r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/MrOrangeMagic • Aug 26 '26

Video Flash Floods hit Nepalese-Chinese border region, hundreds missing including 384 foreign nationals NSFW

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u/RevTurk Aug 26 '26

Yeah, at first I thought, "why don't they go in the buildings and get to higher floors?". But then the water hits and it looks like none of those buildings survived. It's shocking, no hope for any of those people.

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u/TravincalPlumber Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26

its easy to misunderstood how strong a flow of water is. a flow of water half the high of a car could easily washed the car away, the water in this recording is easily 5+ floor high not to mention the momentum that it carries.

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u/Prot3 Aug 26 '26

Plus it's more like a mudslide than just pure water, which means more mass thus more force thus greater destructive power.

It's casually collapsing 5 story concrete buildings.

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u/DangKilla Aug 26 '26

The tsunami that hit Japan around 12 years ago taught me this lesson. The water is just filled with debris and this looks extremely devastating. It’s horrific.

48

u/IanT86 Aug 26 '26

Look at how far those coaches move in seconds. It's unimaginable how powerful the water is

41

u/cmsj Aug 26 '26

Always always always remember that one cubic metre of water weighs one ton.

20

u/Dunkalax Aug 26 '26

What if I forget?

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u/WindChimeTecnician Aug 26 '26

What did he say?

5

u/Guy1nc0gnit0 Aug 26 '26

It will remind you

4

u/nik_cool22 Aug 26 '26

won't matter either way, to be honest.

17

u/Open__Face Aug 26 '26

The kinetic force of a heavy thing moving is so outside our normal everyday life we can't really comprehend it

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u/Gloomy-Ad-222 Aug 26 '26

I used to surf out at Ocean Beach in San Francisco for many years. On a good sized day, the waves break with such ferocity you just try to hold onto your board and survive. The ocean has incredible power. I got held down a long time one day, swallowed some water, and started to feel scared beyond “this is supposed to be fun” and that was basically it for me at that place. 

1

u/blackviking45 Aug 27 '26

I don't know why people surf. It's so scary playing with the waves. It's not a good mindset to enjoy with things scary that will end you the moment they can without mercy.

4

u/RadangPattaya Aug 26 '26

Also displacement.

I got caught in a flood in my city after extremely heavy rain. I was driving to pick up my now wife.

I drove carefully and slowly, didn't go where it was too deep. However, all the roads toward where my wife was were flooded too much so I had to turn back.

I made a right, another right, and attempted another right and the water level rose and suddenly - I felt that the car, and myself in it, were floating.

The feeling of helplesness at that point set in but I somehow managed to gain traction because the water carried my car to the elevated sidewalk edge.

I CANNOT imagine the sheer force this massive wall of water has. You wouldn't be safe in an oil tanker, let alone anything else.

Absolutely terrifying and tragic. Nothing you can do at that point, there's no saving grace or minimal chance of survival either..

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u/School_North Aug 26 '26

You only need a few inches to move a car

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u/angryslothbear Aug 26 '26

Half the height of a car? 2” of water can push a car off the road if it’s flowing. Lived in central Texas for decades and they drill that into you, every year some dumbass thinks their truck can go over a flooded road and ends up getting swift water rescued. The average vehicle has less than a foot of total ground contact.

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u/Weak_Feed_8291 Aug 26 '26

I was thinking if someone jumped in the back of the dump truck they may be protected from debris at least even though the water may still reach them, then the dump truck became debris

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u/Few-Mood6580 Aug 26 '26

It’s a systemic and cascading failure. I’ve lived in major flooding regions in the US Midwest, and I’ve seen dams fail and entire counties get ripped and torn apart by mudslides.

I’ve also seen my fair share of flash floods… one key difference and I don’t know if these people were warned, but we had at least 12-24 hours of warning.

This mountainous region with that much insane volume of water…

Only sheer luck could you survive this, or coincidently being on the high ground.

There’s a good chance of these people being knocked out or outright killed instantly.. poor souls.

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u/moridin-604 Aug 26 '26

Exactly what I was thinking until it hit…. Then ohhh damn

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u/can_you_clarify Aug 26 '26

If you look at he first clip again you can actually see some folks running towards where the flow comes from and into the building. With the power and speed of this you can only hope it was quick and painless.

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u/New-Experience5507 Aug 26 '26

Most of them died with atleast one broken bone , saw many videos where the buildings collapsed like thin stick in matter of seconds, you can imagine the impact on human body.

1

u/RevTurk Aug 26 '26

Yes, horrifying stuff, the only mercy they could have in a situation like that is that they die quickly.