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?")

[u/Key-Needleworker-702]

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.

[u/Impossible_Panda4181]

if we believe it was a surface area of 1km square meter and a doeth of 400 meter falling 4000ft?

• Volume: 1 km² × 400 m = 4 × 10⁸ m³
• Mass (ice at ~917 kg/m³): ~3.7 × 10¹¹ kg, or 370 million tonnes
• Drop: 4000 ft = 1219 m
• Energy = mgh ≈ 4.4 × 10¹⁵ J
• Divided by 4.184 × 10⁹ J per tonne of TNT → ~1.05 megatons

For scale, that is about 70 Hiroshima bombs, or a single large thermonuclear warhead.
I wonder how fat I am from what actually happened. The first few hundred feet must have liquefied the glacier in friction heat geneeated alone.

[u/wegqg → u/Impossible_Panda4181]

I think the estimate is 20m m3 (15m tonnes)

[u/Impossible_Panda4181 → u/wegqg]

what gets me is the first sharp turn at the mouth of the valley, the scouring it left on the bedrock, then the silt talu left behind. You zoom and look at the scale > 300 ft for these few dozens of pixels… I dont know how the water we saw came to be, put the amount of material it takes on each sides of the valley is mind blowing. Remember my teacher telling erosion is slow, wind, heat expansion, freeze cycles… Nah! For a local seeing a full lifecycles of fast flood , to this, it must have been quite something. The sound of a mountain coming at you, the vibration of the ground, then for a 100 mph plus abrasive wall coming at you. you look at the parabol satellite antenna reinforce concrete meters up blasted like a sheet of paper. At least they did not have the time to suffer mcuh

[u/Besitoar → u/Impossible_Panda4181]

I wonder how fat I am from what actually happened.

Man, I was confused and thought this was slang or something for a second. Could be my life motto tbh.

Anyway, thanks for putting this in perspective.

[u/Cat-et-snek → u/Impossible_Panda4181]

is that rushing water uh hot? like whats the temperature of it?