- 91-year-old Guna Maya Bohara survived Nepal flash floods, rescued from care home rubble
- Seven senior citizens died in Devighat care home during flash floods, survivors relocated
- Survivors were treated locally, then moved to Kathmandu shelter with full care provided
An image of an elderly woman, covered in mud, sitting in the scoop of a JCB excavator, has become the face of resilience and survival in devastating flash floods in Nepal that have claimed over 1,200 lives so far. The woman is 91-year-old Guna Maya Bohara, who was pulled alive from the rubble of her care home in Devighat, a riverside town in Nuwakot.
She is among the senior citizens at Devighat's Senior Citizens Welfare Foundation who survived the deadly devastation that claimed the lives of her seven peers. Now, all the survivors have been flown to a temporary shelter in Kathmandu.
NDTV visited the Kathmandu shelter, where these senior citizens are trying to restart their lives after being uprooted from their chosen home towards the end of their lives.
An elderly man, who was also a resident at the care home, said no one warned them about the incoming apocalypse in time.
"It was breakfast time when we saw the roof shaking. We ran towards the higher ground, but around six or seven people could not make it," he told NDTV.
A volunteer at the care home said a group of locals managed to reach the care home around two hours after the flash floods hit the area. By that time, the water had flown downhill, burying the city in tonnes of silt.
"A team at Novakot rescued these elderly people from the old age home and started their treatment at a local Ayurvedic hospital. From there, they were flown to Kathmandu and kept in the temporary shelter. Here, we have arranged everything for them, including food, clothes, nursing care, and medical tests," she said.
Gesturing to Bohara, who was sitting and smiling with others, the woman informed that the health of every person who was rescued is stable and they are adjusting well to their new lives.
She said that the elderly woman was in her room on the ground floor when the floods hit Devighat. She has a pre-existing disability in her legs and an injury to her hand, caused by the torrents of water, but her will to survive kept her going.
"She managed to keep her head above the water. She opened the window of the room and kept her head out, above the water level. She was rescued after 2-3 hours when local volunteers reached the area and found her submerged in silt, with just her head out," the woman said.
The casualties in the deadly flash floods have reached 1,252, while around 4,216 are still missing. In Tibet, Chinese state media say there are 541 more missing, taking the overall number to 4,757.
Nepali army personnel and rescue teams, including foreign experts, meanwhile, are continuing the search for survivors feared trapped inside several hydropower tunnels. The work is ongoing, using excavators and other heavy equipment to look for any survivors in the tunnels, the army said.
