'APOCALYPTIC': JARRING video shows ravaging Nepal floods after glacier collapse
So just an awful disaster in Asia with. video straight out of an apocalyptic. movie. Rescue teams now searching for. hundreds of missing people all along the. Nepal China border. That includes dozens. of Americans this morning. At least 353. people have been confirmed dead so far.
after catastrophic floods swept through. several communities after a believed. glacier collapse yesterday. Early before. and after photos showed the total scope. of that devastation. Jeff Paul is. tracking it for us. Uh he's joining us. live from London with this. And a word. of caution, some of the video you're. about to see is disturbing. Jeff, good. morning to you. >> Yeah, good morning, Bill. So many still. missing, including at least 65. Americans, according to officials in. Nepal. There are fears the death toll. will only rise. And now, new warnings. from officials in Nepal that a lake that.
formed in the floods from a blocked. river could soon burst. Now, security. camera footage from the Nepal Tibet. border shows people on the ground had. only seconds to find safety. A wall of. water, mud, and debris swept away. people, cars, and buses, as well as many. buildings that stood in the way. Those. who call this area home are now. searching for answers as well as their. missing family members. >> We tried calling him again. His phone. was unreachable. Then we heard that a.
landslide had come down. We still don't. know whether he's alive because we. haven't been able to reach him. My. brother has also gone there by car to. see if he can find our father. We still. have hope that our father may be alive. Now, initially the US Geological Survey. reported an earthquake in the area. minutes before the flash flood, but the. USGS now believes it was a powerful. landslide that struck. One theory, part. of a glacier broke off, triggering an. avalanche of ice and rock, which in turn. caused the floods. The Red Cross says at.
least 10,000 families have lost their. homes and rescue efforts could not be. more difficult. Roads have been buried. in mud and several of those critical. bridges that connect these communities, well, they were ripped away during the. floods. We also spoke with a helicopter. pilot yesterday in Nepal who was. actually flying above the area when. disaster struck. He tells us he watched. as everything was being swept away and. felt helpless not being able to land and. aid those in desperate need. >> It's devastating, you know. It's.
devastating. We have never witnessed. anything like that, seeing nature unfold. like that. It was really hard for us, you know. We. just wanted to get over there, help. people out and get the other rescuers. there as soon as possible. >> US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says. the State Department stands ready to. support Nepal with humanitarian aid. The. US Embassy in Nepal is also working to. account for any US citizens impacted and. is in close contact with local. authorities. Bill. >> Yeah, those poor people just never had a.
chance. You can see it in that video. Jeff Paul live in London. Jeeoff, thank. you. >> Let's bring in Dr. Umesh Aritasha. He's. a professor of earth, environment, and. sustainability at the University of. Dayton. Thanks so much for being here. Um, as they start to figure out what. happened, I'm going to show everybody a. map here of the landside and the areas. affected. Um, you've studied this area. for a good long time, a couple of. decades. What do you think happened? >> Well, thank you for having me. Well, we. know with some certainty at this point. in time that the piece of glacier and.
rock broke off the mountain side and. fell almost a kilometer into a river. valley and uh when it falls that far. down it turns into a fastmoving slurry. of ice, rock and water that ran down the. river. So this is a story of a big rock. ice avalanche and uh flowing downhill. and and devastating everything that was. in this uh in that area. >> The power of the water is really. something to witness. Um and we have all. of this video that's distressing. Listen.
to a flood survivor. His name is. Janakador. >> The river looks small from a distance, but it suddenly started overflowing and. swept through this place. day school. >> and doctor one of the things that we're. seeing of course is like the personal. devastation the fact that they they. don't even know how many people are. missing it could be thousands. >> Yeah. So the the stories about where it.
landed in my opinion because that that. area has grown significantly. What made. it catastrophic in my view is the valley. below now holds a highway a border. crossing 14 or 15 hydropower projects. This is a tourist season. So the hazard. grew. Exposure has also grown. significantly in last many decades. So. think about a a large block of ice. falling about,000 m down. So think about. more than three times the height of. Eiffel Tower. It generated the energy.
and that energy just swept everything in. that valley and flooded downstream. >> Doctor, you said that you documented. something with your colleagues in 2021. uh in a similar area on a high steep. slope the converse of devastating flow. far downstream and you said it's not a. surprise that it happened in this valley. you've been warning about it what was. the warning. well so in 2021 similar incident. happened in India so think about the.
