A catastrophic flash flood disaster that swept through mountain villages along the Nepal-China border last Wednesday has left a staggering trail of death and destruction, with more than 160 people confirmed dead and nearly 800 still unaccounted for. The force of the churning mud and debris was so intense that seismologists initially mistook the geological disturbance for a major earthquake, a testament to the unprecedented power of the natural disaster that erased entire settled communities from the map.
Survivors of the catastrophe have shared harrowing, heart-wrenching accounts of watching their loved ones and entire livelihoods get swept away in minutes, with no time to escape or intervene. Kalpana Malla, a resident of Nepal’s Nuwakot district, described the moment when her parents, sister, and her sister’s young children were pulled into the roiling mudslides right in front of her eyes. “They could not escape the flood; there was no chance at all,” Malla told the BBC. “This flood took everything, but my son and I climbed the rooftop of a house and survived but couldn’t explain how.” Her 16-year-old son Sugam, who pulled his mother to safety when the floodwaters rose, recalled that he had lent his mobile phone to his sister to stay connected, and the device has since gone silent — leaving him certain she was also swept away.
Other survivors have lost not only family but everything they owned to the disaster. Local resident Goma Pandit explained that all of her cattle, including her valued buffaloes, were killed in the flood, and every bit of her stored crops and farmland was also washed away. “Nothing is left,” she said.
In the capital city of Kathmandu, dozens of anxious family members have gathered at TU Teaching Hospital, where injured survivors are being transported via helicopter from remote affected areas, waiting for any word of their missing loved ones. Ram Khumari Shrestha held up a photo of her husband, a driver who had traveled to the flood-hit Rasuwa district for work, saying he was in regular contact with her until 8 p.m. on the night of the flood, but his phone has been switched off ever since. Mani Shrestha Bishwa, who has been camping at the hospital since Wednesday night, is still waiting for news of four missing family members and friends, with his last contact with the group coming more than 24 hours before the flood hit.
Trekking guide Sonam Dorjee escaped the disaster by barely an hour, having left his home village of Rasiwa Syafru at 8 a.m. local time, shortly before the floodwaters slammed into the community. As he drove toward Kathmandu, he heard the roar of the flood hitting the valley, which he described as sounding identical to a major earthquake. “My house has collapsed… I have seen a photo,” he said. Dorjee’s sister, her husband, and multiple other relatives are currently missing, and he echoed calls for emergency support for hundreds of left homeless by the disaster. “Many survivors are now left without homes and they need emergency rescue and evacuation, as well as food, temporary accommodation and medical support,” he said, adding that he still holds out a sliver of hope that his sister will be found alive: “There is a 10% chance, we hope.”
By Thursday, rescue teams had begun the dangerous work of traversing thick, clinging mud and scattered debris to reach cut-off remote communities, while Nepalese government authorities worked to accelerate the delivery of emergency aid and relief supplies to the disaster zone.