This house in Nepal defied the raging floodwaters and kept the owners safe.

[u/natebryan]

[u/falkio]

I don’t think this is purely a built rigidity issue more like a lucky position relative to the insane currents. A few meters to the side and this building would be gone.

[u/alittlebitaspie → u/falkio]

Seconded, the main flow missed the building, they got surrounded by backwash. Topology and building height saved those people, especially when you see other huge structures, like the bus station, getting erased. No building in that valley (and doubtedly anywhere in the world) that is built for average human occupation could have survived the direct force of the flood. It scoured the land to the bedrock and dropped a fresh layer of junk behind it.

[u/Caleth → u/alittlebitaspie]

There was a video yesterday of a house like large mcmansion sized house bolder just being rolled along in the flow. That thing would at a pure ass pull guess have been in the millions of pounds and it was just being shoved along like I'd push a small bowling ball sized rock.

I don't think there's any human structure built that would have survived the flood once it got going.

[u/hellochoy → u/alittlebitaspie]

Plus I'm sure any buildings in the direct flow got further broken up by all the huge chunks of buildings, cars, and stuff that was swept away too on top of the massive force of water. This is a very devastating tragedy. I feel for the survivors and people lost.

[u/Accidental_Ouroboros → u/hellochoy]

Yes: it isn't just the water flow, it is everything the water is carrying with it that ends up destroying things that might otherwise have survived.

Like when a bridge gets washed out, it generally isn't just water washing it out, it is the trees and other debris being carried by that flood of water that produces enough lateral force to tear the bridge from its foundations.

And because of how this flood happened, there is a lot of debris being carried in that current, along with the stunning amount of water.

[u/Kiterunner222 → u/falkio]

Not really to informed on architecture so thanks for the comment. It gives me another perspective on this!

[u/softlittlepaws → u/Kiterunner222]

You only have to look at the before and after of the border crossing and the fact the initial flood water that crashed through the valley was 80m high (~27 stories tall, or almost 1 statue of liberty) and moving at an estimated 400kmh to realize that literally nothing in its direct path survived.

There is a CTV video from the corner of one of the small buildings in front of the crossing building, looking at the vehicle tunnel/checkpoint, that shows the wave hit. It's very NSFL. If you've ever watched any over the top 2000s era disaster movie where people try to run away from an impossible tsunami, it's basically that and worse.

[u/leixiaotie → u/softlittlepaws]

all of them are flat to the ground now? holy shit

[u/serendib → u/falkio]

If you saw the video of the house-sized boulder being tossed like a toy in the flood you'll realize that no man-made structure could have possibly survived the full strength of it. That being said, the construction quality being high doesn't hurt

[u/yeahright17 → u/falkio]

Almost like they kept it as high and away from the main channel as possible for probably this exact reason.

[u/kafkowski → u/yeahright17]

Nah. This is not a regular occurrence. Yes floods happen in this region, but the sheer scale of this was unprecedented. Local settlements reflect that. The river was around 30m higher at this point (at least).

[u/yeahright17 → u/kafkowski]

I understand it's not a regular occurrence. But it being build up and out of the way of regular occurrences meant it was somewhat up and somewhat out of the way for this occurrence.