(TibetanReview.net, Sep09’26) – China said Sep 9 that 444 of the total of 499 residents evacuated on Aug 27 from five villages in Kyirong County near the border with Nepal in the aftermath of the catastrophic glacier-avalanche-triggered flash floods of the day before had now returned home after the threat from a barrier lake was largely eliminated. However, it is still not clear how many villages and people, if any, were actually hit by the flash floods and suffered destruction and loss of lives in that catastrophe.
The latest group to return consisted of 180 residents of Guoba (Kopa) village in Salè Township, who left their temporary shelters at around 6 pm on Sep 7, reported China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Sep 9.
The 444 returnees belonged to one village in Kyirong town and three villages in Salè township. China’s online Tibet news service eng.tibet.cn Sep 9 named two of these villages as Lapi and Serchung. Another batch of 55 residents from a separate village in Kyirong town was preparing to return, the chinadaily.com.cn report said.
It is is not clear if these five villages from two townships were actually hit by the Aug 26 flash floods. China said their residents had to be evacuated because of threats posed by two barrier lakes that reportedly formed in its aftermath, making no mention of flood damages or deaths.
And there is still no official report about deaths and destruction in villages hit by the catastrophe, unless none was actually hit. In fact, nothing has been mentioned about homes being destroyed and required to be rebuilt.
The Tibetan Service of Radio Free Asia (rfa.org) reported Sep 6, citing a local Tibetan source, that 26 Tibetans had lost their lives in one village named Risur (Chinese: Risuo) where the Gyirong Port is located. It is not clear whether this is one of the five evacuated villages.
Gyirong Port was stated to be a settlement by itself having shops and restaurants and some 800 residents, although another report estimated that figure to be around 1,000, with none known to have survived.
China has officially confirmed that so far a total of 43 people have died on the Tibet side, with 519 people missing, including 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries, none of whom have reportedly been found so far. China’s official media appear to suggest that all the reported figures of the dead and missing are from the Gyirong Port.