The 64-year-old woman was presumed dead after a catastrophic flood swept through her home in Nepal’s Betrawati. For ten days, Chandika Kumari Shrestha’s family believed the worst. The deluge buried homes, shops and entire stretches of the town under mud, rocks and debris.
The building had been swept away by the flood and left surrounded by waterlogged, unstable ground, Reuters reported. In parts of Betrawati, thick white deposits hardened around structures, making the work of rescue teams even more difficult, HT reported earlier. Police officer Mahendra Darnal and his team had been moving around what remained of the the elderly woman’s four-storey home when they heard the faint call. The torrent destroyed roads, bridges, homes and infrastructure. Buildings that once stood several storeys high were reduced to heaps of debris.
A nine-member Armed Police Force team led by Inspector Suman Kumar BK carried out the operation at the house belonging to Anand Shrestha in Bidur Municipality-10.
Shrestha was found unconscious on the upper floor of the house, which had been buried under debris, Nepal’s Armed Police Force said. She was rescued on Saturday, the 11th day after the flood, The Kathmandu Post reported.
The family had begun observing the traditional mourning period for her death when rescuers searching the ruins of her home heard a voice. “Save me. Her rescue was one of several cases of people being found alive days after the floods.
“I was in touch with the family and they had started the 11-day mourning period,” Darnal said.
The rescue took about 45 minutes. The team found Shrestha trapped in a small space inside the collapsed structure and took her to an army hospital.
