Race between life and death: Nepal flood survivors recount harrowing escapes
At first, Dipak Tamang thought the ground was shaking. Then he saw a wall of water, mud and stones racing towards the houses along the Bhotekoshi river in Timure market, and realised there was nowhere to go but up.
Survivors of the floods have described scenes of extraordinary terror – desperate climbs towards higher ground, homes collapsing around them and people being swept away as torrents of water, mud and debris tore through settlements.
For some, survival came down to a desperate race uphill. Others watched helplessly as friends and loved ones were swept away, while people who reached the affected areas later found markets buried in mud and families searching for missing relatives.
Tamang, a resident of neighbouring Sindhupalchowk district, was in Timure, a town on the Nepal-Tibet border, when the flash flood struck on Wednesday.
“When I came out of the house and ran upward towards the hill, few houses had already collapsed due to the powerful flood,” he recalled, according to a report by Nepali news portal Onlinekhabar. “There was not much choice for me. Behind me was the flood and in front of me was a wall-like hill.” He ran towards the slope, struggling to climb what seemed like a wall. He fell several times, grabbing thorny bushes and stinging nettles to pull himself higher.
“It was my last race between life and death,” he said. People were running in different directions as the flood surged below them. Each time he fell, Tamang thought it might be the last moment of his life.
Eventually, he reached the top of the hill. From there, he saw people being swept away by the flood. Among them were his friends. “I could do nothing when my friends were swept away by the wave before my eyes,” he recalled.
Tamang eventually found an old go-down used for storing wood in the forest, where dozens of other people who had managed to save themselves had also taken refuge. He spent the night there without a bed as rain continued to fall, waiting for rescuers. He was rescued about 24 hours later.
For photojournalist Amul Thapa, who reached Trishuli shortly after the flood, the devastation was almost impossible to comprehend. Writing about his visit in Nepali daily Naya Patrika, Thapa said he began his journey from Kathmandu around 10 am, about an hour after the incident, and reached Trishuli market a couple of hours later.
There had been around 50 to 60 houses in the market, but most were buried under mud. In places, only the rooftops remained visible. There was barely any distinction between the road and the houses, he observed.
People were running through the upper market, while others searched for their loved ones who had gone missing in the flood. About half of the market had been devastated. Thapa also heard people talking about some students from Uttargaya Boarding School who had been missing and later returned to their school after walking for six hours through the jungle.
By Friday afternoon, ambulances carrying bodies were moving in and out near the Chitwan Industrial Association in Chitwan. Some bodies swept away from Rasuwa by the floods had been recovered from the Narayani river, Thapa wrote. Among those caught in the disaster were Indian-American couple Anjana Raja and Pattabiraman Venkatesan, who were stranded in Nepal before being rescued and airlifted to Kathmandu.
Survivors of the floods have described scenes of extraordinary terror – desperate climbs towards higher ground, homes collapsing around them and people being swept away as torrents of water, mud and debris tore through settlements.
For some, survival came down to a desperate race uphill. Others watched helplessly as friends and loved ones were swept away, while people who reached the affected areas later found markets buried in mud and families searching for missing relatives.
Tamang, a resident of neighbouring Sindhupalchowk district, was in Timure, a town on the Nepal-Tibet border, when the flash flood struck on Wednesday.
“When I came out of the house and ran upward towards the hill, few houses had already collapsed due to the powerful flood,” he recalled, according to a report by Nepali news portal Onlinekhabar. “There was not much choice for me. Behind me was the flood and in front of me was a wall-like hill.” He ran towards the slope, struggling to climb what seemed like a wall. He fell several times, grabbing thorny bushes and stinging nettles to pull himself higher.
“It was my last race between life and death,” he said. People were running in different directions as the flood surged below them. Each time he fell, Tamang thought it might be the last moment of his life.
Eventually, he reached the top of the hill. From there, he saw people being swept away by the flood. Among them were his friends. “I could do nothing when my friends were swept away by the wave before my eyes,” he recalled.
Tamang eventually found an old go-down used for storing wood in the forest, where dozens of other people who had managed to save themselves had also taken refuge. He spent the night there without a bed as rain continued to fall, waiting for rescuers. He was rescued about 24 hours later.
For photojournalist Amul Thapa, who reached Trishuli shortly after the flood, the devastation was almost impossible to comprehend. Writing about his visit in Nepali daily Naya Patrika, Thapa said he began his journey from Kathmandu around 10 am, about an hour after the incident, and reached Trishuli market a couple of hours later.
There had been around 50 to 60 houses in the market, but most were buried under mud. In places, only the rooftops remained visible. There was barely any distinction between the road and the houses, he observed.
People were running through the upper market, while others searched for their loved ones who had gone missing in the flood. About half of the market had been devastated. Thapa also heard people talking about some students from Uttargaya Boarding School who had been missing and later returned to their school after walking for six hours through the jungle.
By Friday afternoon, ambulances carrying bodies were moving in and out near the Chitwan Industrial Association in Chitwan. Some bodies swept away from Rasuwa by the floods had been recovered from the Narayani river, Thapa wrote. Among those caught in the disaster were Indian-American couple Anjana Raja and Pattabiraman Venkatesan, who were stranded in Nepal before being rescued and airlifted to Kathmandu.