Families scour hospitals and ruins as Nepal flood leaves thousands missing

A flash flood on August 26 unleashed a wall of water, ice and mud down the Bhotekoshi River, ravaging border towns in the northern Himalayas and causing widespread destruction in the Rasuwa, Trishuli and Nuwakot districts. The disaster has claimed nearly 500 lives and left more than 1,000 individuals missing, with the death toll expected to rise. Helicopters have been deployed to rescue trapped victims, transporting those with serious injuries to larger facilities in Kathmandu, while lighter cases receive care at an army camp helipad medical unit.

At Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, families cling to photographs and contact details posted on walls, hoping to locate relatives such as 23-year-old bus conductor Sudarshan, whose phone went silent after the flood, and 42-year-old guide Gyan Bahadur Rana Magar, still missing. The hospital also displays lists of patients in critical condition and those confirmed dead, including a five-year-old girl and a 30-year-old man. Amid the grief, people like Lal Kumari continue to search for their spouses, clinging to the faint possibility of survival.