Fully covered from head to toe in heavy brown mud, 97-year-old Guna Maya Bohara sat quietly in the metal bucket of the excavator while being rescued from under the ruins in Nepal’s Nuwakot district. The memorable photo taken during the multi-hour-long rescue operation became widely distributed around the globe becoming one of the most symbolic moments in this catastrophe.
The flash floods occurred on August 26, 2026, when a glacier collapse in Nepal-Tibet border region triggered floods with ice, rock, and debris falling into the rivers. One of the buildings that were washed away by the flood was the care home where Bohara resided in Kabilash district nearby the Trishuli River. Members of her family, including her great-nephew Dipak Bohara who came from Kathmandu, arrived at the location of the tragedy where roads were flooded or washed away. Bohara was shaking her head in movements.
Nepal Police, Nepal Army personnel, and relatives then worked together for about four hours, using ropes and heavy machinery to clear the dense mud and debris. An excavator cleared a path through the wreckage. Ambulances could not navigate the deep mud, so rescuers placed the elderly woman in the digger’s large bucket and carried her across to safer ground before transporting her to Kathmandu.
Dipak Bohara later told BBC Nepali that when she was lifted out, she looked like “a warrior” who had returned victorious from battle. Family members described her as very strong for her age. She sustained no significant injuries and was treated at Bir Hospital in Kathmandu, where the government covered her expenses. Relatives said she was initially silent for the first two or three days due to trauma but was recovering well, with doctors preparing for her discharge.
The larger disaster has left many communities completely destroyed. As of 31 August, the country’s disaster risk reduction and management authority reported 903 deaths and 4,247 people missing in the mountain nation. The number of people impacted by the catastrophe continues to grow with thousands of people remaining to be rescued from the disaster site.
Apart from the losses, Bohara was among those who managed to survive and lost her great nephew as well as other members of his family. She is currently with other family members searching for several others who are still missing, following reports that several dozen people from the village had been buried by landslides. Despite the hundreds of people who have died in the disaster, the fact that a 97-year-old managed to survive was a tonic for the people who had been involved in the disaster.
