‘Saw people, vehicles being swept away… escaped by 15 minutes’: Indians returning from flood-hit Nepal narrate their close shaves

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.”

After deboarding from a train at a railway station in Nagpur, a woman thanked the state government for facilitating her family’s return from the disaster-stricken country.

“We went to Nepal for a trip; the situation there was very difficult…I am grateful to the Maharashtra government for making it possible for us to return to the city by using its links in Nepal. We are extremely thankful to (Chief Minister) Devendra Fadnavis ji,” she told IANS while maintaining that the family was able to complete their tour.

Calling herself and her family members lucky for being able to escape the tragedy, she recounted: “A bus got swept away from the same place through which our bus had passed fifteen minutes earlier. All of us were scared since we did not know what to do.”

In Kerala’s Kasaragod, five members of a 36-member Malayali group returned home safely after being stranded in Nepal.

Talking to IANS, a rescued local said: “On August 26, we were on our way to the Manakamana Temple (in Gorkha district) from Kathmandu. The driver stopped the bus while on the way, saying that there had been an accident. While waiting inside the bus, we saw passengers getting down from vehicles beside us and running to the lower side of the road.”

Recounting the horror, he described: “So we followed them and then saw from a distance that parts of buildings, trees, people and smaller vehicles were being swept away into the river…locals said that a dam had breached upstream. Only later, we got to know from social media that a flash flood had struck the area.”

“In the afternoon, we diverted the bus into a forest area and travelled around 60 kilometres into the forest…our vehicle was breaking down repeatedly. At that time, we thought that we would not be able to go back home,” he said.

IANS