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🇳🇵 Nepal /Disasters & Emergencies

Late rescues renew hope for survivors in deadly Nepal floods

From Kathmandu Post · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Rescuers found Chandika Shrestha alive beneath her buried home 11 days after flash floods swept through Nepal’s Bhotekoshi river basin.
  • Her rescue, along with the recovery of three people from hydropower tunnels, has raised hopes that others may remain alive in buried structures.
  • Nepal has confirmed 1,338 deaths and nearly 5,000 missing people, while four members of Shrestha’s family remain unaccounted for.

For 10 days, Chandika Shrestha’s family had no idea where she was. By the eighth day, relatives had nearly given up hope and began performing death rituals, using a kush-grass effigy to represent her body.

Then, on the 11th day after the floods, a video showed a frail woman being carried alive from sludge inside a flood-ravaged house in Betrawati, a historic market town in Nuwakot. Shrestha, 64, had disappeared with four family members when flash floods tore through the Bhotekoshi river basin on August 26.

When news reached us on the 11th day that an elderly woman had been rescued, we rushed to the hospital. Once we confirmed it was her, we couldn’t believe our eyes.

· Ramesh Man ShresthaA relative described the family’s reaction after confirming that the rescued woman was Chandika Shrestha.

“When news reached us on the 11th day that an elderly woman had been rescued, we rushed to the hospital,” relative Ramesh Man Shrestha said. “Once we confirmed it was her, we couldn’t believe our eyes.”

We had previously searched and conducted rescue operations at this exact spot and heard no sound at all. While passing through the area again, we heard cries. We immediately began clearing the sludge.

· Suman BKThe Armed Police Force inspector explained how the rescue team discovered Shrestha.

The Armed Police Force team that found her had been deployed for road construction. Inspector Suman BK said the team heard faint cries while passing the buried residence, despite having searched the same location earlier. Officers broke through a window and crawled into the debris, where Shrestha began speaking more clearly.

The floods had shifted the structure nearly 100 metres uphill. Three and a half storeys lay buried, while the fourth was partly submerged in mud. Rescuers evacuated Shrestha by Nepali Army helicopter to Birendra Hospital in Kathmandu. Her survival followed the rescue of two workers, Sanjay Shah and Kabir Maharjan, from 170 metres inside a tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A project. Tunnel expert Arnold Dix said people can survive underground longer than expected. Shrestha’s four family members remain missing.

Three and a half storeys were completely buried, and the fourth storey was half submerged in mud. Our team had to crawl through the smashed window into suffocating slush to find her.

· Suman BKBK described the conditions inside the buried house.
About this summary

Originally published by Kathmandu Post. 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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