Death was staring at us, says family trapped on balcony by Nepal floods

First, she heard the sound of stones breaking. Then the screams followed.

When she saw the torrents rushing towards her house, there was little else Laxmi Pandey Pyakurel could do.

The mother, 42, could only gather with her family on the balcony as they watched the floodwaters tear through their neighbourhood in Nepal.

She stood with her husband, their daughter, her parents-in-law and a neighbour as the Trishuli river surged , with seemingly everything, apart from their house, destroyed in its wake.

"We saw death very closely. Death was staring at every one of us. We thought these were our final moments. I told everyone that if we had to die, we would die together," Laxmi told The Telegraph on Saturday.

Remarkable footage of the family stranded in the middle of the gushing water was widely shared after Nepal was devastated by the glacier collapse , which triggered a huge flood in the landlocked country.

The family had been in a liquor shop, a few metres from their home, when people began shouting that the river was flooding.

Her seven-year-old son, Prayan, had left for school about 15 minutes earlier. Her 11-year-old daughter, Pradisha, was preparing to leave with her grandmother, Bhakta Kumari, 65.

Laxmi initially urged her mother-in-law to leave immediately. But when they heard the sudden commotion, Laxmi and her husband, Prakash Pandey Pyakurel, 45, pulled their daughter and mother-in-law back towards the house.

Her father-in-law, Chhatri Bahadur, 69, was already inside. Another local, Hari Krishna, also ran into the building.

As the water rose, the six moved higher through the house. When the third floor became submerged, they climbed to the fourth floor and began shouting for help.

"We were frightened. We prepared ourselves, these are the end times. I told everyone that we have to die together," Laxmi said.

She tried to call relatives to say a last goodbye, but the poor telephone signal made communication difficult. "They could not understand a word," she said.

For nearly two hours, the family remained trapped. The floodwater battered the house from all sides, shaking the building as surrounding structures disappeared beneath the torrent.

"As the flood water was hitting the house, we were thinking we would get swept away along with it. With every pounding our hearts will sink. We held together with the hope to live, but were preparing ourselves to die together," Laxmi said.

The family prayed for their survival and for the chance to see Prayan again.

"We thought we wouldn't survive. We prayed to God to save us and let us meet our son," she said.

When the flood began to subside, neighbours used ladders and ropes to bring them down.

"Even during worse earthquakes, we have not felt the pounding or tremors the way we were feeling when flood water was hitting our house," Laxmi said.

Chhatri, 69, said the family could do little but wait as the water rose around them.

"We could see the water rising around us and there was nowhere to go. We thought this was the end of our lives."

The family survived, including Prayan, whose school was in a safe area, but Laxmi said they were still struggling to understand how.

"We have got a new life. Everyone is saying it's a miracle. We still can't believe we are alive. After seeing the videos, we are not able to believe how we are alive."

At Nepal's biggest hospital, the faces of the missing stared out from a wall covered with photographs on Saturday.

Elderly people, young men and even toddlers appeared row after row.

Among the photographs was a collage of nine men from the same village who disappeared while driving containers towards Nepal's border with China.

Their families travelled to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu to add their photographs to the growing wall of the missing .

Durga Tamang, 30, came to the hospital to search for his brother, Prem Bahadur Tamang. Prem, 38, had worked as a container driver for 10 years and left Kathmandu on Aug 17 for his first trip to the border.

On the morning of the floods, he called Durga, saying the journey would be his first and last.

"I'm not coming here again. Road is dangerous. This is my first and last trip," he told his brother.

Prem, who has a wife and two daughters, previously served in the Nepal army.

Durga said of his brother: "He would provide financial and moral support to the whole family, he would provide me support for education. He would care for everyone, be it his neighbours, relatives or friends. He has a clear heart. I am missing him badly. I hope he comes back alive."

Jay Prakash Lama, the elder brother of Raj Kumar, a fellow missing driver, immediately flew to Kathmandu from Dubai where he works after hearing of the devastation.

"I hope he too is alive, somewhere in forests waiting for the rescue. We are waiting for him to come back home."

He said the family believed Mr Kumar could still be trapped in the mountains.

"Water came and subsided, and we believe he's still alive stuck in the mountains. The roads and bridges have been swept away. If our vehicles are not allowed, we will walk to the border to search for them tomorrow."

At the hospital, the families continue to wait.

They search survivor lists and add photographs to the wall, hoping that one of the missing will soon walk through the doors.