2023 Nyingchi avalanche

Last updated
2023 Nyingchi avalanche
Date17 January 2023
Time7:50 PM China Standard Time
Location Nyingchi
CauseHigh winds, rising temperature
Deaths28 [1]
Non-fatal injuries53

An avalanche struck a road in Nyingchi at around 7:50 PM China Standard Time on 17 January 2023. Twenty-eight people were killed and 53 others were rescued, five of whom were seriously injured.

Local reports attributed the avalanche to high winds and warming temperatures, and identified most of the victims as travelers during the spring travel rush prior to the Chinese New Year. The affected road was between Pei, Tibet, and the exit of the Doxong La  [ zh; ceb ] tunnel, in Medog County. Victims were trapped inside the tunnel and in their vehicles under snow and ice. [2]

At least 1,348 rescuers and 236 pieces of equipment were deployed, digging a 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) path through waist-deep snow in rough terrain. [3] Rescue operations concluded at 5:30 PM on 20 January 2023. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground coal mining, although accidents also occur in hard rock mining. Coal mining is considered much more hazardous than hard rock mining due to flat-lying rock strata, generally incompetent rock, the presence of methane gas, and coal dust. Most of the deaths these days occur in developing countries, and rural parts of developed countries where safety measures are not practiced as fully. A mining disaster is an incident where there are five or more fatalities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salang Tunnel</span> Road tunnel in northern Afghanistan

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1972 Iran blizzard</span> Deadliest blizzard in history

The Iran blizzard of February 1972 was the deadliest blizzard in history, as recorded by the Guinness Book of Records. A week-long period of low temperatures and severe winter storms, lasting 3–9 February 1972, resulted in the deaths of over 4,000 people. Storms dumped more than 3 metres of snow across rural areas in northwestern, central and southern Iran. The blizzard came after four years of drought.

The 1997 Ardabil earthquake occurred on 28 February with a moment magnitude of 6.1 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). The strike-slip earthquake occurred in northern Iran, near the city of Ardabil.

The East Asian snowstorms of 2009–2010 were heavy winter storms, including blizzards, ice storms, and other winter events, that affected East Asia from 8 May 2009 to 28 February 2010. The areas affected included Mongolia, China, Nepal, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Kuril Islands, Sea of Okhotsk, Primorsky, and Sakhalin Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 Salang avalanches</span> Disaster in Parwan, Afghanistan

The 2010 Salang avalanches consisted of a series of at least 36 avalanches that struck the southern approach to the Salang Tunnel, north of Kabul. They were caused by a freak storm in the Hindu Kush mountains.

The 2010 Kohistan avalanche occurred in the Kohistan District, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan on February 17, 2010, striking the village of Bagaro Serai and killing at least 38 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weather of 2010</span>

The global weather activity of 2010 includes major meteorological events in the Earth's atmosphere during the year, including winter storms, hailstorms, out of season monsoon rain storms, extratropical cyclones, gales, microbursts, flooding, rainstorms, tropical cyclones, and other severe weather events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 China floods</span> 2010 series of natural disasters throughout China

The 2010 China floods began in early May 2010. Three hundred and ninety-two people died, and a further 232 people were reported missing as of June 30, 2010, including 57 people in a landslide in Guizhou. Fifty-three of the deaths occurred from the flooding and landslides between May 31 and June 3, and 266 deaths occurred between June 13 and June 29. Four hundred and twenty four people were killed by the end of June, including 42 from the Guizhou landslide; 277 more were killed and 147 were missing in the first two weeks of July, bringing the death toll as of August 5 to 1,072. A landslide in early August in Gansu killed at least 1,471 people and left 294 missing. In total, the flooding and landslides killed at least 3,185 people in China by August 31. More than 230 million people in 28 provinces, municipalities, and regions, especially the southern and central provinces and regions of Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Chongqing Municipality, Gansu, Sichuan, and Guizhou, and the northeastern province of Jilin were affected, while at least 4.66 million people were evacuated because of the risk of flooding and landslides in the latter half of June. By early August, over 12 million people were evacuated, and that number rose to 15.2 million by August 31.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 North India floods</span> Floods that occurred in Northern India in 2013

In June 2013, a mid-day cloudburst centered on the North Indian state of Uttarakhand caused devastating floods and landslides, becoming the country's worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. The rainfall received that month was far greater than the rainfall the state usually received. Debris blocked the rivers, causing major overflow. The main day of the flood was 16 June 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 Nepal snowstorm disaster</span> 2014 natural disaster in the Himalayan mountains of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri, Nepal

The 2014 Nepal snowstorm disaster occurred in central Nepal during the month of October and resulted in the deaths of at least 43 people of various nationalities, including at least 21 trekkers. Injuries and fatalities resulted from unusually severe snowstorms and avalanches on and around the mountains of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. The incident was said to be Nepal's worst trekking disaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 Mount Everest avalanches</span> 2015 mountaineering disaster

During the afternoon of 25 April 2015, a MW 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal and surrounding countries. Shaking from the quake triggered an avalanche from Pumori into Base Camp on Mount Everest. At least twenty-two people were killed, surpassing an avalanche that occurred in 2014 as the deadliest disaster on the mountain.

On the afternoon of 18 January 2017, a major avalanche occurred on Gran Sasso d'Italia massif, one of the mountains above Rigopiano, impacting and destroying the four-star Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola, Abruzzo. The impact killed twenty-nine people and injured eleven others, making the avalanche the deadliest in Italy since the White Friday avalanches in 1916, and the deadliest avalanche in Europe since the Galtür avalanche in 1999.

In February 2020, two avalanches occurred near Bahçesaray in Turkey's eastern Van Province. The first, on 4 February, buried two vehicles, leading to a rescue operation involving around 350 people. The second, on 5 February, occurred while this operation was ongoing. At least 41 people were killed in the two avalanches, with 84 others being injured, six seriously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weather of 2023</span>

The following is a list of weather events that occurred on Earth in the year 2023. The year began with a La Niña. The most common weather events to have a significant impact are blizzards, cold waves, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, floods, tornadoes, and tropical cyclones.

In January 2020, at least 74 people were killed and several others were injured in Neelum Valley, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, after a series of avalanches triggered by heavy snowfall destroyed and buried houses.

References

  1. "Tibet avalanche kills 28 as search called off". BBC News . 21 January 2023.
  2. "Death toll in Tibet tunnel avalanche rises to 28". Al Jazeera News . 20 January 2023.
  3. "Death toll from Tibet avalanche rises to 28". Reuters. 21 January 2023.
  4. "Avalanche in Tibet kills 28, rescue work completed". Xinhua. 20 January 2023.