Believing that she had passed away in the devastating floods in Nepal, the family of Chandika Kumari Shrestha began mourning her death. However, ten days later, rescuers discovered her alive inside her collapsed home in the badly affected Betrawati village. She had managed to survive in a small air pocket amidst the water and mud.
Police officer Mahendra Darnal recounted the rescue operation, noting that Shrestha was found in a confined space within her four-storey house, which had been swept away by the floods and left in a quicksand-like situation. After hearing her cry for help, the rescue team successfully located her after a 45-minute operation and transported her to an army hospital.
Darnal mentioned that he had been in contact with Shrestha’s family, who had already started the mourning rituals. Shrestha was one of the many missing individuals in Betrawati, an area severely impacted by the floods in Nepal. The region was covered with dense white deposits, almost resembling concrete, making it challenging for rescue teams to navigate and recover bodies.
In the town, the market and numerous residential buildings, some towering up to four storeys, were almost entirely buried under debris from the destructive flood. This catastrophe claimed the lives of over 1,300 people across Nepal, with thousands still missing.
Rescue workers in hard hats were observed diligently searching for survivors in the rubble, with some crawling through collapsed structures and using whistles to signal for help from anyone trapped. Just days prior, 24 bodies were discovered in a decomposed state in Betrawati’s market area.
As the search for signs of life continued, nearly 5,000 people remained missing eleven days after the catastrophic floods caused by a glacial collapse. The aftermath of the disaster led to hundreds of bodies being carried downstream to the banks of rivers far from the severely affected Rasuwa district. In Chitwan, located hundreds of kilometers away, multiple mass burials were conducted for unidentified and badly decomposed bodies.
Despite the diminishing hope, Nepalese authorities persisted in their search efforts, focusing on locating individuals stuck in tunnels and beneath hardened mud deposits covering buildings. Recent operations led to the rescue of three individuals, including a Chinese citizen near the Trishuli river, where an estimated 900 people were believed to be trapped.
Among the miraculous survival stories was that of Shrestha and an eight-year-old boy who was also reunited with his mother under extraordinary circumstances.