The Bhote Koshi River no longer looks like a river. It is a thick mass of mud, wood, and debris that swept away entire houses in Rasuwa, Nepal.
There, among the wreckage, people are swimming. They are not looking for clothes or documents: they are looking for gas cylinders, the kind used for cooking in any home. For them, they are now the most valuable thing there is. Narendra Pariyar, the district administrator, had already warned that the losses would be enormous and urged residents to stay away from the water. Few listened.
The flood, which originated in Tibet, has already left at least 95 people dead and hundreds missing, many of them foreigners passing through the area. While helicopters rescue those trapped in Syaprubesi and Timure, others prefer to get into the water to save what little the current did not carry away completely.
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