Budhi Gandaki flood: 314 rescued, Arughat bridge span swept away

Rescuers have pulled 314 people, including 19 foreign nationals, to safety after a flash flood tore through the Budhi Gandaki river valley in Gorkha district on Sunday, October 11, Nagarik News reported. Five locals are still missing and search teams are looking for them.

For families on both sides of the Gorkha Dhading highway, the flood cut the main route home for Dashain, Nepal's biggest festival. One span of the three span Arughat bridge was swept away, OnlineKhabar reported from the scene, severing the market's water pipeline and leaving locals waiting for a Bailey bridge the Nepal Army is building with materials trucked in from Hetauda.

Nagarik reported that an avalanche on Siringi Himal blocked the Uinguling Khola, a Budhi Gandaki tributary, and sent the flood downriver. How the river was blocked, and for how long, is yet to be technically confirmed, OnlineKhabar reported from Arughat.

At the Arughat gauge station downstream, the river rose from a 5 meter danger mark to 8.43 meters, Nagarik reported, citing the disaster authority. The authority sent advance warning messages to about 200,000 people in risk zones and mobilized 703 security personnel to the site.

Three concrete bridges and two suspension bridges on the same highway were also damaged, Nagarik reported, along with a school, an under construction hydropower project and more than 200 houses across Gorkha and Dhading. About 150 chauri yaks, sheep and goats were swept away, Nagarik reported.

In the Manaslu trekking region, a cantilever bridge at Sardibhir in Lokpa was swept away, stranding 87 trekkers in the Chum Valley and 98 more trekkers with 73 guides and porters at the region's entry point, said Bhuwan Raj Ojha of the Manaslu Conservation Area Project. All are now confirmed safe, he told Nagarik, though the Chum Valley trek is suspended and the trail between Machhakhola, Jagat and Salleri is damaged. Trekkers headed to Samagaun can now fly directly to Philim, and the Philim to Larke Pass route remains open, Ojha said.

Nearly 5,000 households in northern Gorkha have been without power since the Sunday flood after it damaged the Sirdibas Uhiya Micro Hydropower Project and swept away 12 poles and a tower, Republica reported. In the same report, the project's chairperson Sujan Gurung told Republica 971 households had been affected by the flood. Republica does not say how that figure relates to its nearly 5,000. The chief administrative officer of Chumanubri Rural Municipality, Narayan Sapkota, said the outage has also knocked out internet and stalled local government work.

What the coverage missed

No automatic water level sensor exists above Arughat on the Budhi Gandaki, senior hydrologist Binod Parajuli of the government's Flood Forecasting Division told OnlineKhabar, and the one sensor that did exist, mounted on the Arughat bridge, was swept away with it. The government's own SMS flood warning reached phones at 6:53am, more than two hours after Lokpa resident Serap Gurung felt earthquake like shaking around 4am and began calling villages downstream from 4:36am, he told OnlineKhabar. Suna Gurung, at Jagat bagar further down the valley, said he got a call near 3:45am warning of a flood bigger than Rasuwa's. He posted on Facebook at 4:59am urging people below to move to safety. Police posted a warning on Facebook at 5:30am, OnlineKhabar reported. Parajuli said the first information on this flood came from the upstream community.

Across the river in Gorkha, Shanti Bazar had about 30 to 40 houses, locals told OnlineKhabar. All are buried in mud or washed away, and only one or two stand intact. Buddhiprasad Dhakal, who lives just across the river in ward 7 of Dhading's Gangajamuna Rural Municipality, watched it go. The settlement was also hit by the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, and residents had rebuilt on the same bank. Arughat trader Santosh Rajbhandari told OnlineKhabar that heavier damage was reported in settlements on the Dhading side.

What we still do not know

• The single reconciled count of houses damaged, since Nagarik's "more than 200" figure is not broken down by district. Nepal Police and the Chief District Officers of Gorkha and Dhading could confirm it.
• The identities of the five people reported missing. Nepal Police in Gorkha and Dhading could confirm them.
• Whether local authorities in Gorkha will order any relocation for Shanti Bazar, which was also hit by the 2015 earthquake.