Weeks after a glacial collapse triggered catastrophic floods that swept through northern Nepal, survivors like teenage student Binisha Malla grapple with nightmares, lost homes and the daunting task of rebuilding amid ongoing search operations and a multi-billion-dollar recovery bill.

Binisha Malla carefully arranges new books and notebooks in her school bag. The 15-year-old is about to start at a new school in Lalitpur, but excitement eludes her. “I should be excited, but I am feeling nervous,” she says. Nightmares of the friends she lost following the Bhotekoshi disaster still haunt her.

On the morning of 26 August 2026, Binisha was preparing to leave home for school in her family’s home in Timure, a bustling border transit town in Rasuwa district just three kilometres downstream from the Nepal-China border. Around 8.50 am she heard a loud rumbling and felt the ground shake. People screamed: “A flood is coming! Run!” She scrambled nearly 100 metres uphill as dark clouds of dust, debris and mud engulfed the settlement. The surge of floodwater from the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli river system was so violent that bodies and debris were thrown into the air “like ragdolls.”

Timure, once a key point on the trade and pilgrimage route to Tibet, was among the worst-hit places. Over 80 per cent of its population was reported missing. The flood, triggered by a high-altitude glacial and ice-rock collapse near the border, sent a massive wall of water and debris racing downstream through Rasuwa, Nuwakot and beyond, destroying settlements, roads, bridges, hydropower facilities and the Rasuwagadhi border crossing.

Miraculous Survival Amid Widespread Loss

Binisha and her family of five – parents Suwa and Bikash Malla, and two younger siblings – survived by climbing to higher ground. They spent 24 hours on a hillside without food or water, staring at the spot where their village once stood. Of the 35 students at Nepal Rastriya Basic School, only 10 survived. Six of the 10 teachers remain missing. Principal Phurba Dorje Ghale has taken shelter with nearly 250 Timure villagers at a Buddhist monastery in Kathmandu.

The family was airlifted by army helicopter the next day, first to Nuwakot and then to temporary accommodation in a government building in Tikhidewal, Lalitpur. They now share two rooms with relatives, relying on local communities, volunteers and organisations for food and essentials. Suwa Malla, 32, calls their survival a miracle. She and the younger children had been collecting firewood near the river and climbed frantically up the slippery slope to reunite with the others hours later.

As of mid-September, authorities had recovered at least 1,386 bodies across five affected districts, with Rasuwa and Nuwakot the hardest hit. More than 5,130 people remained missing. A joint government assessment recorded 32,963 people from 8,317 families displaced. Many of the roughly 4,000 who moved to the Kathmandu Valley are staying in tents, monasteries, or with relatives and friends.

A Familiar Story of Displacement in a Changing Climate

For the Mallas, this is not the first displacement. Seven years earlier they left their home in remote Bajura district in western Nepal, where recurring floods and landslides washed away seasonal crops and made life untenable. They moved to Timure seeking work. Suwa and her husband found jobs as transport workers at the busy border port, earning 3,000-5,000 rupees a day. They bought land, built a tin-roofed house and sent their children to the local school. Life was improving – until the flood erased everything.

Climate expert Madhukar Upadhya notes that such stories are common in Nepal’s rural mountains. Changing climate compounded by low human development makes life extremely difficult. The Mallas join an estimated 3.4 million people already displaced by at least 244 disasters recorded in Nepal between 2011 and 2021.

Suwa’s sister Sunchaura Shahi and her family share the same temporary roof. “We are here temporarily, depending on the locals and charity groups to meet our daily needs,” Sunchaura says. “All I want is work and earn money so that I can support my family here in Kathmandu. There is no way we can go back to the village.”

Relief Efforts and the Long Road to Recovery

Caritas Nepal, the social service arm of the Catholic Church in Nepal, has provided emergency relief – food, blankets and non-food items – to the families. Father Silas Bogati, president of Caritas Nepal, observes that many people have moved to cities like Kathmandu. “The situation in emergency holding centres set up in flood-affected districts is changing,” he said. Caritas is providing safer and dignified spaces and has supported seven of the 39 government shelters, plus five child-friendly spaces in Rasuwa and Nuwakot, reaching more than 2,000 people.

A preliminary rapid damage and needs assessment released on 10 September put the total reconstruction and recovery bill at about 723.3 billion rupees (US$4.78 billion). Nearly 2,000 people, including over 1,000 children, were living in temporary shelters, though many more stayed with relatives because of poor water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, lack of privacy and safety concerns.

Nepal’s finance minister has sought support from India for reconstruction of infrastructure damaged by the Bhotekoshi floods, as the post-disaster needs assessment nears completion. The disaster also prompted China to suspend work on the Rasuwa dry port project after the floods obliterated nearly all of the under-construction facility.

Psychological Scars and the Struggle to Start Anew

Binisha began classes on 11 September at Shree Choina Bina Guru Ganesh Basic School with help from the local ward authority. “I still get nightmares about my school friends who went missing in the flood,” she said, tears in her eyes. “I fear the new school environment will make the situation worse.” Her parents cling to the faint hope of returning to Timure, but she knows better. “It is too painful to think of going back to Timure. I pray to God to help my parents find work in Kathmandu.”

Similar trauma echoes across survivor accounts. Many adults report insomnia, night tremors, loss of appetite and profound grief. Children struggle to process the loss of friends and familiar surroundings. Aid groups have prioritised psychosocial support alongside food and shelter, recognising that mental health care is often treated as an afterthought in disaster response.

Search and rescue operations continue even as Nepal confronts the massive financial and logistical burden of rebuilding roads, bridges, hydropower plants and entire communities. Survivors face an atmosphere of uncertainty: temporary shelter without work or money is becoming increasingly painful. For families like the Mallas, the flood has not only destroyed homes and livelihoods but erased the fragile progress they had made after earlier displacements.