Nepal urges villagers to evacuate after landslide-triggered flood in Gorkha

Mixed · 2Nepali authorities urged villagers on Sunday 11 October to move to safer places after a massive flood on a river in central Nepal swept away several houses and infrastructure; no casualties were reported. 1 2 Mixed · 2Authorities said a dry landslide in Chumnubri village in Gorkha district, about 100km west of Kathmandu, blocked the Budhi Gandaki River and led to downstream flooding. 1 2 Mixed · 2Dharmendra Kumar Mishra, the Gorkha district's most senior bureaucrat, said officials had asked villagers living along the downstream river banks to evacuate, and that several houses and two suspension bridges had been swept away and a hydroelectric project damaged. 1 2

Mixed · 2National disaster authorities alerted people along the river in the Gorkha, Tanahun, Chitwan, East Nawalparasi and West Nawalparasi districts, and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority asked in a social media post that people in at-risk areas be moved to safe locations in time and that search and rescue operations be assisted. 1 2 Mixed · 2Officials said army and police rescue personnel had reached the area and were monitoring the situation from a helicopter. 1 2 Mixed · 2The Budhi Gandaki is a tributary of the Trishuli River, downstream from another tributary where a glacier collapse caused a catastrophic flood in August that killed 1,457 people, with thousands still missing. 1 2