Chandika Shrestha, a 64-year-old Nepali woman, was rescued alive on September 5, 2026, from the fourth floor of her mud-buried home in the Nuwakot district. She survived for more than 10 days following a massive glacial collapse and flood on the China-Nepal border that left over 1,300 dead and thousands missing.
Ten Days Trapped Beneath Sludge in Nuwakot District
More than 10 days after a wall of ice, rock, and mud tore through a Himalayan valley, rescue workers discovered a survivor inside a partially buried structure in the Nuwakot district. Video released by police showed only a part of her home visible, while the lower floors remained entirely submerged beneath thick sludge.
A police team found her as they were clearing the area.
Parallel Rescues Unfold Inside Hydropower Tunnels
The discovery of Shrestha followed other rare survival accounts from the disaster zone. Emergency personnel previously pulled a Chinese man, identified in reports as Luhaitao, alive from a 225-meter tunnel at the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project site in the Rasuwa district.
Footage shared by the Nepali army showed the Chinese survivor receiving emergency medical attention inside a helicopter while en route to an army hospital. He appeared exhausted and disoriented, with his skin and clothing caked in dried mud and dust, while a uniformed doctor used a stethoscope to check his vitals, according to dispatches from the region.
Rescue operations have faced immense hurdles in treacherous terrain. International tunneling experts, along with the Nepalese Army, police, and scouts, utilized specialized machinery to clear routes blocked by thick mud, as reported by broadcasters tracking the recovery effort.
Scale of the Himalayan Disaster and Toll on Communities
The catastrophic flooding was triggered by an unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, and debris originating from a glacial and rock collapse on the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26. According to the U.S.
Official records from national disaster agencies place the confirmed death toll at over 1,300 in Nepal, alongside approximately 5,000 missing individuals. State media in China reported 31 deaths and 531 missing persons, bringing the combined total to 1,375 dead and more than 5,500 missing across the affected border region.
Relief Efforts and the Burden on Mortuaries
With morgues overflowing with the dead, authorities have begun burying some of the recovered bodies in shallow graves after collecting DNA samples so families can retrieve them later. Nepal has issued appeals for international assistance, stating a need for more than a thousand freezer units to store bodies.
Families searching for missing relatives have gathered at community centers to examine photographs of recovered victims on screens. In the southern city of Bharatpur, local resident Shobha Adhikary told coordinators she recognized her childhood best friend among the broadcast images, noting that both he and his wife remain missing.
Foreign nationals are also among the unaccounted for. The missing list includes 592 foreigners, comprising international tourists and Hindu pilgrims traveling to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash.
International Aid Demands and Ongoing Search Operations
Aid requirements remain vast as communities cope with washed-out roads, destroyed power plants, and smashed bridges. This is an unfolding disaster,
said Abiodun Banire, an official with the UN children’s fund, emphasizing that the needs of tens of thousands of impacted residents are immense according to international reports.
Nepali Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal underscored the vulnerability of the region, stating that the population is among the primary victims of changing global weather patterns. Search, rescue, and relief operations continue across cut-off valleys as communications and transport routes slowly improve with the deployment of helicopters and ground clearance crews.
