Race between life and death: Nepal flood survivors recount harrowing escapes

Survivors of Nepal’s devastating flash floods have recounted terrifying escapes as torrents of water, mud and debris swept through settlements along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers. Many fled uphill, watched loved ones disappear and spent hours awaiting rescue amid widespread destruction

Kathmandu: 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.

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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.

“I knew I was going to die,” Raja told CBS News. Venkatesan said the approaching wall of debris appeared to be about 60 to 70 feet high and looked like a tsunami. “I could see this monster thing coming down. At that point I didn’t know if it was water. I thought it was fire, forest fire, honestly,” he said.

Raja told ABC News that the torrent was a towering mass of water and mud. “It was water mixed with the mud that was a good 50 to 60 feet high,” she said, likening it to a serpent or a cobra’s head staring at them.

Raja grabbed her husband by the collar and shouted, “Run”, as the two jumped off their bus. They sprinted towards higher ground, climbing a set of steps as houses collapsed around them.

They did not know where they were going. “We just blindly… climbed. We didn’t even know what direction,” Raja said. “There was no guide for us, there was nobody, we were just frantically running.” The terrain was slushy and muddy, and the rocks were slippery. When they reached a higher level, Raja saw the flood rise up the slope and push their bus.

“I told my husband, ‘That’s it, we’re gone. We’re going to die,'” she said. “I saw death right in front of my eyes.” A guide eventually led the couple to a flat area at the top of a nearby mountain. The climb itself was treacherous, with narrow, slippery terrain covered in mud, stones and rocks. “So tall up, I don’t even know how we climbed,” Raja said.

Venkatesan called their survival “nothing short of a miracle”. The experience, he said, had left the couple with a renewed appreciation for life. “It strengthens my thoughts on life,” he said. “Be good, do good, think good, and leave the rest to whoever is above us.”