A hydropower project under construction in Laos failed Monday night, releasing a catastrophic torrent of water onto the rural villages below, sweeping away homes and people in a muddy tide.
Hundreds are missing and at least 26 are dead, according to state media.
Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith called it possibly the worst disaster to strike Laos in decades.
Officially, nearly 7,000 people have been rendered homeless after flash flooding inundated a half dozen villages in southernmost Attapeu province near the borders with Cambodia and Vietnam. Survivors were left clinging to trees, or stranded on a handful of rooftops peaking above the floodline.
Rescue operations and an investigation into what exactly caused the breach at the billion dollar Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower project are underway, with only a handful of concrete details revealed so far.
Here’s what we know.
The death toll
Twenty-six people have been confirmed dead, KPL, the state news agency reported on Thursday morning.
Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith said at a press conference that 131 people have been added to an official missing persons list.
A senior Laos government official, declining to be named, told Reuters that dozens are dead, but noted that with many unaccounted for, the toll will likely be much higher.
The rescue effort
When the dam failed, millions of tons of water cascaded downstream. Photos and videos posted by state media show villagers, some just young children, perched on rooftops to escape the flood.
As rescuers wade through the submerged area, continued heavy rain complicates the search effort. Boats have ferried some people to dry land, while helicopters have also reportedly been dispatched.
In a video posted by ABC Laos on Facebook, a woman being evacuated by boat cries out to rescuers, saying that her mother is still stranded on a tree.
The area has been declared a disaster zone, and provincial authorities have requested donations of emergency aid provisions, including food, drinking water, medicine, cash and clothing.
A warning, too late
Just hours before the disaster on Monday, the Laotian, Thai and South Korean consortium behind the project warned that one of its dams was dangerously unsafe and would send walls of water surging downstream if it collapsed, VOA reports.
An official from South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction (SK E&C), one of the companies building the project, confirmed to TIME that fractures were observed on the dam before the disaster, and an evacuation of the 12 surrounded villages was recommended.
He added that it remains unclear what caused the dam to fail, which occurred after unusually heavy rain.
All management from SK E&C have gone to the site for an emergency consultation, according to the official.
The dam
The structure that collapsed is reportedly one of three “earth-filled” auxiliary dams supporting the $1.02 billion Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower project, a system of dams, reservoirs and channels along Mekong River tributaries.
As with dozens of other hydropower projects that impoverished and riverine Laos has okayed in its bid to become the battery of Southeast Asia, this one relied on foreign developers, and intended on exporting most of the electricity generated.
The 410 MWXe-Pian Xe-Namnoy project was slated to come online this year, with a plan to sell 90% of the power generated to Thailand.