The images of a mud-covered elderly woman being rescued to safety in the scoop of a digger have come to symbolise extraordinary accounts of survival in Nepal’s devastating flash floods. The woman, 97-year-old Guna Maya Bohara, was pulled alive from the rubble of her care home after a four-hour rescue operation.
Guna Maya Bohara recovering in hospital
Her doctors say she is recovering in hospital, while her great-nephew Dipak told BBC Nepali that she looked like โa warriorโ who had returned victorious from battle. Hers is one of the many stories of survival from flood-ravaged areas of Nepal, where people fled collapsing settlements on Wednesday, seeking refuge on hillsides and spending nights stranded in forests before rescuers could reach them.
Death toll from devastating flash floods crossees 650
The development comes at a time when the death toll from the devastating flash floods crossed 650 on Saturday, while more than 2,400 were still missing. Survivors of the floods described scenes of extraordinary terror โ desperate climbs towards higher ground, homes collapsing around them and people being swept away.
For Raju Budhathoki, a customs agent in Timure, a town on the Nepal-Tibet border, the disaster began when the hillside suddenly started shaking Wednesday morning. Budhathoki, who was resting in his room, initially thought an earthquake had struck, according to The Kathmandu Post. He ran outside and towards a nearby police post, but found that the police themselves were fleeing. As he scrambled past a wire fence, he injured his hand.
Budhathoki saw houses in Timure market being swept away
Looking back, he saw houses in the Timure market being swept away one after another by the flood, with some disappearing into the river within seconds, the newspaper reported.
Budhathoki eventually reached a forest about 500 metres uphill, where he found safety. “From the forest, when I looked down at Timure, I never imagined I would get a second chance at life like this,” he told the newspaper from his hospital bed in Trishuli. Around 10 am on Thursday, another Army helicopter arrived and flew them to Bidur.
“Only after boarding the helicopter did I feel that I had actually survived,” Gautam told the newspaper.
For Tulsi Bahadur Bhandari of Dolakha, survival came in an entirely different way. According to The Kathmandu Post, Bhandari was trying to flee when a torrent of black mud and floodwater swept through the settlement. Houses began collapsing one after another as he ran.
With inputs from PTI
Also Read:ย
‘Exceptionally generous’: Nepal praises PM Modi and India for support after devastating floods