A catastrophic flood has devastated communities in Nepal, leaving survivors grieving for lost relatives and homes reduced to ruins. Rescue teams, including Chinese personnel, are struggling amid the wreckage, with reports of entire villages wiped out and families separated by the disaster. One woman described watching helplessly as her husband was swept away while others failed to save him, now waiting desperately for news of her missing son. The scale of destruction has overwhelmed local resources, prompting calls for international assistance in identifying the dead and coordinating relief efforts.
Rescue workers and military personnel have been working around the clock since Wednesday’s disaster‘The flood took everything I have’: survivors grieve for relatives and homes swept away in NepalChinese rescuers find ‘nothing but ruins’ at border crossing as Nepal seeks help to ID and store the deadThe Guardian’s south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen and journalist Gaurav Pokharel report from the Nepalese town of Bidur, where rescue efforts are being coordinated. They spoke to survivors mourning loved ones and confronting the loss of their homes and livelihoods after devastating floods swept through their communities.Among those caught in the floods was Sangke Dolma Tamang, who described the moment she watched her husband being swept away and returned to find her home and village destroyed:Sangke Dolma Tamang, 61, had been cheerily cooking snacks in her village of Mailung in the Rasuwa district when the floods came without warning. The whole family ran uphill for safety, but as she grabbed for her husband, he slipped from her grip and was washed into the dark, fast-moving waters.“Others tried to pull him to safety, but the flood swept him away,” she said, tears rolling down her weathered cheeks. There was, she said, nothing left of her village now. She had spent a night sheltering on higher ground, until an army helicopter arrived and brought to her safety at the barracks. Her son too was missing since the disaster, and she waited anxiously for any news. Continue reading...
