A Nepali woman in Nova Scotia has been living a nightmare since deadly floods hit Nepal on August 26.
Ang Faulkner grew up in one of the affected areas – Rasoa – and says she misses hundreds of family members, neighbors and childhood friends.
“I just blame myself for not being there at the worst time of their lives,” Faulkner said from her home in Bedford, New South Wales.
Since hearing the news, Faulkner says she’s had trouble eating or sleeping.
It took two desperate days to contact her parents at home.
Ang Faulkner with her husband and parents on her wedding day.
Presenter: Ang Faulkner
She says her father had to use a friend’s solar panels just to charge his phone enough to make the two-minute call she was eagerly awaiting.
She added: “All he could say was: ‘I am safe, your mother is safe.’ But we lost a lot of people from here.” “He could hear the screams and cries of the people of my village.”
Faulkner says many of her missing relatives are now presumed dead.
Among them was her cousin’s wife, who ran a hotel in Siyabrubisi, a village that once stood on the banks of the Bhoot Koshi River.
Ang Faulkner holds photos of her missing relatives and neighbors. She says the poster represents less than five percent of the people her family has lost.
Ella MacDonald/Global News
“They were having coffee together, husband and wife, and suddenly all he heard were loud noises,” Faulkner said.
Get breaking national news
Get Canada breaking news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you never miss a trending story.
“So, they ran outside and everyone was running, like ‘Run! Run!’ And they were running without knowing what was happening.”
She says her cousin managed to grab himself and pull him out.
“He looked back. All he could see was a big, huge wave, five or six stories high,” she said.
She says his wife was behind him.
“He had to watch his wife get swept away in the flood,” Faulkner said.
Faulkner’s cousin, his wife, and two children before the August 26 floods.
Presenter: Ang Faulkner
Her cousin made it to the foot of the mountain with other survivors, where she says they spent about 24 hours without any food or water.
“I remember he said, ‘I have nothing left. Like my whole life, my hometown, my wife, my life savings — everything’s gone.’
Faulkner’s aunt and uncle, who ran another hotel in Siabrubesi, remain missing.
I heard through family members that they were doing housekeeping when the water came.
A video has appeared on multiple broadcast channels, showing what Faulkner described as their hotel succumbing to the massive wave.
She says the mountain village of Siyabrubisi was completely washed away.
Experts say an avalanche may have caused the floods.
According to the US Geological Survey, a 5.2-magnitude earthquake occurred near the border between Nepal and Tibet, an autonomous region in China, on August 26 at 8:37 a.m. local time.
This event was initially reported as an earthquake, and is now believed to have been caused by a falling glacier, creating a debris flow.
The focus in Nepal remains on rescue and recovery operations mainly in affected areas, where the death toll has exceeded 1,200 and more than 4,000 people are still missing.
But for families searching for missing loved ones, the mud makes it difficult to solve the problem.
“It’s almost like concrete,” Faulkner said. “How will you find their bodies?”
She adds that a common practice in Nepal is to send children away to Kathmandu to attend boarding school when they are around five years old.
Faulkner says this means that many of the flood victims were adults, and their children are now orphans and will need all the support they can get.
They have lost so much, but we can save their future,” Faulkner said. “Support Nepal, stand with us, and try to get the answers the families have been waiting for.”
Those looking to donate to relief efforts can do so through the government Nepal Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund.
