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Nepalese man awaits friends update after floods

Cameron WeldonChannel Islands
BBC Restaurant owner Ashutosh Lamichhane sat on a red sofa smiling and looking straight at the camera. Behind him is a glass window and a solid stone wall. BBC
Ashutosh Lamichhane said it felt like the floods "came out of nowhere"

A restaurant owner from Nepal has said he is "still waiting" to hear updates from his friends following severe flash flooding.

Ashutosh Lamichhane, who runs the Lost Yeti Kitchen and Bar in St Peter Port, Guernsey, used to work as a river raft guide on the Bhote Koshi river along the Nepal-Tibet border where the floods occurred on 26 August.

Nearly 4,000 people remain unaccounted for, including 639 hydropower workers, with at least 939 known to have died.

Lamichhane said "luckily and thankfully" all of his immediate family "are OK" and the support he had received from the island's community had been important during the difficult time.

Ashutosh Lamichhane Nine people on a raft along a river. They are all using ores in what look likes strong choppy water. There are large rocks and stones in the background on the shoreside. Ashutosh Lamichhane
Lamichhane worked as a river raft guide on the Bhote Koshi river along the Nepal-Tibet border where the floods took place

Lamichhane said he was at work when he first heard about the flooding.

He said he received lots of messages from friends and family but, when he saw the news and videos, he said it was "like from a movie" and "couldn't really believe" what he had watched.

He said: "First instance, your mind doesn't really believe it, the devastation of mother nature.

"Trying to connect to family and friends, that's the only thing you can think of.

"Luckily, and thankfully, all of my immediate family are OK."

He said he had tried to "check with friends he used to work with at the camp but it "looks like some of them are not there".

Jersey Overseas Aid said it had allocated £200,000 in emergency funding to the British Red Cross on behalf of the people of Jersey to support the humanitarian relief and recovery efforts.

'Everybody is shocked'

Lamichhane said he used to live right next to the river, in what he described as a "highly populated, very lively area" with lots of tourists, near to the capital city of Kathmandu.

"It used to flood, but nothing to this level. This is why it feels like a movie, the volume of water that has come from nowhere."

He said his friends he had managed to get in touch with were solely "focussed on finding the missing people".

"Everybody is shocked, only thinking about the missing ones." he said.

"Nepal has had a number of national disasters, like the earthquake and the floods, we have always built back.

"I have no doubt, we'll build it back together in no time."

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