Kathmandu, Sept. 6 -- year-old Samiksha Dangol was on her way home from school when she saw her father coming towards her.

It was the morning of August 26 at Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot, a district north-west of Kathmandu. Samikshya, a Grade 11 student, had been sent home after the school received warnings that floodwaters were rising.

Her father had come to take her home.

But the two did not get far. A traffic police officer stopped them and warned that the flood was rising and that they should not cross the bridge.

They waited, assuming the rest of the family had already fled.

They had not.

When Samiksha and her father learnt what had happened, both collapsed.

Her older sister, brother and two aunts (father's s...