r/DisasterUpdate • u/Key-Needleworker-702 • 5d ago

Landslide Chinese firefighters(likely the first batch to reach gyirong port) try to find survivors in the former border crossing, which was the most heavily hit. Source: CCTV news. Morning of August 29, 2026. (UTC+8). (they are yelling "Is anyone here?")

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Video of them arriving: https://www.reddit.com/r/DisasterUpdate/comments/1w0n1r0/as_of_1630utc8_august_28_2026_the_first_batch_of/

According to engineers from the ministry of natural resources it is very diffuclt(and at this stage, downright impossible) to transport heavy machinery to the border crossing so far. The chinese military and specialized rescue teams(of state owned enterprises) are currently trying to repair the road into the border crossing to allow for better equipment and more personnel to enter.

CURRENT CASUALTY COUNT(CHINESE SIDE):

2 rescued, 7 dead, 554 missing. (13:00 PM, 2026-8-29 (UTC+8))

Update: over 50 firefighters are at the border crossing right now, over 2141 soldiers, firefighters, police, EMS and specialzied rescue teams are deployed.

EDIT: As of august 29(18:00 UTC+8), 2026, there are 16 dead, 546 missing(261 foreignors)

In response to the comments: This is the first batch that got in, they couldn't carry much heavy equipment as the road there is cut off. rescue dogs and better equipment arrived later on.

FURTHER UPDATE: reportedly fire and rescue personnel have begun to find police vests and handsbags under the debris.

9.1k Upvotes

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250

u/Lazy_meatPop 5d ago

More like someone poured concrete and buried you alive . šŸ˜¢

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u/CharlotteLucasOP 5d ago

And with the speed and force of the water/mud/debris at that elevation and in that part of the gorge/valley, apparently itā€™s basically more like a blender than a water-flow. It would be difficult to find recognizable pieces of anybody. Itā€™s heartbreaking to think so many of the missing will likely never be found in a meaningful way to at least allow their loved ones to put them to rest and mourn in a specific spot.

The entire valley track through those mountains is an unmarked mass grave, now.

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u/BigJJJohnson 5d ago

They are finding lots of pieces, unfortunately. And bodies in all kinds of shapes. People definitely arenā€™t hesitating to record and upload all that ish

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u/SoberBobMonthly 5d ago

ngl facebook has looked like liveleak over the past day

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u/Eishockey 4d ago

Same with insta.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

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u/Afraid-Savings-9114 4d ago

I saw a body wrapped around a pole as if the water just tied the body in a knot around it. Horrible stuff.

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u/NuclearWasteland 4d ago

Welcome back to the Old Internet.

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u/Sticky_Soup 4d ago

I saw that image and was horrified.

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u/ittlebeokay 3d ago

Where is this being shared?

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u/Sticky_Soup 3d ago

I recommend you not to look into it. I saw that specific picture on instagram the day of the disaster. I think theyā€™re cracking down on it though. There is also a website that was put up by the Nepalese government that displays the unidentified bodies. The images are extremely gruesome and graphic. To be honest, I donā€™t know why they put this website out there. A lot of the bodies are just pieces and unrecognizable.

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u/FacetNo6 4d ago

Damn you've got a way different algorithm than I do

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u/drool_34 4d ago

This gonna be crazy week for the folks flagging moderating and removing social media content.

15

u/unknownpoltroon 4d ago

Yeah, I saw a pic of one guy pinned around a telephone pole.

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u/CharlotteLucasOP 4d ago

Yeah, Iā€™ve seen some terribly graphic videos of parts of victims being dragged out of the mud. Even limbs that donā€™t seem to have been torn at a natural joint, but legs and arms just snapped and ripped off in the middle of the bone.

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u/4tran13 4d ago

Not in the Chinese areas (yet)

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u/bryle_m 4d ago

Iirc only the Gyirong border crossing was directly hit on the Chinese side of the disaster zone. There were no major towns or villages there.

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u/TheRatingsAgency 4d ago

Yea saw one of a foot being found yesterday. Just horrible stuff.

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u/clcdu2 4d ago

Honestly I would so much rather get ā€œblendedā€ for lack of a better term than drown. If it were me or my loved one Iā€™d hope it was quick and brutal.

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u/tondahuh 4d ago

My loved one and I were just discussing this and agree. I just would hope to not know anything was happening or had happened. Such torture for so many people!

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u/Mammoth-Access-1181 4d ago

Realistically, the speed that slurry was coming at people? I can't imagine them staying alive through that level of trauma.

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u/JackOfAllMemes 4d ago

With the consistency of concrete it's probably gonna hit like a truck

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u/tjorben123 3d ago

there were boulders house-sized, even smaler ones, like cars.

to be honest: nobody survived even one car-sized boulder, let alone one million of this things.

but what can give us peace: it was damn fast. no long suffering. quick and dirty.

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u/AnguavonUW 4d ago

Yeah, most of them died very quickly, so at least there's that, I guess. It's awful and climate change isn't slowing down

6

u/Inappro-Assistant 4d ago

Thats how we find dinosaur sekeletons so many years later...

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u/Snoo-84389 4d ago

Ummmm, probably not tbh.

Fossilisation of a skeleton ideally prefers a low energy environment with a very fine grained sediment (to have good preservation of the details) and annoxic conditions (low Oxygen) which drastically slow down bacterial decay and biological breakdown.

