Where time stopped
A devastating glacier collapse near the Nepal-Tibet border caused massive flooding that destroyed infrastructure and left many missing, including a truck driver named Ang Thung Tamang. His family continues to search for him amidst the aftermath of the disaster.
Why it matters
This human-interest story illustrates the personal toll of climate-induced natural disasters in mountainous regions.
Those were the last words truck driver Ang Thung Tamang said to his family over the phone at 8.10 a.m. on August 26.
A few minutes later, a glacier collapsed in the Lhende Khola valley near Langtang Lirung on the Nepal-Tibet border. Snow, rock, and water thundered down the mountainside, swelling the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers into a deadly torrent that buried villages under boulders, sand, and mud. Almost everything in its path disappeared.
Soon after that final phone call, Ang Thung’s family heard reports of a massive flood in the Bhotekoshi river. They called him again.
For his family, time has remained frozen at 8.10 a.m.
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