‘The house got carried 100 metres away’: some Nepal flood victims had minutes of notice. Others had seconds

Bhagat Lal, 68, has a son studying in Brisbane. Other relatives are missing, while their house was found washed up on the river. The first thing is the noise – chopper blades cutting through the air as helicopters come and go from the main army response centre, at the entrance to Nepal’s flood zone. Then, there is the smell. A putrid, iodine smell. Blood and bone. The severe heat beating down on bodies packed into white bags – being carried off helicopters and laid in an area so families can identify them. On Sunday the combined toll in Nepal and Tibet climbed to 781 dead and more than 3,000 people missing. Forty-three of them are Australians. The humanitarian crisis on the ground is huge – but aid, a large amount of it from Australia, has started to arrive. An additional $3m, on top of $5m already announced, was confirmed on Monday morning. The army barracks have become the heartbeat of the crisis – bringing survivors in, taking supplies out and trying to place the dead with their families, so they can be laid properly to rest. “With every helicopter there are mixed feelings,” says Plan International’s Unni Krishnan, who is on the ground in the Nuwkot district to o