‘Tsunami from the sky:’ floods leave trail of devastation in Nepal and Tibet - The Latest

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0:45Rescuers are having to kind of wade through swathes of mud.

0:51One of the Nepal rescue agencies has said it's moving from the sort of rescue part of the operation already to the sort of relief part. Some of the experts are fearfully watching the fact that there is still a blockage in the river and then that could cause another landslide. If that does happen it's just going to complicate things even more in an already devastated region. From the Guardians today in Focus this is The Latest with me Lucy Hoth. Yesterday catastrophic and shocking flash floods hit Nepal and Tibet with at the time that we're speaking, which is lunchtime on Thursday, around 900 people still reported missing that figure, likely to go down as the number of people found dead increases.

1:39Devika Bhatt, you're one of our global editors. The footage is just unbelievable to watch, isn't it, in terms of the speed and the scale of the destruction. What are we hearing from people on the ground about how this unfolded? Thanks for having me on, Lucy. Yes, you're quite right. I mean, the images are just devastating and give a real sense of just how shocking and sudden this event was. We know that flash floods are by their very nature sudden, but from all the accounts that are starting to emerge, it looks like this one was just particularly unexpected and people really didn't have time to do much preparation at all to flee.

2:17And the images that we're seeing reflect that, just incredibly terrifying images of huge waves of water pouring over ground, people being swept away. And we know now that these flash floods have completely devastated parts of Nepal and on the other side of the border too in Tibet. They've caused roads to be swept away, bridges to be swept away, devastated entire communities, washed away villages. And indeed, the president of the Nepal Center for Disaster Management has described it as a tsunami from the sky, which really sort of conveys quite horrifically how sudden and dreadful this event was.

2:57And of course, as you say, there's a devastating and very upsetting death toll that's likely to climb further. Yeah, yeah. I mean, some of the footage that's been most upsetting to watch is that of people sort of trying to flee to higher ground, but losing loved ones beneath them. Obviously, families are going to be torn apart by this. And as you say, entire villages, huge amounts of infrastructure have been completely devastated, making the rescue effort enormously challenging. Yes, that's quite right. So not only have these floods caused that mass devastation, they've now had the knock-on effect of cutting off communities because loads of the roads and bridges are completely inaccessible.

3:42And we know that the Nepalese army has been saying today it's carried out some rescues, including rescuing people. I think the number is in the hundreds or early hundreds of people by helicopter. But the prime minister has said one of the key priorities now is to try to get the roads reopened. And he's ordered that to be done. We know that rescuers are having to kind of wade through swathes of mud. You know, there are reports of mud being really, really kind of high up and hard to get through. There's been a big call for international help. And the international communities responded to that and said, of course, it will help.

4:20We know, for example, here in the UK, Andy Burnham's pledged five million. And there will be international rescue teams mobilizing. but how quickly they can get there sort of remains to be seen as well. Yeah, I mean, it certainly kind of looks, a flash flood feels like an underestimation of what this looks like. It looks like the tsunamis that we saw in Sri Lanka or Japan in terms of the speed in which it devastates entire communities. In terms of the people who have survived, they are also undergoing enormously difficult conditions, aren't they? There have been temporary rescue structures set up.

4:55There are international organisations who are trying to access the area. But what do we know about the conditions for the survivors at the moment? Well, it's a very good question. It's very hard to discern for certain because obviously a lot of those communities are cut off at the moment. But typically in this sort of situation, you know, you'd see communications down. So that's obviously going to cause additional distress. People will be trying to get hold of their loved ones and they may possibly have survived, but be unable to actually get through to tell people they're alive. With the power down in the area.

5:26The power down, water supplies, very limited water supplies, food shortages, all of those things will be hitting. And indeed, the Nepal Rescue Agencies has said it's moving from the sort of rescue part of the operation already to the sort of relief part. Because there are at least, I think he is quoted as saying there are at least three villages that are completely cut off. So all those communities will be in urgent need of just basic humanitarian assistance. Gosh, God, it is absolutely horrendous. The majority of those missing are tourists because this is a destination that is very popular with people.

6:07You know, it gives a great vantage point of the Himalayas. It's a popular site for Buddhist and Hindu pilgrimages. It's a popular spot for hiking. So what do we know about the nationalities of those missing? So we know that this really is an international incident. There are people from at least 30 different countries who've been impacted by this, because as you say, this was an area that was very popular for both tourism and also quite a particular kind of tourism for going on pilgrimages. There's a sacred site in this area in Tibet, which is incredibly sacred for Hindus, Jains and Buddhists.

6:42Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarova. And we know that lots of groups go there in kind of organized tours, particularly from India, for example. And we know that there have been lots of Indian casualties in this. Some of the other countries affected China, obviously, on the other side of the border, Malaysians, Americans, Brits, Australians, Canadians, I mean, even as far afield as South Africa and Japan. So this really is a sort of truly international incident in the scale of the number of people who will have suffered losses from this. Yeah, and currently around 33 Brits, unaccounted for, including very tragically a 13-year-old girl.

7:22Devika, in terms of what's caused the flooding, I mean, obviously, it's very recent and there will be much more information to come. But what do we know about the possible causes and any possible links to the climate emergency? So there was a sort of interesting chain of events with this, actually, because initially there seemed to be reports of an earthquake having caused this, which were then quite quickly dispelled by, I think it was the US Geological Survey, who basically ascertained that it was a collapsing glacier. but the impact of that collapsing glacier in the Himalayas was so powerful it sort of registered as a kind of minor earthquake such was the scale of the fall and so that then the hypothesis is and it is a hypothesis because it's still early days but the the current hypothesis is that that then triggered a sort of avalanche if you like of you know water debris mud which fell further downstream, blocked up the river, caused the banks to burst and then sent this kind of, you know, torrent further downstream to where all these communities lived.

8:29And that's what sort of caused the devastation. It's too soon to make any definitive conclusions about this specific event and the climate crisis. But what is certainly clear, and scientists have already started saying this, is that it highlights the issue of melting glaciers in the Himalayas and possibly even beyond. and my colleagues in Australia have spoken to scientists in this area overnight and you know they are saying that they have very high confidence in the relationship between glacier retreat and climate change in a general sense and we know that the Himalayas are warming twice as fast as the global average.

9:02Well we will as you say learn more but it is very early days at the moment but tragically it feels like things aren't quite over yet there are some warnings from experts that a second flood could come because of a blockage at the Nepal-China border. What do we know about the likelihood of that? Yeah, so as you say, some of the experts who are closely watching this are involved in the aftermath, are sort of fearfully watching the fact that there is still a blockage in the river, and then that could cause another landslide, which could obviously cause further devastation if it goes further downstream.

9:38So they're keeping a close eye on it. And I think thus far they've said they don't know yet. I mean, there are some experts saying it could even be today or tomorrow, and they're obviously keeping a close eye on it. It's really hard to know how that's going to end up going. I mean, obviously, if that does happen, it's just going to complicate things even more in an already devastated region. Absolutely. Well, Devika, thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. That's it for today. My huge thanks again to Devika Batt, The Guardian's global editor based in London. You can keep up with all our reporting on the catastrophic flooding in Tibet and Nepal over at theguardian.com.

10:16Thanks for listening to this episode of The Latest. We'll be back at the same time tomorrow evening. This episode was produced by Annie Levespa and Rosie Peters MacDonald. The senior producer was Ryan Ramgobin, the executive producer was Zoe Hitch, and it was presented by me, Lucy Hoff.

10:38This is The Guardian.