An excavator helps people to collect some of their belongings from their house in the aftermath of flash floods at Trishuli, in Nepal's Nuwakot district. Nearly 3,000 people were still missing and 900 confirmed dead after flash floods and landslides hit the Nepal-Tibet border.
New Delhi: People from West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Kerala, who were rescued from flood-ravaged Nepal, on Sunday, considered themselves lucky for being able to return home, while recounting their near-death experiences following the devastating flash floods in the Himalayan nation.
After returning home in West Bengal's Basirhat, Anukul Poddar recalled that he, along with a tourist group, was travelling from Kathmandu to Rasuwa, on the Nepal-China border, on the day of the disaster.
"That day, we left our hotel in Kathmandu at 6:30 a.m in two tourist buses. After about three to four hours, both vehicles stopped. Later, the driver told us that a landslide warning had been issued. The administration had informed the drivers, and they could not proceed further...Sitting in the vehicle, we saw schoolchildren crowding the road as schools had been closed. Many were running uphill," he told IANS.
"Later, the drivers took us to a higher place on the hill. All we could see was a white, cloud-like mass flowing down the river. We had never witnessed anything like it. We stood on the hill for a while and watched the mass gradually descend. After some time, the driver said we had to turn back; otherwise we would not be able to return if the road got blocked. The driver then quickly took us back to the hotel in Kathmandu."
