Keshav Prasad Baral is 68 years old and lives in Nuwakot, Nepal. Last Wednesday, mud entered his home without warning.
He managed to grab his wife’s hand and tried to pull her toward the terrace, seeking the few centimeters that separated them from the mud. He failed. The current tore her from between his fingers, and she disappeared beneath the mud flowing down from the mountain after a mass of rock and glacial ice collapsed on the border with Tibet. A helicopter rescued Baral four hours later, and he is now recovering in a small hospital. His wife remains missing beneath the mud. ‘She’s dead,’ he said bluntly.
Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise: more than 160 bodies recovered and nearly 579 tourists from more than two dozen countries still unaccounted for, in one of the biggest disasters the Himalayan region has experienced.
