Man believes missing family 'swept away' in floods

A Sussex man searching for family members missing after the floods in Nepal says he now believes they will not be found.

Pramod Poudel, from Uckfield, travelled to Nepal after losing contact with his wife, mother, brother and uncle following the disaster.

He said relatives and other people from the area where his family lived now believed they had been swept away by floodwater. Funeral rituals are due to begin on Wednesday and continue for four days, he says.

Nepal's death toll has exceeded 1,000 after last week's devastating floods, and officials say about 4,000 are missing.

In a voice message, Poudel said: "After talking to my family and people who live where my family was living, everyone thinks that all of my family has been swept away by [the] flood."

Poudel says eight days have passed since the disaster and many people from the area remain missing.

"I don't think they will find them, so for that reason, my parents, my dad, and everyone in the society decided to do rituals for funerals," he says.

In a previous interview with the BBC, Poudel said the search had left him "emotionally shattered".

After he arrived in Nepal, he struggled to reach affected areas because roads and bridges had been damaged.

He said it had been impossible to travel by road in some areas, while others remained inaccessible and people there were still desperately waiting for help.

A fundraising campaign launched in Sussex has raised more than £5,000 to help support him while he remains in Nepal.

Helen Graves, manager at Lakedown Taproom, said many people recognised Poudel, who is known to everyone as Pedro, as the "warm, hard-working face behind the MoMo Nepalese food truck".

She said after he flew to Nepal, his business and local bookings had been put on hold.

"As a self-employed business owner, facing this unthinkable nightmare also means facing an immediate loss of livelihood, alongside mounting emergency travel, logistical, and rescue costs," she said.

She said the money would help ease financial pressure on Poudel, while he focused on finding his family.

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