"August 26" mudslide disaster in Jilong, Tibet: The danger of the barrier lake has basically been lifted

On September 4, 10 days have passed since the "8·26" mudslide disaster occurred in Gyirong, Tibet, and various rescue and relief work are still in progress. So, what is happening now with the ice and rock collapse source area and barrier lake hanging above the Geelong Port, which once caused great trouble to rescue and search efforts?

The reporter learned from the "8·26" Debris Flow Disaster Emergency Rescue Headquarters in Jilong, Tibet that the barrier lake currently located above the core area of ​​the Jilong Port has been emptied, the river has resumed flow, and the danger of the barrier lake has basically been lifted.

On the morning of August 26, a glacier on the north slope of Langtanglirang Peak in Nepal broke off at an altitude of about 5,200 meters and caused an ice and rock avalanche. The high altitude quickly fell to about 4,000 meters, scouring the mountain and forming a giant mudslide. After impacting for about 22 kilometers, it reached my country's Geelong Port at an altitude of about 1,800 meters, causing about 0.7 square kilometers, 27 buildings and corresponding ancillary facilities in the area to be razed to the ground, and all roads, communications, and electricity leading to the Geelong Port were damaged and interrupted.

The most prominent risk restricting the handling of this disaster is the barrier lake located above the core area of ​​the country. Ren Wei, executive deputy commander of the "8·26" debris flow disaster emergency rescue headquarters in Jilong County, Tibet Autonomous Region, member of the Standing Committee of the Autonomous Region Party Committee, and executive vice chairman of the autonomous region, said that after the disaster, radar detection showed that the barrier body had an average dam height of 60 meters, a dam length of about 1,100 meters, an average dam width of about 300 meters, a lake area of ​​about 0.1 square kilometers, and a storage capacity of about 2.2 million square meters.

For downstream channels, the local area continues to carry out danger monitoring to prevent secondary disasters. At present, the water catchment area about 3.2 kilometers away from the ice and rock collapse source area has been basically emptied. The flow rate at the Jilong Zangbo monitoring station is 86.8 cubic meters per second, the flow rate at the Guoba station on the Donglin Zangbo main stream is 34.7 cubic meters per second, which is slightly lower than the average on the 3rd day. The flow rate at the Purepu emergency monitoring point is 20.7 cubic meters per second, with no significant change from the 3rd day.

Local officials said that in the next step, they will continue to closely monitor the real-time status of the ice and rock avalanche area under the influence of continuous precipitation, high temperatures and other weather conditions.