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Bernard Chan

The Himalayan disaster that tore through the China-Nepal border last month was a human calamity before it became a media story. A torrent of ice, rock, mud and debris swept through valleys, destroying key infrastructure, severing roads and communications, and leaving families desperate for news.
In Gyirong county in the Tibet autonomous region, the disaster hit a major border crossing and created a rescue environment as physically difficult as any imaginable. The human toll extends beyond the confirmed dead. With people unaccounted for and recovery work continuing, families on both sides of the border are still waiting for answers.
In terrain like this, uncertainty is unavoidable. Rescue operations were hampered by unstable slopes, damaged roads and difficult conditions in a narrow gorge, delaying the arrival of heavy machinery. Those constraints also restricted the flow of information from the area in the first few days.
The initial picture was fragmented and the lack of detail gave speculation room to spread. Much of the early international reporting relied on images and accounts from Nepal, while the earliest material from the location itself largely came from CCTV and other Chinese state outlets.
That left foreign audiences with a narrow evidentiary base. Tibet’s distance from major news centres and its restrictions on foreign media access made independent reporting even harder. On social media, limited early information fuelled speculation about the disaster’s scale and cause, including false claims about casualties and allegations that Chinese dam construction was responsible.
Initial reports indicated that part of a glacier collapsed on the Nepali side of the border. The precise trigger remains under investigation, but the impact was immediate: communities in both countries were caught in the same disaster.


For families waiting for news, the line between a rescue operation and a communication failure is not always clear. A blocked road or a damaged signal tower could leave relatives with the same unanswered questions as official silence. That is why the first hours of any disaster are so difficult: uncertainty creates its own story, especially when video, rumour and grief move faster than verified information.
In Gyirong, the mudslide cut off roads, power and communications, while damage to the main access route kept heavy machinery from the core disaster area for days. Rescuers also had to contend with an upstream barrier lake, which briefly forced operations to stop amid fears of another flood.
Chinese media gave viewers an early picture of the destruction on the Chinese side. After emergency repairs reopened the route, the authorities invited journalists from eight overseas outlets, including CNN and NBC, to visit the hardest-hit areas and attend a government news conference.
The reports that followed added another layer to the story. CNN and NBC showed their audiences the scale of the damage at Gyirong and the obstacles facing rescue and recovery crews.
That does not settle every question about the early flow of information. It does, however, underline what is needed in a crisis: quick, practical updates for families, followed by access for reporters when conditions allow.


For families waiting for news, more reporting was valuable because it shifted attention back to what mattered: finding out what had happened, where the damage was worst and who had been affected.
Other overseas coverage focused on China’s handling of information. BBC reporting questioned access to Gyirong and said widely circulated flood footage had become difficult to find on Chinese social media. It later amended its headline to acknowledge that some footage was being shown, though it maintained that coverage was heavily censored.
Chinese commentators and state media countered that official updates, video and rescue coverage were already available, and accused foreign outlets of presenting an incomplete picture. In the process, the people who had lost homes, relatives and livelihoods risked being pushed to the margins.


That matters because the danger isn’t going away. The Himalayas are becoming an increasingly exposed frontier of climate and geological risk. Glacial instability, extreme weather, the steep terrain and infrastructure development make cross-border early warnings, data sharing and rapid coordination more important, not less.
China and Nepal share a practical interest in ensuring the next warning travels faster than the next wall of water. People in valleys below need to know when a lake is forming, a slope is moving or a river is rising. That means the two countries must share information quickly and make sure it reaches the villages, road crews and border posts most exposed to danger.
In the Himalayas, warmer conditions, less reliable snowfall and thawing permafrost are changing a mountain environment already prone to sudden, cascading hazards. The next landslide or glacial surge is not a remote possibility, and this disaster teaches that cooperation matters most before the emergency begins.


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Opinion

China Opinion

Asia Opinion

News

Asia

South Asia

In an unfolding disaster, families need quick, practical updates and journalists need access the moment safety allows


In an unfolding disaster, families need quick, practical updates and journalists need access the moment safety allows.


Nepal

China

Tibet

Natural disasters

Environment

Accidents, extreme weather and disasters in China

Climate change

Social media

Censorship in China

Censorship

China’s internet censorship

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


What the China-Nepal floods teach us about crisis communication

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In an unfolding disaster, families need quick, practical updates and journalists need access the moment safety allows

In an unfolding disaster, families need quick, practical updates and journalists need access the moment safety allows