Trishuli/kathmandu, Aug. 28 -- For Raju Budhathoki, a customs agent working at the Rasuwa Customs Office in Timure, Wednesday morning became one of the most terrifying mornings of his life.

Budhathoki, a resident of Manthali Municipality-13 in Ramechhap, had been resting in his room, as he did on any other day. At around 8:45am, however, the mountain beneath him suddenly began to shake.

"I was asleep when the whole hillside suddenly started shaking as if there had been an earthquake," Budhathoki recalled from his hospital bed in Trishuli. "The houses began trembling. There was no time to think about what was happening. I ran outside in whatever clothes I was wearing, just trying to save my life."

He ran towards a nearby police post, on...