On August 26th, a massive flood and mudslide occurred along the border of Nepal and Tibet, resulting in severe casualties. Some survivors have shared their accounts of the event. One survivor from Nepal mentioned that she received advance warning and urged others to flee, but many people were skeptical about the impending disaster.
Videos circulating online depict the ferocious floodwaters sweeping away villages, bridges, roads, and infrastructure.
According to the BBC, Dikshya Subedi and her family managed to evade the disaster, but she was unable to convince all of her neighbors to evacuate.
Subedi told BBC News that her uncle in Nuwakot received a call from someone upstream, warning them that they only had 15 minutes to escape before a major event unfolded.
She described the process of warning others as “extremely challenging” because it wasn’t raining at the time, and many people were hesitant to believe that a disaster was imminent.
“We are all safe in my family,” Subedi said. However, she pointed out that not all of their neighbors were as fortunate.
Nuwakot is one of the worst-hit areas, as survivor Kalpana Malla recalled, “My family was washed away by the flood right before my eyes.”
Her father, mother, sisters, and their children were all swept away by the floodwaters. She mentioned, “The flood took everything, but my son and I managed to climb onto the roof of a house and survived. We cannot explain how we did it.”
Her son, Sugam Malla, shared that he held his mother’s hand at the time and saved her life.
According to Reuters, 68-year-old Keshav Prasad Baral was rescued four to five hours after mud engulfed his home, but his wife remains missing.
Nepalese authorities have reported that the death toll from the flood has risen to 389, with 910 people missing, including 667 tourists who are unaccounted for. Chinese media outlets have reported that in the Tibetan region, three people have died, and 558 individuals are still missing.