An 8-year-old boy, Zoyal Ghale, has been reunited with his mother, Matti Maya Tamang, 28, following catastrophic floods that devastated central Nepal. Tamang had feared both her children were killed when the disaster struck Wednesday morning.
The floods, triggered by a massive chunk of ice snapping off a Himalayan glacier and overrunning the Lendhe River, submerged parts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Dhading districts. Tamang had been desperately searching for her two missing children among nearly 2,000 people still unaccounted for.
Ghale was at school when the disaster occurred. He recalled the sudden darkness and then sprinting into the forest with a friend, climbing trees to escape the rising waters. He survived with a broken leg and facial lacerations. He was airlifted to Kathmandu on Thursday.
Journalist Sahana Bajracharya met Ghale at a hospital in Nuwakot and was able to contact Tamang, informing her that her son was alive. Tamang described her disbelief, having already accepted the loss of both her children.
"I had come to accept that both my children were no more," Tamang said. "All I could do was weep. I couldn’t hold myself together at all."
On Friday, Tamang traveled to the hospital where Ghale had been transferred. She later learned her second child was also alive, which brought her immense relief.
Ghale's father, a construction worker in Japan, was en route back to Nepal, according to Tamang.
As of Friday, Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority reported 579 confirmed deaths and 4,451 rescued. Approximately 1,924 people remain missing, with about a quarter of them being foreign nationals.
Authorities have placed rescuers on high alert due to a newly formed lake in the Himalayas near the Tibetan border, which experts say has begun to overflow after a glacier collapse. They have urged all government personnel and the public to remain vigilant and act swiftly if necessary.