Source : Perth Now news
The small Himalayan town Keshav Kadel migrated from was not the first to be hit by the floods ravaging his native Nepal.
Nestled in the Chitwan district, it sits further along the Trishuli River than those more directly in the firing line, such as Gorkha and Rasuwa.
The distance afforded residents more time to flee to higher ground, but it has not been spared the dead.
“What’s happening in my town is that bodies are now flowing in the river,” he told AAP.
“They have slid all the way down and people are pulling bodies from the river.”
At least 360 people have died and hundreds more remain unaccounted for, including dozens of Australians, since they began on Wednesday.
Mr Kadel was among members of Nepalese community who gathered at the Australian Nepalese Multicultural Centre, which he serves as vice president, on Thursday.
Families gathered for prayers and held a minute’s silence for those lost to the floods, laying candles beside a hand-crafted display of dyed rice reading “pray for Nepal”.
The diaspora was “united in grief, hope and prayer,” secretary of the centre Sudhir Shakya told the event, held northwest of Melbourne.
“Behind every number is a person – a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a relative, a friend, and someone deeply loved,” he said.
Former Australian race discrimination commissioner Chin Tan told attendees the grief they felt extended well beyond the hall.
“Today, all Australians are Nepalis, because our grief is yours,” he said
Mourners compared the floods to the 2015 earthquake which devastated Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, killing nearly 9000 people.
While the death count is not as great, Mr Kadel warned consequences would be more dire at the level of individual towns.
“The gravity of the situation is worse now because whole towns have swept away,” he said.
“Now there is nothing, it’s just a mudslide.”
From Melbourne, he has followed the disaster largely through social media, unable to bring himself to call those in the affected region.
“I didn’t have the courage to do that,” he said.
Similar events were held across the country on Thursday, including a candle vigil in Rockdale, in Sydney’s south.
Australians too are mourning their own, with Nepalese authorities reporting on Thursday at least 35 Australians remained missing.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials have been deployed to the region to assist recovery and identification efforts.
Smartraveller has updated its travel advice, urging people to exercise a high degree of caution because of major flash flooding and a mudslide.
Australians in need of urgent help should contact DFAT’s 24-hour consular emergency centre.
