Catastrophic floods erase Nepal’s border town Timure, leaving thousands missing

The August 26 flash floods reduced the border settlement of Timure in Gosainkunda Rural Municipality-2, Rasuwa, to a field of mud, wiping out more than 250 houses, hotels, shops, the customs office and checkpoints run by the Nepali Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force. Assistant chief district officer Dhruba Prasad Adhikari says an estimated 3,000-3,500 people—including residents, government staff, traders and about 1,000 foreign visitors—were present, and 125 bodies have been recovered while roughly 700 have been rescued.

Around 1,500 individuals, among them ward chairpersons Kami Tshering Tamang, Kami Sedar Ghale, Sonam Tshering Ghale and Laxmi Pariyar, remain missing, though exact figures are uncertain. The neighboring settlement of Ghattekhola, once home to an immigration office, a hydropower project and several hotels, was also obliterated, with twelve bodies found there. Survivors have taken refuge in a Kathmandu monastery, and security forces are guarding recovered bank lockers from the seven banks that operated in Timure.