broader Himalayan region and because of. the recent warming the area itself has. gone through tremendous changes so there. are there are several hundreds of such. similar areas all across the Himalayan. mountain. We documented something. similar happened in 2021 over in India. and that was very devastating as well. Although the number of casualty here. seems much higher just because of the. location but also maybe because the. total mass that detached from the.
bedrock may be very high. We still have. a preliminary estimate so we don't know. the whole detail but some estimates. suggests them something like uh several. hundred swimming pool worth of ice that. detached from that area. >> So so this is not new and this is not. new for this area unfortunately. >> Dr. Haritasha, thank you so much for. being with us. We pray for the people. there and their well-being. Thank you. So tragedy unfolding in Nepal and Tibet.
where at least 353 people are dead. following catastrophic flooding likely. caused by a glacial collapse. >> And now uh taking a live look at that. area as a desperate search is underway. for more than 1300 people who remain. missing including dozens of Americans. >> Jeff Paul is with us now overseas. Hey. Jeff. >> Hey there. Well, yeah. Rescue teams in. Nepal are in a race against time as they. search for any survivors. And with so. many still missing, including at least.
65 Americans, according to officials in. Nepal, there are fears now that the. death toll will only rise. Now, security. camera footage from Nepal and the Depet. border shows people on the ground had. only seconds to find safety. A wall of. water, mud, and debris swept away. People, cars, and buses, as well as many. buildings that stood in the way. The floods came in suddenly and exploded. like a bomb. The river looked small from. distance, but it suddenly started. overflowing and swept through this.
place. Now, initially, the US Geological. Survey reported an earthquake in the. area minutes before the flash flood. But. the USGS now believes it was a powerful. landslide that struck. One theory, part. of a glacier broke off, triggering an. avalanche of ice and rock, which in turn. caused those floods. The Red Cross says. at least 10,000 families have lost their. homes and rescue efforts could not be. more difficult. Roads have been buried. in mud and several of those critical. bridges that you see right there on your.
screen that connected these communities. Well, they were ripped away during those. floods. >> So, we have been able to ex access some. of the affected areas um where there are. many many traumatized people, but. unfortunately some of the areas can only. be reached by helicopter. So the Nepal. army um has been um carrying out search. and rescue with for them. >> US Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying. that we express our solidarity and are. united in prayer for the Nepali people.
following the devastating floods. The. state department stands ready to support. the government of Nepal with needed. humanitarian assistance. And there are. now new warnings from officials on the. ground in Nepal that a lake that formed. in the floods from a blocked river well. it could soon burst. Lawrence Aninsley. Brian. >> that's terrible news. >> That really is. >> and the worst could be yet to come. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thanks so much. [snorts]. >> Well earlier we did speak to a couple of. experts about the rescue and the relief.
efforts as well as how this could happen. without any rain. >> It's a really phenomenal event. this. it's really similar to a large scale. earthquake really uh helicopters are. critical the military will be mobilizing. those helicopters using private. helicopters as well that's that's. essential for evacuating people in this. initial stage. >> now in the videos that we see here uh. you don't see a drop of rain in these. videos so you have to imagine if you're. the person walking there or you're at a. choke point sort of like a border. crossing everything sort of slows down.
anyway right and um you don't really see. it coming and once you see that huge. sort of wave of debris coming. There's. really not much people can do. >> Let's check in with meteorologist Adam. Clarks for more on this. Adam. Hey, good. morning guys. This is that seismic. activity that we originally thought. could have been an earthquake now. thought to be just that massive. landslide and glacier breaking off and. really beginning to shake things up out. there. That's what we ultimately went. 5.2, but it was up in the mountains and.
all of that ice came roaring down into. some of those valleys. Mount Everest is. just off towards the east. We saw this. report coming in at just before 11 p.m. there local time. And then all of that. debris began to work its way down into. waterways. Think of a massive amount of. ice suddenly falling into some of these. much more narrow streams and rapidly. melting as it drops elevation, mixing in. with some of that water and then. suddenly what is mud and ice is more. water and mud creating these walls of. water rushing down some of these rivers. And it really did move like a tidal wave.
as you saw it work its way down those. extremely high elevations to these lower. elevations. And now the concern is uh. because that disrupts so much of this. land, will ultimately more rock slides. happen? Will more ice break off? And. could there be more flooding? That's a. story we'll have to watch in the coming. hours and days. Those are the weather. headlines for now. I'll throw it back to. you. >> We'll be following. Yep. >> Thanks so much, Adam. Be sure to like and subscribe for all. the Fox News latest on YouTube and catch. full shows streaming now on Fox.
