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It is another very grim night in Nepal and also here in the UK for the families of British
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nationals missing after that appalling flash flood yesterday. More than 350 people have been killed
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At least 1,400 are now missing, including 33 British nationals. There were extraordinary
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images today of people being rescued from the mud caused by the flooding. One image
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showing an elderly lady rescued by an earth mover. She was covered in mud and clinging to the hands of her rescuers
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as she was driven to safety. There is some suggestion today that there may be a climate change connection to the tragedy
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The US Geological Survey says the floods were caused by a glacier's collapse
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the disintegration and melting of a wall of ice along the Nepali border with Tibet
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Local NGOs say floods and landslides have become far more intense and frequent in Nepal
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as global warming has intensified. The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, today pledged £5 million of government assistance
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to help the Nepali government with rescue and recovery. Joining me on the programme this evening is Suraj Pudaseni, who is trying to reach loved ones in Nepal who are based in Betrawati, near where the flash flood started
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He's in Harlow in Essex. Mr Pudaseni, thank you very much indeed for talking to me tonight
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I can't imagine what you must be going through and how difficult it must be to trace your loved ones
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Can you explain to our viewers and listeners who you trying to find and what that experience so far has been like Yeah so I sort of lost my mum aunt and uncle They gone missing and their two grandkids have also gone missing as well as one of my cousins from my dad side
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And it's sort of, we've been trying to reach and contact them, no response. And so after that
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what we do is kind of call our relatives and people who sort of live near them to see if
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they've heard anything from them. And so far, we've heard absolutely nothing. And it's just
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it's just nail biting and it's really upsetting and heartbreaking knowing that our loved ones are
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missing and we can do nothing about it and so we've we've heard from the last day nothing about
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them and to us that kind of sort of tells them that there's no chance for us and that although
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they are missing that you know if they haven't been found within 24 hours of being swept in a
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river or nothing being heard of them that we kind of do assume that they are they are dead and to us
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it's just absolutely heartbreaking. And it's horrible because we can't really do anything
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about it. We're kind of here on the other side of the world, you know, just imagining what it's like
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over there right now, you know, the grief and the pain that our family over there are going through
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And it's just heartbreaking for us because we know that there's nothing we can do about it
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I'm so very sorry to hear that. You've got five family members that are missing
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Yes, that's correct. And what sort of ages are they? so my mum's aunt and uncle are sort of in their 80s
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their grandkids are in their mid-20s and my cousin is in his early 30s
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so yeah and I know there's a big Nepali community here of course
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are they pulling together? are there community efforts here to reach the Nepali government
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I mean the Nepali government must be completely overwhelmed when you see the video
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when you see the images of that wall of water just tearing through communities
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There can't be any preparation that the government of Nepal could possibly have had
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for a catastrophe as grave as this Yeah of course it was a very unforeseen sort of event that occurred I mean you know it wasn even raining at the time of that So locals who got wiped out didn even know it was coming for them
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which is what makes it even more shocking because people didn't have time to prepare
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You know, you might have heard noises before they kind of got wiped away
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But apart from that, they would have been clueless. But to answer your question, yes, there are many Nepalese communities here
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the non-resident Nepalese association being one of them who are you know who have go fund me pages
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and are really trying to get people to donate money if they can to help directly provide
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sanitary equipment and food and necessities to isolated communities out in Nepal because a lot
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of villages the issue with the flooding obviously the people that have died are it's horrible that
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has happened to them but also villages now are isolated because key bridges have been swept away
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which means that food sanitary equipment clothing that that can't be delivered to them anymore and
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it's hard also for helicopters to sort of land in places where there is there is not a place to land
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so you know trying our hardest to provide that equipment somehow through people that we know
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or people that, you know, people in power there who are able to go to these places
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That is the efforts that we've sort of tried here. I mean, my dad is trying to raise £50,000 for this cause on GoFundMe
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And, you know, people are just trying to do what they can to help
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because ultimately we're in a position here where we're much more privileged and able to raise money that can really make a difference to the people out there
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And so that's just a bit that we're trying to do because that's all that we feel we can contribute at the minute
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Because of the remote nature of where your family members were at the time of this accident
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there must still be a possibility that they may be found alive. I mean, presumably communications
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are under extraordinary strain in Betrawati and the other parts of the country that were so directly affected by this But it sounds as though you are as a family definitely bracing yourselves for the worst
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I mean, we've sort of been there before. We go every time we go to Nepal
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I've been there about five, six, seven times before minimum. And, you know, just seeing where the places are located
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there isn't really an escape route. So even if people were to try, you know, escape
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you are sort of kept you are sort of along that river bank
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where you are going to get caught up with the flash flood so I think the
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communities that are in and around the rivers I don't think many of them really stood a chance when it came to
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trying to escape I think further down the river route when it came to you know
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villages further down I think they had a bit more warning and preparation
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time to leave and evacuate but especially these villages up near where
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the river started flooding, these communities had no chance really. And I think the majority
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of these people have unfortunately passed away or they're missing, which it's devastating
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But yeah, there's nothing we can do about it really. We're just trying to find who we
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can, get contact with who we can and help reduce the death toll to as little of a number
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responsible at the minute. Well, Mr. Pudasani, I wish you the very best of luck with all of this
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and I'm sure that the sympathies and support of all of our listeners are being conveyed to you
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this evening. That's Suraj Pudasani trying to reach five members of his family in Nepal
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in Betrawati, near where the flash flood started. And as I say, with at least 33 British nationals
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missing among the 1,400 people who have not yet been located in Nepal. It is clearly going to be
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a very worrying time for a lot of people, both in Nepal itself, but also here in the UK and
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around the world as these rescue and recovery operations continue
