{"id":664856,"date":"2026-08-31T08:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/664856\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T08:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:01:17","slug":"everything-is-lost-inside-devastated-nepal-flood-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/664856\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Everything is lost’ – Inside devastated Nepal flood zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The water appeared around the corner like smoke.”<\/p>\n

That’s how Gita Devi Kalwar describes the moment she saw the catastrophic floods rushing towards her home in Bidur last Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

“Everyone started shouting ‘run away, run away’. I held onto my husband (and ran),” she said.<\/p>\n

“Those that could run lived – those that could not were swept away,” she added.<\/p>\n

When they returned several days later, it was to an unrecognisable scene.<\/p>\n

Everything had been washed away – their home, their motorbikes, their important documents, the money they had saved from their small business.<\/p>\n

Kate Varley reports from inside the devastated town of Bidur<\/p>\n

\n

They left with just the clothes on their backs, and returned to nothing but mud, sediment and debris.<\/p>\n

Gita’s 17-year-old daughter, Rishika, had been away in Kathmandu when the disaster struck, and immediately returned to Bidur when she heard the news.<\/p>\n

“The tsunami came and took everything,” she said. “Everything is lost.”<\/p>\n

But it did not take her parents, and for that, she is deeply grateful.<\/p>\n

“The biggest thing for me is that my family is safe,” she says, clasping her mother’s hand tightly.<\/p>\n

\"Rishika
\nGita (R) and her daughter Rishika returned home to ruin<\/p>\n

\"Homes
\nBuildings were completely destroyed in the aftermath of the floods<\/p>\n

“The most important things in my life are my father and mother.”<\/p>\n

Relief and rescue operations<\/p>\n

In the devasted Trishuli River Valley, Gita’s story is not unique.<\/p>\n

Along the riverbed, the damaged structures of homes and businesses rise from the mud – stark reminders of the brutal and unforgiving force of the floodwaters.<\/p>\n

Residents dig in the debris for belongings, while an operation is under way at the remains of a nearby bank to remove a safe containing money which was buried in the mud.<\/p>\n

It took just minutes for the tides to completely transform the valley, and now it could take decades to rebuild.<\/p>\n

But despite the scale of the destruction, Bidur has fared better than many other settlements further upstream.<\/p>\n

It is one of the few flood-hit areas still reachable by road, making it a vital gateway for getting relief to those cut off by the disaster.<\/p>\n

Much of the humanitarian and rescue effort is being coordinated from the local army barracks, where helicopters are taking off almost constantly.<\/p>\n

\"Suresh<\/p>\n

\"Suresh
\nSuresh Shah has been searching among thousands of names for his missing uncle<\/p>\n

They head into the mountains carrying rescue teams and relief, then return with survivors airlifted from communities cut off by the floods.<\/p>\n

‘We don’t know whether he is dead or alive’<\/p>\n

As word spreads that survivors are being taken to Bidur, the town has also become a gathering point for families searching for their loved ones.<\/p>\n

They scan the lists of those rescued, which has been posted outside the barracks.<\/p>\n

“I am looking for my uncle,” says Suresh Shah.<\/p>\n

“He was working as an engineer on the customs building being constructed on the Chinese border. We have no idea as to his whereabouts.<\/p>\n

“We don’t know whether he is dead or alive. His name is not on the rescued people list.”<\/p>\n

The operation has also drawn several charities, volunteers and local residents eager to help.<\/p>\n

\"Volunteer
\nBishal has been helping to feed hundreds of people<\/p>\n

Among them is Bishal, who normally works for a driving union, but wanted to play his role in assisting those impacted.<\/p>\n

“People were having trouble finding food after the tragedy. Food for these people is expensive in hotels so we started to provide free food.<\/p>\n

“We started yesterday by feeding around 600 people. Today we have fed about 1,500 people so far.”<\/p>\n

Volunteers say they fear the number will continue to rise significantly, as the full scale of the disaster starts to emerge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“The water appeared around the corner like smoke.” That’s how Gita Devi Kalwar describes the moment she saw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-664856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117189075801118151","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}