Dil Bahadur Shrestha, 70, desperately searched through the remnants of his home for his wife, Jamuna, who has been missing since last week’s devastating flash floods. With no shovel available, he is left to sift through the mud with his bare hands.
On the morning of the disaster, Jamuna, his wife of 50 years, was at their home in Betrawati, located along the banks of the Trishuli River in Nepal, tending to her chickens and goats. As the floodwaters surged down the valley, she was last seen attempting to guide her livestock to safety, while many others fled to higher ground. The couple’s home now lies in ruins, a mere shell engulfed by mud and debris from the floods that claimed over 1,200 lives in Nepal and Tibet.
While Dil Bahadur was tending to his rice fields and caring for his cows on the opposite side of the river, he felt the earth shake and witnessed a massive wave approaching. He sought refuge in the forest but not before observing the destruction of two nearby bridges. “Everything was destroyed in just two minutes,” he recounted.
Despite knowing in his heart that she has likely perished, Dil Bahadur and countless others are still searching for their loved ones, as the number of missing persons exceeds 5,000 in Nepal and 546 in Tibet. With rescue teams yet to reach his area, he felt compelled to search for Jamuna himself. “Perhaps she thought the flood wouldn’t reach the house,” he speculated, tears streaming down his face.
This was not the first time the couple faced adversity; they had previously rebuilt their home following a catastrophic earthquake in 2015 that resulted in approximately 9,000 fatalities. As he stood in the muddy remnants of his neighborhood, where his neighbor’s home once stood, Dil Bahadur collapsed, overwhelmed by grief.
“I still cannot believe she is gone,” he expressed. “I keep searching for her because I feel she might still be out there, taking care of the chickens and goats.”
The magnitude of the disaster in Betrawati is staggering. At 8:37 AM, a glacier melted high in the Himalayas, triggering deadly flash floods that surged through Nepal’s Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers. Just 13 minutes later, the town was inundated.
Once a bustling market town, Betrawati is now nearly unrecognizable, buried under thick mud that has left only the upper floors of some buildings visible. Many structures were entirely swept away or overturned. School buses lie on their sides, and a grocery store has been displaced 200 meters from where it once stood. The river has also altered its course, cutting through areas that were previously roadways.
Amidst the wreckage, personal belongings such as kettles, stuffed animals, and clothing are strewn about, serving as reminders of the lives that once thrived there. Dil Bahadur’s brother and sister-in-law are among the over 250 individuals still unaccounted for.
As Dil Bahadur surveyed the devastation, search teams worked from across the river, recovering bodies. By the end of one day, they had retrieved 24 bodies from a single residence. A helicopter flew overhead, carrying white body bags. “I believe there may still be hundreds of bodies here,” he lamented. “So many were swept away in an instant.” His voice trembled as he admitted, “Now I am entirely alone.”
Nearby, Santamaya Lawat, 57, was attempting to clean her salvaged belongings from her brother’s partially standing home, which has a gaping hole in its side. Her own house, built just 10 months prior with her savings, remains inaccessible due to the mud. Five members of her family are missing.
“My heart shattered when I returned,” she said. “This was supposed to be my forever home, and now it’s all gone. It was once paradise, and now it feels like hell.”
Further along the river in Rasuwa, near the Tibet border, the destruction worsens. Some villages were completely obliterated, accessible only by military helicopters. Many areas remain cut off, leaving the fates of hundreds unknown. On Tuesday, police reported progress in recovery efforts in the village of Timure, where 90 bodies have been found so far.
A week after the calamity, survivors who fled to higher ground are still being rescued by army helicopters and taken to Dhunche, the administrative center of Rasuwa. In the village of Syabru Besi, which was nearly wiped off the map, officials report that at least 500 residents are missing, constituting about a quarter of the village’s population, with only one building still standing.
Chhiring Dorje, a 50-year-old farmer from Syabru Besi, managed to escape with a small group but is now missing five family members. “There were 15 or 16 of us who made it to the forest,” he recalled. “We waited there for two days before…”
