Major flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border have destroyed homes, roads, bridges and local hydropower projects. The flooding of the Bhote Koshi river is affecting 50,000 residents. More than 380 tourists are missing. At least 95 people have already died.

This region of the Himalayas had not yet recovered from the Bhote Koshi flooding in 2025 that killed nine people as it washed away a “friendship bridge” linking Nepal and China, disrupting trade and transport for months.

In Sri Lanka, recent floods and landslides struck affected communities that were still recovering from Cyclone Ditwah, which had caused widespread damage only nine months earlier. With little time to recover from the cyclone, communities had no protection from further flooding. More than 15,000 people have been directly affected and 6,800 people were displaced this August.

Disaster risk usually considers how severe the next flood, wildfire, cyclone or drought will be. But the Nepal and Sri Lanka examples show another dimension that is often overlooked: how quickly can a community recover and will it do so before the next disaster arrives?

A disaster rarely leaves a place exactly as it found it. Roads and bridges may remain damaged. Families may have spent their savings. Businesses may still be struggling. Governments can still be financing reconstruction, while hospitals and other public services remain under pressure.

If another hazard arrives before these systems have recovered, it does not encounter the same community that existed before the first disaster. It encounters a place with less resilience and a weakened infrastructure.

A useful way to understand this........

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