A devastating flood that hit a village in Nepal's Everest region was caused by a glacial lake outburst, local government officials and experts said Saturday. Climate change experts said it was a clear example of the "catastrophic impacts" increasing global temperatures were having on people who had done the least to contribute to the greenhouse gases driving it. At least 14 buildings, including seven homes, five hotels, one hostel and one clinic, were completely swept away by the flood that hit Thame village Friday afternoon.
No deaths were reported, but the scale of the brown and muddy flood waters surging through the village of Thame was shocking, videos posted on social media by the local authorities showed. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said Saturday that the sudden flood was "due to an outburst flood from Thyanbo glacial lake". It was investigating the causes and impact, it added.
Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa, a cryosphere analyst at ICIMOD, said that the disaster was a "painful reminder" of the impacts of rising temperatures on mountain communities. "Millions of people in the mountains have contributed literally nothing to greenhouse gas emissions, but face the catastrophic impacts of these emissions with ever-increasing frequency and severity," he said. Local government official Jagat Prasad Bhusal said that an aerial survey of the area Saturday morning also confirmed a glacial lake outburst.
"There are several glacial lakes and one ha.