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Catastrophic flash floods have left a trail of severe devastation along the Tibet-Nepal border, claiming nearly 180 lives while leaving upwards of 1,000 individuals unaccounted for. As search and rescue missions press forward, authorities fear the final casualty count will climb further.
Although the definitive trigger for the catastrophe remains officially unverified, footage depicting a massive mudslide has gained widespread traction across social media platforms. The viral clip actually stitches together two distinct pieces of media: the opening segment displays a sudden mudslide transforming into a heavy wall of muddy floodwaters, while the latter part portrays a two-story home situated on a riverbank being completely washed away by surging currents.
Accounts sharing the video have attached misleading captions such as, “The first moments of the disaster that occurred in Nepal,” and, “The first moments of the disaster in Nepal.”
An investigation revealed that both segments are archived footage completely unrelated to the current situation in Nepal, with the initial clip originating in Myanmar and the second stemming from the United States.
INVESTIGATION DETAILS
Tracing the first video through reverse image searches led to an extended cut published by an Instagram user on June 30, proving its disconnection from the recent Nepal disaster.
A longer version of the same sequence was also located on a YouTube channel dating back to January 28, 2024. While the accompanying text lacked specific coordinates, recurring references to Myanmar pointed toward its true geographic origin.
Further checks uncovered a report featuring still frames from the footage from January 25, 2024, noting that the event transpired in Myanmar’s Hpakant mining district between January 24 and 25 of that year. Additional context emerged from a publication by EOS.org—a digital science news platform operated by the American Geophysical Union—which cross-referenced Planet Labs satellite imagery of the location from before and after the incident.
By utilizing Burmese search terms, researchers located an eight-minute alternative angle of the identical flood posted to the official YouTube account of the Kachin News Group, a Myanmar-based media outlet, on January 25, 2024. The accompanying description explained that a retention pond near Sankha village inside Hpakant’s jade-mining zone ruptured at approximately 3:00 PM that afternoon, a detail corroborated by local officials in Burmese-language documentation published on January 30, 2024.
Meanwhile, tracing the source of the second video clip led to a Fox Weather segment from June 14, 2022, which used a thumbnail image of the very same two-story structure. According to the broadcast, the footage documents severe flooding and an abrupt surge along the Yellowstone River in Gardiner, Montana, USA. The home reportedly belonged to Parker Manning, who captured the video himself while vacationing with family roughly half a mile upstream.
THE NEPAL FLOODS CONTEXT
While formal determinations regarding the catalyst behind the Nepal floods are still underway, preliminary assessments of satellite data point to an ice-rock avalanche crashing into the Lhende River in Tibet—situated roughly 20 kilometers northeast of the Nepal-China border—as the primary trigger, according to insights shared in an Al Jazeera report.
Ultimately, the investigation proves that two separate, archival videos were recycled and falsely presented as authentic recordings of the flash floods currently impacting Nepal.
– Ends
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