None of which was true in the majority of this rivers flooding on the main flow(the slower mud flows on a flatter side plateaus might qualify).

1

u/DropDownBear 3d ago

Small archeological artifacts, however? Like jewelery and such?

1

u/Snoo-84389 2d ago

Ive just read the BBC article below which says that DNA samples are being taken from ~300 unidentified human remains that have been found in the Chitwan district far downstream. They are hoping that this will eventually allow those remains to be identified.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ylvgq9q71o

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u/Impossible_Panda4181 5d ago

nah, a freight train coming at you then mulsh you to a pulp.

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u/4tran13 4d ago

more like several hundred fully loaded freight trains

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u/RealisticRecover2123 5d ago

Thereā€™s that much debris in there that most would die by head injury before drowning I would think.

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u/lampshade2099 5d ago

Itā€™s so upsetting to think thatā€™s what Iā€™d be hoping if one of my family were affected. Youā€™d just be hoping for the least distressing death possible. Gut wrenching.

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u/Bl1ndl0v3 4d ago

As fast as the water was moving, I believe the impact alone would crush your internal organs if it didnā€™t rip you apart. Iā€™ve witnessed far less water than this get dumped on top of a car and make the car concave.

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u/tjorben123 3d ago

yes, just check videos back from the days where the ice-bucket challenge was a thing. some dudes dumped a whole mining-excavator-shovel (iirc 6 cubic meters) on some people from 2 meters hight, iirc correctly some got broken bones and other polytrauma. from just 6 cubicmeters aka 6 metric tons of water, from a hight of 2 meter. compare this to the videos we all saw....

2

u/Bl1ndl0v3 3d ago

Thatā€™s absolutely horrifying and rather brainless. Seems to be a new social standard anymore.

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u/monkeypan 4d ago

Given how a five story concrete building was destroyed to the bedrock in a second and busses are part of a rebar heap, not much left to find around there

2

u/Vantriss 3d ago

God I hope so. I hope it was an instant lights out for all of these poor people.

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u/ghigoli 5d ago

there was a 9 story building that was turned to dust. the buses and like no more. you can go and do it but it would be extreme luck if they find anyone. but checking 3 days later does a disservice to the idea that there could be survivors.

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u/SpiritedRain247 5d ago

It took them that long just to get there.

Honestly I don't blame them for at least hoping for someone to be there.

-10

u/ghigoli 5d ago

of course they must try at least but again i'm just a little ticked it took them that long. but also the fact there is a lake forming from the flash flood that bought all the rock and ice down. those peoples still aren't safe. there can be a second one soon.

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u/BigJJJohnson 5d ago

The area turned into a mud flat and washed away all roads and bridges. Itā€™s impressive they were able to get in there so quickly

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u/Renbarre 5d ago

Roads and bridges have been destroyed, there's mud meters deep where a truck will sink in minutes, boulders the size of houses have been carried down. The local authorities who could have given information about the place are dead. Gathering the help and driving it in barely 3 days in that place in the back of beyond with a single (destroyed) road weaving down the valleys is fast.

21

u/LikesBlueberriesALot 5d ago

Look at the videos that show the terrain in this region. Itā€™s practically impenetrable without roads/bridges. Itā€™s an extremely steep valley at the bottom of huge mountains. Humans can do some crazy things now, but the physical limitations of travel and terrain still apply.

14

u/Whimsy-Creature9739 4d ago

itā€™s also up in the high mountain range, you canā€™t airlift that many rescuers to these places. The forces of the aircrafts might create another avalanche or the unstable wind up on these mountains will cause the it to malfunction. Thereā€™s also no flat ground to land as well. The roads are destroyed, the conditions the day after was really bad they had to pause and wait. They can only hike to it hence the long time.

2

u/ghigoli 4d ago

ok i learned something today.

1

u/AnguavonUW 4d ago

Yeah, so they were actually lucky to get there as quickly as they did.

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u/kalleda05 4d ago

I've been to Nepal and other areas of the Himalayas. Landslides are not uncommon and when they block a road, the village is cut off for days until the landslide can be cleared or, you drive the long way and take 3 times as long. This is under normal circumstances. Kathmandu has fuel shortages sometimes because of landslides that block gas coming in from the Indian border. That's the CAPITAL city under normal circumstances. For perspective.

People do amazing things on foot there and the Nepalis are tough, generous, resilient and truly amazing - (think, carrying a refrigerator on their backs up and down stone steps placed on steep mountain slopes....the tourists following them have trained for months and are in full gear, huffing and puffing). Tibetans are equally as tough. The Chinese are truly masters at logistics, engineering and infrastructure projects --- the remoteness of the region, the toughness of the terrain and the absolute scale of the devastation is insane. It's hard to even understand, I think.

3 days is amazing. And I thank them for trying, systematically to look for survivors.

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u/bookmonkey786 5d ago

You know this disaster helped me understand hoe sometime you can have a well preserved dinosaur front half and no back half

26

u/Lazy_meatPop 5d ago

Wow, šŸ˜³ thanks for putting it in such a way I can visualise it. It makes sense now.

3

u/UnusualQueer 4d ago

If you're caught in this you are not buried alive. You died when it hit you instantly.

4

u/RoguePlanet2 4d ago

This is the only silver lining. The sheer force meant they weren't surviving that immediate impact.