Nepalese man awaits friends update after floods
BBCA restaurant owner from Nepal says 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.
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 LamichhaneLamichhane 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".
'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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