00:00And we leave you with this special report.
00:02Yes, amid the devastation in Nepal,
00:04one house that has become a remarkable symbol of survival.
00:07As raging floodwaters and debris swept away almost everything around it,
00:12this turquoise house in Trashuli remains standing.
00:16It is now being dubbed Nepal's miracle house.
00:18But was it simply luck or did its construction and location
00:22help in withstanding the enormous force of the flood?
00:25We're getting you this special report.
00:28Imagine watching an entire neighbourhood disappear under a wall of water.
00:34And then one house is still standing.
00:39This is the house that has been dubbed Nepal's miracle house.
00:44Not because it was untouched,
00:46but because while the floodwaters destroyed structures all around it,
00:52this one held firm.
00:55So what made this house different?
01:00Part of the answer may lie in how the house was built.
01:03The house was reportedly constructed with a reinforced concrete frame.
01:09A structural system built around concrete columns,
01:13beams and steel reinforcement.
01:15Think of the steel inside the concrete as the house's internal skeleton.
01:22Concrete is strong under compression,
01:25while steel reinforcement helps the structure withstand tension and bending.
01:30And that becomes crucial when floodwater isn't just rising.
01:35It's moving.
01:37Fast-moving water and debris can generate powerful lateral forces against a building.
01:44Structures that aren't designed to resist those sideways forces
01:48can be far more vulnerable to cracking, collapse or being swept away.
01:54But a reinforced concrete frame connects the major structural elements,
02:00columns, beams and foundation,
02:04helping the building act more like one connected system.
02:13The structure appears to have been slightly outside the main path of the most destructive debris flow.
02:23So instead of taking the full force head-on,
02:26the water and debris appear to have split around the building.
02:29strong construction,
02:31a favourable position
02:33and perhaps a little luck.
02:37Together, these factors may explain why this one house survived
02:42while the neighbourhood around it was torn apart.
