Some three weeks ago, families lived here. On the morning of 26th August, a flood tore down the Rasuwa-Bhote Koshi valley, with almost no warning. 46-year-old Deviki Powdyel survived. Today, she is helping others understand what’s gone.
“Black smoke was rising, and everything was shaking as if an earthquake had struck. The ground kept trembling, and the shaking wouldn’t stop. Standing there, watching the floodwaters come in, I couldn’t even tell whether it was real or some AI trick. Many of us started crying. When it was all over, just three minutes later, we were left overwhelmed. It was hard to tell what was real and what wasn’t.”
Homes still half-buried. Families still digging.
In Nepal, close to 1,400 lives have been reportedly lost. Over 5,000 are still missing.
“Trishuli Bazaar was right here for as long as I can remember. A little further up was Trishuli High School, and beyond that, two bridges. Dhobi Khola Bazaar was on the other side, with the hydropower plant further down. Now, in less than five minutes, it’s all gone. Just a barren riverbed, like a cremation ground. I keep asking myself: was there really a market here? Were there really houses here? It feels like none of it ever existed.”
Scientists trace the cause to an ice-and-rock avalanche high on the Nepal-Tibet border; a rising pattern of Himalayan disasters linked to a warming climate.
Rescue and recovery operations are underway. Restoration and rehabilitation are ongoing.
Amid this, Deviki and others in the flood’s path have spent the days since in a kind of disbelief, the enormity of what happened still settling in.
“My heart tells me I want to go back, but looking at all this, I don’t know how I could. A whole market town in Nuwakot is gone. It looks like a desert now. Not a single house is left. My heart says, “Go back.” But my eyes tell me there’s nothing left to go back to.”
For now, the people along the valley are still counting the cost.
As they clear a little more of the ground, they know that no shovel can dig out what the water took.
Sonam Wangdi
