Images of 97-year-old Guna Maya Bohara, covered in mud and being carried to safety in the scoop of a digger, have emerged as a powerful symbol of the survival stories coming out of Nepal’s devastating flash floods.
Bohara was rescued alive from the rubble of her care home after a four-hour operation and is now recovering in hospital, according to doctors.
The death toll crossed 600 on Saturday, while rescue teams continued search and relief operations, with more than 2,400 people still missing. The sight of the 97-year-old woman being carried through the devastation in the bucket of an excavator has emerged as one of the defining images of the disaster. Over 600 dead in Nepal flash floods A glacier collapse on Wednesday triggered sudden and massive flooding in the Bhote Koshi River in Nepal’s Rasuwa district. At least 676 bodies have been recovered so far, while nearly 3,000 people remain missing, including more than 300 Indians. Nepal Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle estimated that the country would require $4 billion to $5 billion for reconstruction following the floods, an amount equivalent to nearly one-tenth of the country’s economy.
Bohara’s great-nephew, Dipak, told BBC Nepali that she looked like “a warrior” returning victorious from a battle. Her rescue is among numerous accounts of survival from flood-affected parts of Nepal, where people escaped collapsing settlements, sought refuge on hillsides and spent nights stranded in forests before assistance arrived. The image has since reached far beyond the site of the rescue. Her ordeal, from being trapped beneath flood debris to being brought to safety in an excavator bucket, has put a human face on the scale of Nepal’s catastrophe. Nepal’s meteorological department has reportedly warned of further rainfall and thunderstorms in the affected area, potentially hampering ongoing rescue operations.
