Three Indian migrant workers were swept away by devastating flash floods in northern Nepal, where they had spent years building homes, hotels and furniture for a growing border town. The floods struck Syafrubesi, a busy market town near Nepal’s border with Tibet, on August 26, destroying buildings and leaving thousands of people dead or missing. Neyaz Miya, a 34-year-old carpenter from India’s Bihar state, was working inside a half-built house when he heard a terrifying sound. The ground trembled and dark clouds covered the area. He grabbed his phone and slippers and ran uphill with several

Three Indian migrant workers were swept away by devastating flash floods in northern Nepal, where they had spent years building homes, hotels and furniture for a growing border town. The floods struck Syafrubesi, a busy market town near Nepal’s border with Tibet, on August 26, destroying buildings and leaving thousands of people dead or missing. Neyaz Miya, a 34-year-old carpenter from India’s Bihar state, was working inside a half-built house when he heard a terrifying sound. The ground trembled and dark clouds covered the area. He grabbed his phone and slippers and ran uphill with several others. His colleague Mehadi Hassan was working on the ground floor of Ganesh Hotel, closer to the Trishuli River. He immediately ran for higher ground without stopping to collect his belongings. The two men eventually found each other among about 60 to 70 survivors who had gathered on a hillside. Miya had arrived in Syafrubesi about a decade earlier as a carpenter. Three years later, he brought Hassan from Bihar to work with him. Together, they helped build the interiors of homes and hotels, making beds, sofas, cupboards and kitchen fittings. Many of the buildings they helped create were later destroyed by the same floods. Hotels including Red Panda, Garden Hotel, Buddha Hotel and Sunrise Hotel were among those swept away. “The town was gone in a blink,” Miya recalled after returning home to Bihar. The disaster has left a devastating toll. More than 1,200 bodies have been recovered, at least 4,000 people remain missing and more than 13,000 have been rescued. For migrant workers like Miya and Hassan, Syafrubesi was more than a workplace. It was a place where they had spent years earning a living and helping build a community. In just hours, the floods destroyed much of what they had built — and took away fellow workers who had come there looking for a better livelihood.

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