Two people rescued alive from flood-hit sites in Nepal after 10 days

Two people were rescued alive from separate flood-hit sites on Saturday

KATHMANDU: Two people were rescued alive from separate flood-hit sites on Saturday, 10 days after Bhote Koshi-Trishuli flood in Nepal. Chandika Kumari Shrestha, 64, was found semi-conscious on the upper floor of a four-storey house buried under debris in Betrawati, Nuwakot district, while her family had already given up hope and started symbolic funeral rites in Kathmandu. In Rasuwa, Chinese worker Luhaitao was pulled out alive from Audit 4 tunnel of Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project, around 225 metres inside the tunnel. Nepal police said a nine-member team led by inspector Suman Kumar BK rescued Chandika from the house, which officials identified as belonging to Anand Shrestha. She was first taken by helicopter to Nepal Army's Maithili Barracks in Trishuli Bazaar for initial treatment and later shifted to Birendra Military Hospital in Kathmandu. Officials said she had wounds under her feet. Her son, Ashish Shrestha, said the family's own home stood near the suspension bridge in Betrawati before the flood struck. "The flood washed it away," Ashish said. "Only my parents were at home at the time. My father has not been found yet." Relatives said the four-storey house was swept from its original location and lodged near Trishuli bank, but rescuers and family members could not reach it for days because the area had turned into a swamp of mud, debris and decomposing bodies. Her son-in-law and other family members searched Betrawati and Trishuli banks for two to three days, while Ashish kept returning to the area where the house had stood but couldn't go in. "We searched a lot for eight days," relative Rameshman Shrestha said. "After not finding them anywhere, we gave up hope." The family then gathered at a rented house in Sano Bharyang, Kathmandu, and began symbolic funeral rites and preparations for cremation without her body. "The whole family consulted, and it was decided to perform the funeral rites," Rameshman said. He said one thought continued to trouble him even after the rituals began. "If she was inside a house, maybe she had gone upstairs and eaten whatever she found," he said. The last rites were already underway when relatives received word that Chandika had been found alive. Betrawati remains one of the worst-hit settlements along Trishuli corridor. Local officials said only five of around 300 houses were left standing after the flood. In Rasuwa, Luhaitao was rescued around noon by a joint team of Nepal army personnel and South Korean experts and flown to Birendra Military Hospital, where representatives of the Chinese embassy later inquired about his condition. Videos from the site showed rescuers trying to establish his identity after he was brought out. When asked whether he was Nepalese, he remained silent; when asked whether he was Chinese, he appeared to respond in the affirmative. Search operations continued at Upper Trishuli-1 after his rescue.