A massive debris flood along the Budhi Gandaki river destroyed bridges and swept away dozens of homes in northern Gorkha on Sunday (11), leaving five people missing and triggering urgent evacuations. The sudden torrent struck between 04:00 and 06:20 local time, forcing security personnel to deploy helicopters and ground teams to pull stranded residents from riverbanks.
The missing individuals comprise two women and three men who were stationed at a temporary sheep shelter in Ungiling, within the Chumchet area, when the surge struck. Nepal Army personnel, working alongside civil protection units, rescued 47 people stranded along the riverbanks using four helicopters, while emergency teams on the ground guided dozens more to higher ground.
Budhi Gandaki river rises rapidly to 8.5 meters in Gorkha
Water levels in the Budhi Gandaki river climbed from an initial baseline of 2 meters to between 8.43 meters and 8.5 meters within just a few hours on Sunday morning, completely surpassing the established danger threshold of 5 meters. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority reported that the sudden rush of water damaged hydropower project infrastructure and washed away construction machinery in the Salleri area. Binod Parajuli, a meteorologist and hydrologist with the government flood forecasting division, confirmed that the force of the river wiped out monitoring equipment, stating that “our hydrological station was swept away and we are not getting any data from that location.”
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The exact cause of the temporary blockage upstream remains under examination by technical teams. Authorities and geologists reviewing satellite observations identified a major landslide between Lokpa and Chumling that dammed a tributary before violently collapsing, though upstream villagers also reported signs consistent with an ice avalanche.
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Destruction hits Chumnubri villages during Dashain festival
The disaster unfolded on the opening day of Dashain, the most prominent religious and cultural festival in Nepal, abruptly replacing community holiday gatherings with emergency evacuations. While initial accounts reported about a dozen houses swept away, local officials from the Chumnubri Rural Municipality, led by chairperson Nima Lama, counted more than 35 homes destroyed across settlements including Payu, Salleri, Bagar, and Ghattikhola. Multiple suspension crossings and concrete bridges were severed, cutting off foot transit routes between mountain villages.
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Downstream communities avoided larger casualties after emergency agencies sent 200,000 automated warning text messages to mobile phones across riverfront settlements, allowing thousands of residents to seek higher ground before the crest arrived. A coordinated force of 437 personnel, including 127 soldiers from the Nepal Army, 133 officers from the Nepal Police, and 177 members of the Armed Police Force, remains deployed across the corridor to maintain evacuation routes and search for the five missing residents.
Save the Children warns of humanitarian toll after 1,400 August deaths
Sunday’s devastation hit mountain communities that were already attempting to recover from catastrophic floods and landslides that struck Himalayan river valleys on August 26, 2026, claiming more than 1,400 lives near the border with Tibet. Humanitarian groups mobilized early response teams to assess shelter shortages, severed mountain roads, and damaged drinking water networks in isolated villages throughout the high-altitude district.
Tara Chettry, country director for Save the Children in Nepal, said that “children’s lives have been ripped apart in an instant yet again.” She noted that emergency teams are working to determine the full scope of structural loss in Gorkha, adding that “we are yet to see the full scale of the damage, but they may have lost their homes, schools and communities. Many children in Gorkha will still be in shock and distress after the mega floods in August, barely having a chance to get back on their feet.”
No fatalities have been officially confirmed as of Sunday afternoon, and joint military and police rescue teams continue active aerial and ground search operations across the Ungiling riverbanks to locate the five missing herders.
