Get you up to speed: Man shares wife’s last words before she went missing in Nepal floods | News World
A flash flood caused by a glacier collapse near the border of Nepal and China has left more than 700 people dead and over 2,400 unaccounted for as rescue efforts continue. Pramod Poudel, a British national from East Sussex, is searching for his newlywed wife Samitra, who went missing during the disaster in Sole village.
Rescue operations are ongoing, with foreign experts working to clear blocked tunnels and locate survivors amid challenging conditions. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) reports that approximately 90,000 people have been affected by the disaster, which has led to widespread destruction, including the complete washing away of many homes in the impacted areas.
The UK government has dispatched £5,000,000 in humanitarian relief to assist rescue efforts after the recent flash floods in Nepal. Additionally, foreign experts are conducting operations to clear blocked tunnels and searching for survivors amid ongoing risks of further flooding in the region.
What remains unclear — It is not known how many of the 2,400 unaccounted individuals are believed to still be alive after the flash floods in Nepal.
Man reveals last words of wife missing after floods in Nepal
Pramod Poudel with his wife Samitra, who is among 3,000 unaccounted for following flooding on the border of Nepal and China (Picture: BBC)
A British man has revealed the last conversation he had with his newlywed wife before she went missing in the Nepal flash floods.
Pramod Poudel last spoke to his new spouse, Samitra, on Wednesday before a glacier collapsed near the border with China’s autonomous province of Tibet.
Pramod, 34, who lives in East Sussex, has heard nothing since from Sumitra, 25, who was staying with his family in Sole, a village severely impacted by the disaster.
He said he last spoke to his wife over the phone at 4.15pm on Wednesday – hours before the glacier collapsed – when she told him: ‘How are you? I love you so much’.
The truck driver has since travelled to Nepal hoping to find his wife, as well as his mother, Tulisa 52, brother Pardip, 31, and uncle, Madhav, 64, who are also missing
Residents being evacuated from homes on the banks of the Trishuli amid concerns over rising water levels following fresh rainfall (Picture: EPA)
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‘I’m very hopeful of finding them but I’m also praying to God’, he told the Sun.
But he added that 90% of people and homes in the area had been washed away by the flood and that there was very little left of the village where his relatives had lived.
The death toll in Nepal has risen above 700, with more than 2,400 people still unaccounted for.
Chinese authorities confirmed that 546 people were missing in Tibet, of which 261 were foreign nationals.
Workers unload relief supplies at Kathmandu’s international airport (Picture: Xinhua/Shutterstock)
These include 15 British citizens, as well 18 Americans and 49 nationals from neighbouring India.
The UK has sent £5,000,000 in humanitarian relief as well as teams to assist the rescue and recovery efforts.
In total, 33 British nationals are missing across the region.
These include two teenagers, a 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy.
Others with links to the UK who are missing include an NHS nurse, a Hindu priest from south London who was leading a tour in the region and an 18-year-old from Surrey who had recently finished his A-Levels.
Mother-of-two Geetha Reddy is among those missing. Her husband, from London, said he had not heard from his wife since the flooding hit and that their two girls, 12 and 14, still refusing to believe it.
People walk upon the remnants of a collapsed bridge across the Trishuli river following the flooding (Picture: AP)
He said: ‘We’re not sure what to do. I have two little girls, and their schools are starting next week.
‘The kids still don’t believe it. They think she’s stuck in the flood and that she’ll come back. They think she’s stuck somewhere and there’s no mobile network.’
Residents have been evacuated from the banks of the Trishuli River, where fresh rainfall caused water levels to rise, prompting rescuers to seek higher ground.
Foreign experts are now working to open tunnels blocked off by the flooding.
A lake which formed on Thursday prompted new fears of further flooding but have since drained.
But drones have since detected another pool of water in the Himalayas, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said.
Some 90,000 people are likely to have been affected by the natural disaster, the Red Cross estimated.
Rescuers have continued to work around the clock in challenging conditions to locate survivors among the devastation.
Among those pulled from the mud was a 97-year-old woman now recovering in hospital.
Guna Maya Bohara was rescued from the rubble of her care home with was destroyed in the flood.
Her great-nephew Dipak said she looked like a ‘warrior’ who had returned home from battle as she was carried to safety by emergency workers.
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