A young boy who survived Nepal’s devastating floods was finally back in his mother’s arms Friday, ending days of anguish for a parent who believed she had lost both of her children in the disaster.
Matti Maya Tamang, 28, had been searching frantically for her two missing children as rescue teams continued looking for nearly 2,000 people still unaccounted for, including at least 90 Americans, after catastrophic flooding tore through the Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading districts of central Nepal on Wednesday morning.
“I had come to accept that both my children were no more,” the devastated mother said.
“All I could do was cry. I completely fell apart.”
Her older son, 8-year-old Zoyal Ghale, was in class when the floodwaters surged through the region, triggered after a massive section of Himalayan glacier broke away and sent torrents rushing into the Lendhe River.
In an instant, he remembered, “it was so, so black.”
Ghale said he and a friend fled the school grounds, raced into the nearby forest in Rasuwa and climbed trees in a desperate attempt to get above the rising water.
The child survived the ordeal but was left with a broken leg and cuts across his face before being airlifted to Kathmandu on Thursday for medical care.
When Ghale met journalist Sahana Bajracharya at a small hospital in Nuwakot around 11 a.m. on Thursday, nobody knew where his family was.
The resourceful journalist was able to contact Tamang and put her in touch with the hospital — and broke the news that her son was alive.
Tamang could barely believe it. “When you told me you knew where Zoyal was, it didn’t sound real,” she recalled about her conversation with Bajracharya.
“I had already given up hope.”
On Friday, Tamang finally reached the hospital where Ghale was transferred — around a two-hour drive from their home.
Ghale’s father, who works as a construction worker in Japan, was on his way as well, Tamang said.
She later learned her other child was also alive.
“After I found the elder one, I felt my life was back,” she said.
When Ghale was asked whether the unimaginable experience had frightened him, the young boy shook his head: “No.”
There are 1,924 people remain missing as of Friday, according to NBC. Around a quarter of those who are currently missing are foreign nationals.
579 people have been confirmed dead in the epic destruction, while 4,451 people have been reported as rescued, according to Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
Rescuers are on high alert for more possible flooding from a newly formed lake in the Himalayan mountains near the Tibetan border.
Experts say the lake — triggered by a glacier collapse — has started to overflow.
Nepalese authorities said all government personnel and members of the public assisting in the rescue efforts have been told to remain alert and take immediate action if necessary.
With Post wires.
