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🇳🇵 Nepal /Disasters & Emergencies

Bhotekoshi Flood Survivors Reunite With Families After Five Days

From Kathmandu Post · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Outcome reported
  • Twenty-three workers from Nepal’s Bardiya district returned home five days after the Bhotekoshi flood stranded them in Rasuwa.
  • Workers at the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project escaped through tunnels and spent two nights outdoors before helicopters took them to Nuwakot.
  • Families had struggled to contact the workers and feared for their safety after the flood.

For five days, families in Bardiya waited for news of workers who had gone to Rasuwa to earn money before the festivals. On Sunday, 23 of them returned home after surviving the Bhotekoshi flood.

The news of the devastating flood in Rasuwa left us terrified.

— BimaShe described her family’s fear after losing contact with her husband.

Among them was 38-year-old Krishna Prasad Chaudhary of Barbardiya Municipality. His wife, Bima, said he called on Wednesday from someone else’s phone to say he had narrowly escaped, but she could not reach him afterward. She repeatedly contacted other families whose relatives had also gone to Rasuwa.

Chaudhary had traveled to Mailung in late July to work as a labourer on the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project after finishing the rice-planting season. On the morning of the flood, he and 14 other Nepali workers entered a tunnel to clean it before plain cement concrete work. A Chinese employee outside alerted their team leader by walkie-talkie when floodwater began approaching.

I only breathed a sigh of relief after he returned home.

— BimaShe said she remained anxious until her husband came back.

A company vehicle carried the workers out of the tunnel. Soon afterward, a huge surge of water entered it. Chaudhary ran toward a hillside, grabbing grass and anything else that could help him climb. He and his colleagues spent two nights under the open sky before a helicopter rescued them and took them to Nuwakot.

The terror of that day is something I will never forget. Even now, thinking about it frightens me.

— Krishna Prasad ChaudharyHe recalled escaping the flood at the hydropower project.

“ I survived and came back by sheer luck,” Chaudhary said. He told his family that the terror of the flood remained difficult to forget. Another worker, 46-year-old Jagat Ram Chaudhary, described muddy water suddenly filling a tunnel at a separate project site and said he struggled to escape after mud filled his gumboots.

I survived and came back by sheer luck.

— Krishna Prasad ChaudharyHe described how he viewed his escape and return home.
About this summary

Originally published by Kathmandu Post in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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