In Kathmandu, relatives post photos of those missing after devastating flood
In Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, relatives of people who went missing after last week’s devastating flood are posting their photographs on a wall near the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. After the collapse of a Himalayan glacier on the China-Nepal border caused a torrent of icy water and debris, more than 900 people were killed, The Japan Times reports.
Nearly 4,500 people are considered missing. About 4,000 of them were in Nepal, including nearly 600 foreigners. Portraits of Nepalis and citizens of other countries of different ages have been placed along a 25-meter wall and on columns near the hospital.
Searching for relatives near the hospital
Forty-six-year-old Prakash Chhetri attached a photograph of his brother to the wall. His brother was transporting nine pilgrims to Gosainkunda. According to him, one person survived after jumping out of the vehicle. The photographs also include women, children and young men, as well as Chinese workers and engineers involved in the construction of hydropower facilities.
The wall displays portraits of a Chinese trader who was transporting goods through the Rasuwa border crossing, Indian pilgrims heading to Mount Kailash in Tibet, which is sacred to Hindus, and an American tourist. People constantly gather in front of the rows of printed photographs; some visitors record them on video.
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Identification of bodies
Fifty-eight-year-old driver Debu Sapkota is looking for his 83-year-old mother-in-law and granddaughter, who went missing in the town of Trishuli Bazaar. According to him, after a warning signal, the elderly woman was unable to flee, while the granddaughter was helping her get out. Both were swept away by the water.
Photographs of bodies found in the mud were also displayed near the morgue so that relatives could identify them. Twenty-year-old Raj Kumari Tamang came there to look for her father, Moti Lal Tamang, who had gone to Trishuli Bazaar to pay an electricity bill. According to his phone tracking data, he was last near the Trishuli Bridge, which was washed away by the flood.
Police set up a station for identifying the dead in an open courtyard. Officer Om Bahadur Rana said that law enforcement officers had received 94 bodies which, by his preliminary assessment, belonged to Nepalis. Twelve victims have been identified and handed over to their families. The search is also continuing through a government website containing data on survivors and missing persons.
