A Nepalese woman in Nova Scotia has been living a nightmare since the deadly August 26 flash floods in Nepal. Ang Faulkner grew up in one of the affected districts, Rasuwa, and says he misses hundreds of family members, neighbors and childhood friends. “I just blame myself for not being there at the worst time of his life,” Faulkner said from his home in Bedford, N.S. Since hearing the news, Faulkner says he has had difficulty eating or sleeping. It took him two desperate days to make contact with his parents at home. Ang Faulkner with her husband and parents on her wedding day. Submitted: Ang Faulkner She says her father had to use a friend’s solar panel just to charge his phone enough to make the two-minute call she was anxiously awaiting. “All he could say is, ‘I’m safe, your mom is safe. But we’ve lost a lot of people here,'” he said. “I could hear screams and cries from the people in my town.” Faulkner says many of his missing relatives are now presumed dead. Among them is his cousin’s wife, who ran a hotel in Syabrubesi, a village that once stood on the banks of the Bhote Koshi River. Ang Faulkner shows photos of his missing relatives and neighbors. She says the sign represents less than five percent of the people her family has lost. Ella Macdonald / Global News “They were having coffee together, husband and wife, and all of a sudden all he could hear was like a bunch of loud noises,” Faulkner said. Get the latest national news Get the latest Canadian news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you don’t miss any breaking news. “Then they ran out and everyone was running, like ‘Run! Run!’ And they ran without knowing what was happening.” She says her cousin managed to hold on and get up. “He looked back. All he could see was a huge wave, almost as tall as a five or six story building,” he said. She says his wife was behind him. “He literally had to watch his wife get swept away in the flood,” Faulkner said. Faulkner’s cousin, his wife and two children before the August 26 flash floods. Submitted: Ang Faulkner Her cousin reached the mountainside with other survivors, where she says they spent approximately 24 hours without food or water. “I remember him saying, ‘I have nothing left. Like my whole life, my hometown, my wife, my life savings, it’s all gone.'” They were doing household chores when the water came. Story continues below ad Video has emerged on multiple broadcast channels, showing what Faulkner identified as his hotel succumbing to the massive wave. She says the mountain village of Syabrubesi has been completely razed. Experts say a glacial collapse likely triggered the flood. According to the US Geological Survey, a magnitude 5.2 seismic event occurred near the border between Nepal and Tibet, an autonomous region of China, on August 26 at 8:37 a.m. local time. time. Initially reported as an earthquake, the event is now believed to have been caused by a falling glacier, which caused debris to flow. The focus in Nepal remains on rescue and recovery in the mainly affected districts, with the death toll exceeding 1,200 and more than 4,000 still missing. But for families searching for their missing loved ones, the mud makes it difficult to achieve closure. “It’s almost like concrete,” Faulkner said. “How are they going to find their bodies?” He adds that a common practice in Nepal is to send children to Kathmandu for boarding school once they are around five years old. This means that many of the flood victims were adults, Faulkner says, and their children are now orphans and will need all the support they can get. Story continues below advertisement “They have lost a lot, but we can save their future.” Faulkner said. “Support Nepal, support us and try to get the answers that families are waiting for.” Those wishing to donate to relief efforts can do so through the Government of Nepal’s Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund. 2:15 Nepalese maritime community raises money for disaster relief after flash floods in central Nepal