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  • 7 weeks ago
The death toll from devastating flash floods that struck the Nepal Tibet border more than 10 days ago has climbed to more than 1,300 people. At least 5,000 others are still missing, including 36 Australians. Residents and business owners are returning to some areas to try and salvage what they can from the rubble and debris.

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00:01As the mud has started to harden here, the pieces of people's lives are starting to be revealed.
00:09There are backpacks, bowls, there are biscuits, packets of biscuits here that would have been part of someone's shop.
00:16There's a school book, what sort of looks like a shopping list is starting to appear.
00:22All of these buildings here on the ground floor used to be businesses.
00:26And over here, a local has told us that where this river now is, at the corner where it's turning,
00:33that used to be a really busy bazaar.
00:39We have lived in this place for 30 years. We had a clothing shop here. Our room was in that
00:45house over there.
00:46Everything went into the river. Nothing is left. The river had left a few pieces of clothing near the roadside.
00:52I'm thinking they might be useful in the coming days. I am washing them.
00:56And inside these buildings, you can just see how ferocious that flood would have been.
01:02There are rocks up on this balcony on the second floor, and it's pretty safe to say they weren't there
01:08before.
01:09They would have been washed here. They've taken out the balcony of the building beside it.
01:13And inside you can see what used to be furniture completely crushed and mud that is all the way up
01:20to the top of this window.
01:22And the smell is very strong. There is a very, very pungent smell of decay coming from this building.
01:29There is a really, real growing concern for health and outbreak of secondary illnesses.
01:35So whether that be related to unsafe water, very poor hygienic conditions that we're seeing,
01:42or whether it be the overcrowding in the evacuations themselves.
01:47There's a lot of people in some of those centres, and some of them only have one or two toilets.
01:51So people are having to queue for hours to even get to the bathroom.
01:55So there is a growing concern. Health services are stretched as well.
01:59So being able to provide the medical care to those kind of common illnesses is something that really is a
02:05growing concern.

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