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After eights days of waiting and feeling powerless, Durban mother Linda Govender will cast aside warnings of imminent floods and dangerous terrain and board a flight to Nepal on Thursday, carrying hope and prayers in search of her daughter Terricia.
Terricia, a data analyst, is one of six South Africans reported missing after a flash flood struck the Bhote Koshi River area in Rasuwa, Nepal, at about 8.30am last Wednesday.
Govender was on a trip to celebrate her 33rd birthday, organised by spiritual group the Isha Foundation headed by founder Sadhguru, with about 70 other devotees from across the world including the US, Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany and France on the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra.
It is described as an intensive 13/14-day international pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar via Tibet and Nepal.
The group was at the Gyirong immigration centre at the border after the trip to Mount Kailash when massive landslides and flash floods hit the Nepal-Tibet border.
Dramatic footage shows a torrent of water hitting the mountainous region, submerging villages and wiping out bridges, roads and buildings.
Two Ladysmith couples — Surendranath Maharaj, 74, and his wife, Anitha Devi Maharaj, 67, as well as Vivaganathan Pillay, 66, and Janet Pillay, 56 ― are also missing. The Pillays were travelling with the Alpine Eco Trek & Expedition group and are believed to have disappeared during the floods in the Nepal-Tibet border region.
Also missing is Bavika Ramjee, 43, from KuGompo City in the Eastern Cape. She was travelling with Kailash Journeys and was last known to have been travelling near the border at the time of the flash floods.
Govender said she would embark on the journey for her peace of mind, despite warnings from authorities and well-meaning friends and family about the volatile conditions at the Nepal-Tibet border, where search and rescue operations are ongoing for nearly a thousand people still missing.
The death toll on Wednesday stood at about 1,050 with nearly 4,000 people remaining unaccounted for. Officials fear many are buried under debris left by the floods that tore through towns and valleys near the Chinese border.
Across the border in Tibet, China’s official toll has held steady since Sunday at 16 dead and 546 missing.
Govender told the Sunday Times she wanted to travel to the disaster-hit area last week but was told by the Isha Foundation that conditions were too dangerous.
“I have to go and find my daughter. I can’t stay here any longer and just wait for updates which don’t tell me anything. I have been in contact with Dirco and the Isha Foundation, but it hasn’t been any good news.”
I don’t sleep. I am exhausted because every time I close my eye I see Terricia’s face and I feel helpless for not being there and able to actively do something.
— Linda Govender, mother of missing South African Terricia
The mother of three girls who lives in Isipingo Beach said since getting an email from the Isha Foundation confirming her daughter and her group were missing after the disaster hit on Wednesday she was unable to rest.
“I don’t sleep. I am exhausted because every time I close my eye I see Terricia’s face and I feel helpless for not being there and able to actively do something. I have been watching footage and videos and posts on social media non-stop for any bit of information that might lead me to some positive information.
“I have seen the search and rescue teams, but I need to go there for myself. I am not worried about the danger. I need to be there. It has been six days, but I still have hope and carry the prayers of the nation. So many people have expressed how they are praying for safe return as well as others who are still missing,” Govender said.
Since last week she has created several posters pleading daily for updates, sightings and information about her daughter as well as others missing in the disaster.
One of the posters says: “No distance is too far. No challenge is too great. My love for you is stronger than anything. I will not stop I will not give up. I am coming. To my Precious Teresa, your mummy‘s heart is with you every single moment. We are all praying, hoping and believing in your safe return. You are loved. You are missed. You are never alone.”
Terricia’s video expressing the joy of seeing her mentor Sadhguru on the morning of her 33rd birthday on her journey to Manasarova was shared on the spiritual group’s page shortly before tragedy struck.
Hopes of finding more survivors among the thousands still missing in Nepal were fading, authorities said on Wednesday, a week after a glacier collapse in the Himalayas unleashed flash floods that devastated the mountainous nation.
“The hope of finding survivors is decreasing,” Phanindra Paudel, a senior official at the government’s National Emergency Operation Centre, said. “We pray and are hopeful. Hope is hope.”
Rescuers are trying to find survivors believed to be trapped inside the tunnels of several hydroelectric plants, whose powerhouses have spaces and rooms for people to stay, army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet said.
Authorities said 279 people had been rescued from the ruins of hydropower projects, but at least 639 more were still missing, some of whom are believed to be trapped in tunnels.
Gift of the Givers head of search and rescue Dr Ahmed Bham said their 15-person rescue team was packed and ready to leave for Nepal to assist with the search and rescue operations, however, the Nepalese government had refused international aid.
“Unfortunately it would have been so good to be on the ground. We could do so much and cover a bigger area faster. We will still remain on standby until Friday. But as the days go by it is unlikely they will respond to our offer to help. If they do call after Friday, I will mobilise again.”
He said based on the movement of the flood, the rubble and the debris, sometimes it takes people into crevices or holes or certain areas, but as the days go by, the chances of survival diminish.
“That is why it would have been nice for international teams to assist to cover bigger areas. The search and rescue teams must be exhausted and could do with the assistance, but that is the stance of the government.”
Meanwhile humanitarian Sulosh Pillay, from Mount Edgecombe, and her daughter Keshnie, along with seven other Mohanji Foundation South Africa pilgrims, returned home on Wednesday with “gratitude”.
The group had crossed the Nepal-Tibet border route to Mount Kailash just three days before the disaster.
“It is a bittersweet moment to come home. There is sadness that we couldn’t come back with the Maharajs, the Pillays and Terricia to South African soil. We went there on pilgrimage and we survived that nightmare by two days. For us it’s extraordinary and we are grateful to have been given a second lease on life. But having said that we are saddened for the families that have lost so much.”
Pillay said it was also tragic to see the devastation to the Nepalese people who are so hardworking, so poor, yet such a happy nation.
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