Woman found alive in Nepal flood ruins after family began mourning

Betrawati, Nepal. Rescuers found Chandika Kumari Shrestha alive inside her collapsed home 10 days after deadly floods struck Nepal, despite her family having begun the 11-day mourning ritual for her presumed death.

She survived in a narrow pocket of air amid water and mud in the devastated village of Betrawati, one of the areas hardest hit by the disaster.

Rescue operation

Police officer Mahendra Darnal said the woman’s four-storey house had been swept away by floodwaters and left in the middle of quicksand.

“While walking around it, we heard a voice ‘save me,’” Darnal said.

During a 45-minute rescue operation on Saturday, Darnal and his team found Shrestha in a confined space and sent her to an army hospital.

“I was in touch with the family and they had started the 11-day mourning period,” he said.

Flood devastation

Shrestha was among hundreds of people reported missing in Betrawati, where white deposits compacted almost like concrete have engulfed parts of the area.

The town’s market and most residential buildings, including some as tall as four storeys, were almost completely buried under debris after a torrent swept through the valley.

The floods, triggered by a glacial collapse 11 days earlier, killed more than 1,300 people across Nepal. Close to 5,000 people remain missing.

Recovery efforts continue

Rescue crews continued to recover bodies from the devastated area. Five days earlier, 24 decomposed bodies were found in Betrawati’s market area, in a building that had contained a small shop, Darnal said.

Workers wearing hard hats were digging with shovels and crawling through gaps in collapsed buildings, periodically blowing whistles in an effort to locate survivors.