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Learning English from the News

Upper intermediate level

Nepal recovering from impact of flash floods

Episode 260902 / 02 Sep 2026

(Photo by Sanjit Pariyar/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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The story

More than 1,000 people have been confirmed dead after last week’s flash floods on the border of Nepal and Tibet, according to Nepal’s disaster agency.

Almost 4,000 people are still missing. Rescuers are trying to reach hundreds of workers who have been trapped in a large network of tunnels at hydropower sites.

Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah said on Monday that 279 people had been rescued from the sites.

A key cause of the deadly floods is thought to be a glacier collapse in the Himalayas. A glacier is a large area of dense ice.

News headlines 

Seven days after the disaster caused by the flash floods in Nepal, it's 'clearly not over'
Sky News

What triggered Nepal flash floods? And why are experts worried a second flood is ‘imminent’?
The Independent

Flood-hit Nepal unsure how to rebuild with landscape wiped out
Bloomberg

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Key words and phrases

not over
not finished

  • Firefighters are working to put out the wildfires, but it’s not over yet. The fires are still spreading.

trigger
cause something to start

  • Her offensive comment triggered an argument between the two colleagues.

wipe out
completely destroy, often in a sudden way

  • The hurricane wiped out many of the homes along the coast.

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