Article By Rob Quinn
Dozens of Americans and Canadians are missing in a Himalayan disaster zone. Nepali officials say at least 65 US citizens and 25 Canadians are unaccounted for after a catastrophic flash flood and mudslide near the Nepal-Tibet border that washed away entire villages, the BBC reports.
Police in Nepal report more than 500 foreigners from 28 countries are missing overall, including almost 180 people from India. Hundreds of Nepalis are also missing. Nepali officials say the death toll has risen to more than 350, with some bodies found more than 100 miles downstream from the hardest-hit areas, reports the AP.
Indian spiritual guru Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev says 77 people from one pilgrimage group, including 28 Americans, are unaccounted for after they were caught in the flood at a border station, the AP reports.
Chinese state media report three deaths and at least 558 missing in Tibet, including 260 foreigners, though overlap with Nepal’s tally is unclear. The New York Times reports that videos of the disaster, including one of the flood engulfing the border station, have been censored on Chinese social media.
The United States Geological Survey initially reported a magnitude 4.4 earthquake, but later said the seismic event that triggered the wall of water was a magnitude 5.2 glacial collapse, CBS News reports. Scientists call the phenomenon an ice avalanche.
“It looks like a glacier in the area basically snapped off in a clean break, allowing it to fall just over a vertical kilometer to the valley bottom,” Daniel Shugar, a geologist at the University of Calgary, tells the Times. Along the Trishuli River, water levels rose up to 27 feet in less than half an hour.
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