Kathmandu, August 26
For 38-year-old Girilal Budhathoki of Salyan, the Dashain-Tihar holidays were supposed to mark the end of a five-year struggle in Timure, Rasuwa.
He had planned to return to his hometown with his family after years of working in the Himalayan settlement.
But the devastating flood that swept through Timure on Wednesday morning took away more than his home.
On his own, Budhathoki is now receiving treatment in the emergency ward of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, with injuries across his body. His wife, two sons and two daughters were swept away before his eyes. He has received no information about their whereabouts.
“My two sons, two daughters and wife were swept away by the flood,” Budhathoki said through tears. “I have never seen such a flood. I have no hope that my family survived.”
Budhathoki had been living in Timure with his family for around five years and supported them by driving a garbage truck.
He had gone out for work on Wednesday morning. At around 9:10 a.m., he noticed traffic had come to a standstill and decided to return home after having breakfast.
As he approached his home, the flood suddenly arrived.
“I was reaching the courtyard when it suddenly came from there,” he recalled. “I did not even know the flood had arrived.”
Within moments, the man who had been returning home to meet his family was running for his own life.
His family was inside a temporary shelter when the flood struck.
“I ran from the corner of the courtyard and managed to survive,” he said, breaking down in tears. “But the flood swept away the shelter with them right in front of my eyes.”
‘We were planning to return home for Dashain’
Budhathoki had spent five years working in Timure and was looking forward to returning home.
“We were planning to go home for Dashain,” he said.
He had worked and earned money for his family, dreaming of taking them back to Salyan. Instead, the flood has left him alone.
He survived by holding on to a metal rod
Budhathoki himself was trapped when the force of the flood began destroying the house.
“When the house we were staying in collapsed, I was trapped inside,” he said, pointing to his injuries. “My hand was pinned underneath and I was trapped against the wall.”
He managed to hold on to a metal rod from a railing.
“I had made a railing and there was a rod fixed into it,” he said. “I held on to that rod.”
As the force of the flood shifted downstream, he eventually managed to escape. Bleeding heavily, he began climbing toward higher ground.
“I slowly made my way up,” he said. “I had already lost a lot of blood.”
Friends and fellow workers later rescued him, and he was flown to Kathmandu by helicopter for treatment.
The flood came so suddenly and with such force that people nearby had little chance to help one another.
“It took everything away in an instant,” Budhathoki said. “No one survived.”
He still hopes that some people who were outside or managed to see the flood coming and run to safety may have survived.
But for his wife and four children who were inside the shelter, he fears there may be no such hope.
His body is injured, his eyes are filled with grief, and the life he had spent years building has been swept away in a matter of moments.
