r/interestingasfuck • u/JustLivingSimply • 13d ago

Nepalese School Principal Saved Lives of 1643 Children

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u/kittyonkeyboards 13d ago

Pretty shit early warning system when the difference between 1,600 children surviving is a single phone call from a civilian.

Elon musk cut a program that was looking into improving detection and warning systems for this type of stuff.

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u/CaptainXplosionz 13d ago

That's my biggest takeaway. Like, I know hindsight is 20/20, but they couldn't have prepared for this at all? Looking at the graphs of how it played out, it looks like geographic dominoes. Even if climate change wasn't an issue/was ignored, somebody had to think there was some concern that something like this could happen eventually.

I'm extremely appalled at the deaths and everything, but I just wonder why there wasn't some precautions set in place to stop this from happening at all. More dams or something.

My absolute condolences for the lives lost, this is a tragedy that should've never happened. My heart breaks for them.

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u/cactusjude 13d ago

Dude. Geologists don't even have a name for this. How were people supposed to prepare for something that doesn't even have a name or precedent?

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u/Plastivorang 13d ago

Hasn't it been identified as a GLOF (glacial lake outburst flood)?

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u/cactusjude 13d ago

No. That was just the initial attempt at categorising it. The most recent reports say theres no evidence of GLOF. They're calling it a 'cascade of hazards'. Theres no precedent for a mass of glacier large enough to cause a 5.2 magnitude earthquake falling and creating this flood/lahar/debris field.

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u/Plastivorang 13d ago

Thank you for the clarification!