'No land left at all': Nepal flood survivors detail a transformed landscape

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Sheltering with relatives or in temporary camps, survivors of devastating floods in Nepal say they can no longer rebuild their homes after the landscape was violently transformed, leaving them focused simply on survival. Pabitra Lamsal had lived with her family in Dhunge Bazaar, in the Nuwakot district, for over 40 years. But the family’s two homes and her rice paddy fields have vanished, swept away by the floodwaters. People retrieve their belongings from a house in the aftermath of flash floods at Devighat in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on Sept 3, 2026. — AFP “The river is flowing right where our houses used to stand,” the 45-year-old woman said, waiting at a government food distribution centre in Nuwakot. “There is no land left at all.” Along with the nine members of her family, she does not know where they will live. “You can’t think straight in a situation like this. We’ve rented two rooms for shelter, but we don’t have a stove to cook on, so we’re eating at a relative’s homes. The river swept away all the money we had.” People clear sludge from a house in the aftermath of flash floods at Devighat in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on September 3, 2026. — AFP She leaves with a bag of rice, a packet of noodles, oil and biscuits. Nearby, gutted buildings, half-buried trucks, and mountains of mud bear witness to the violence of the floodwaters that swept everything away in their path. Army helicopters, deployed for rescue operations, fly overhead at regular intervals. The devastating August 26 flood, after a vast glacial mountain collapse high above on the China-Nepal border crashed into the river below, has killed more than 1,300 people and left more than 5,600 missing across both countries. The United Nations appealed on Friday for $50 million to help more than 84,000 people in Nepal affected by the disaster. A general view shows damaged houses covered in sludge in the aftermath of flash floods in Trishuli, Nepal’s Nuwakot district on September 4, 2026. —AFP Sumita Tamang, queueing for food supplies, said above all she wanted to find her missing husband, from whom she has heard nothing since the flood. “I’ve looked for him everywhere, but I still have no news of him. I hope he’s out there somewhere and will come home,” the 33-year-old said, her voice breaking through tears. “But I have absolutely no idea where he is. It’s been nine days.” ‘Lost everything’ For some victims, such as 47-year-old Rawendra Dawadi, headteacher of Trishuli Bazaar Secondary School, the flood was worse than a powerful 2015 earthquake which also devastated the region. “This disaster is far worse,” Dawadi said. “The school was completely destroyed by the earthquake, but we rebuilt it. Back then, we still had the land; this time, we’ve lost the land as well as the building.” Dawadi said he needed a new site before the school could be rebuilt. “This place is no longer safe,” he told AFP. People travel past damaged buildings following the deadly flash floods and mudslides in Nuwakot district, Nepal on Sept 3, 2026. —Reuters In the courtyard of Shree Chandrajyoti Secondary School, which is sheltering hundreds of displaced people from Nuwakot district, people queue for hot meals. One of them, 72-year-old Krishna Lal Chitrakar, said the land in Devighat where his home and those of his three sons once stood “has been turned into a riverbank”. “My father and four generations of my family lived in this spot,” said the man wearing a traditional Nepali topi hat. He is staying with 11 family members in a classroom where multiplication tables are posted on the walls. Families sleep on school benches with barely any belongings. He sits silently, while his wife, also in her 70s, wipes her eyes behind him. One of his daughters sobs uncontrollably. “We have lost everything,” he said. “But everyone is alive. Should I be happy or sad?” Header image: People stand next to damaged buildings following the deadly flash floods and a mudslide, in Devighat, Nuwakot district, Nepal on September 4, 2026. —Reuters

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