Dubai Driver Mourns Over 100 Friends and Neighbors Lost in Devastating Nepal Floods

A Nepali resident living in Dubai is facing profound grief after more than 100 of his friends and neighbors lost their lives in the catastrophic floods that struck his hometown. Ram Kumar Rijal shared tearful memories of school friends, neighbors, and business associates in Trishuli Bazar, a bustling market area within the Nuwakot district of Nepal that was severely impacted by the disaster. The Dubai resident also lost a nephew who was employed at a hydropower plant, where numerous other workers remain missing.

Mr. Rijal learned the staggering scale of the tragedy through phone calls and messages with his family. Fortunately, his wife, two sons, and grand-daughter managed to escape the rising Trishuli river and reach safety on higher ground. "I know hundreds of people who are all gone, should I say all their names?" said Mr. Rijal, 47, who relocated to Dubai four months ago to work for a car hire firm. "It’s too much for me to think of how many we have lost, I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t think. One friend lost 57 relatives, he is the only one alive. More than 570 neighbours, people from my village, are all gone."

The disaster, believed to have been triggered by a glacial collapse where massive chunks of ice and rock surged through the Himalayan valley, has left more than 1,200 people dead and over 4,200 missing. In Mr. Rijal’s hometown, the violent surge swept away farmers, marketplace vendors, and families gathered near the district's bridges.

Amid the devastation, stories of incredible courage have emerged. Rajendra Dawadi, a classmate of Mr. Rijal and a local school principal, is being praised as a hero after swiftly evacuating all 900 children before the floodwaters breached the building in Trishuli Valley. Tragically, a teacher and the school's bellringer of 45 years lost their lives.

Social media previously showed townspeople standing on bridges filming the advancing river. Mr. Rijal noted that administration warnings were ignored because previous alerts had proven minor. "The flood last year was not big, so this time people were standing on bridges taking photos and video to post on TikTok," he explained. "But from one bridge to the other, it took seconds for the river waves to reach."

Rescue operations have been intensive across multiple sites, including the Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project and the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project in the Rasuwa district, with military personnel from India also assisting Nepali soldiers and rescue workers in clearing blocked tunnels.

Mr. Rijal's family plot near the river vanished beneath mud, boulders, and debris, though his hillside home and disposable cup manufacturing unit survived. Reflecting on his past 11 years in Dubai as a bus driver and his time driving public buses between Trishuli Bazar and Kathmandu after returning in 2019, he emphasized his deep ties to the community. Despite the overwhelming despair and the destruction of the city into mud, Mr. Rijal remains resolute. "I tell my family and my friends not to lose hope. We will come back from this. It may take us 10 to 20 years but we will come back. We will work very hard. I tell them all is not lost. We will rebuild.">