One phone call saved thousands of lives after river gauges were swept away on 26 August
Devesh Belbase·Aug 31, 2026·NEWS
Photo: SUMAN NEPALI
Going by the numbers Nepal uses to define danger, the flood of 26 August was unremarkable.
At 8:40am on 26 August, the automatic gauge on the Bhote Kosi on Nepal’s border with China recorded the water level at 1.62m. It was low, and falling.
That was the last reading of the Rasuwagadi station. The wall of water coming down the Lhende Khola destroyed the equipment before the next reading was due. The gauge at Syaphrubesi 15km downstream died when the water level reached 3.8m. Betrawati was knocked out at 3.55m. These were all below the prescribed Amber warning thresholds.
It was 4pm by the time the flood peaked at 6.57m in Devghat, 170km downstream on the Narayani River. That was the highest point measured during this flood event, but still below the Amber warning level of 7.3m (see charts).
Devghat is the last gauge on the river, and it stayed green throughout the flood of 26 August.
But upstream, hundreds of people had already been swept away the fury of the mudflow. Between Rasuwa to Chitwan, 22 concrete bridges were washed away, a dozen hydropower plants were damaged or destroyed, as were four of the flood monitoring stations built to protect them.
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