggest festivals in the Nepali calendar, as families were preparing celebrations. Many now face uncertainty over shelter and essential supplies, with the charity Save the Children mobilizing an emergency team.
It is the second catastrophe to hit Nepal in about two months. On August 26, a collapsing glacier sent a deadly flood roaring down from the Himalayas near the border with Tibet, killing more than 1,400 people, with thousands still missing.
This is a developing story.
Sources: Nepal Army; Nepal Armed Police Force; National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority; ANI; Associated Press; Geneva Times.
