Believing she had perished in the devastating floods in Nepal, the family of Chandika Kumari Shrestha began mourning her presumed death. However, ten days later, rescuers discovered her alive inside her collapsed home in the severely affected Betrawati village. She had managed to survive in a small air pocket amidst the water and mud.
Police officer Mahendra Darnal recounted the miraculous rescue, stating that Shrestha was found in a confined space within her four-story house that had been swept away by the floods, leaving it surrounded by quicksand. After hearing her cries for help, the rescue team swiftly located her and transported her to an army hospital.
Darnal mentioned that he had been in contact with Shrestha’s family, who had already initiated an 11-day mourning period. Shrestha was one of numerous individuals reported missing in Betrawati, an area severely impacted by the floods in Nepal, where recovery efforts are ongoing to retrieve the bodies of the deceased.
The town of Betrawati suffered extensive damage, with the market and residential buildings, some towering up to four stories high, buried under debris from the catastrophic flooding that claimed over 1,300 lives across Nepal, leaving thousands still unaccounted for.
Rescue operations in Betrawati involved workers wearing protective gear diligently searching for survivors, with some maneuvering through collapsed structures blowing whistles to attract attention from potential survivors trapped beneath the rubble. Prior to Shrestha’s rescue, 24 bodies were discovered in a deteriorated state in the market area of Betrawati.
Following a glacial collapse that triggered the devastating floods, nearly 5,000 individuals remain missing even eleven days later. The aftermath of the disaster has seen numerous bodies washed onto riverbanks far from the affected districts, with mass burials conducted in Chitwan for unidentified and badly decomposed remains.
Despite the diminishing hope, Nepali authorities persist in their search for individuals stranded in tunnels and buried under solidified mud deposits. Recent efforts have resulted in the rescue of three individuals, including a Chinese national near the Trishuli river. Stories of survival like Shrestha’s and the heartwarming reunion of an eight-year-old boy with his mother amidst such extreme conditions provide glimmers of hope amidst the tragedy.