India, Sept. 7 -- For ten days, Chandika Kumari Shrestha's family believed the worst. The 64-year-old woman was presumed dead after a catastrophic flood swept through her home in Nepal's Betrawati. The deluge buried homes, shops and entire stretches of the town under mud, rocks and debris.

The family had begun observing the traditional mourning period for her death when rescuers searching the ruins of her home heard a voice. "Save me."

Police officer Mahendra Darnal and his team had been moving around what remained of the the elderly woman's four-storey home when they heard the faint call. The building had been swept away by the flood and left surrounded by waterlogged, unstable ground, Reuters reported.

"The four-storey house was swep...