A San Francisco Bay Area couple who were on a pilgrimage to Tibet told CBS News on Friday that they thought they were going to die when they saw a mountain of water approaching them earlier this week. “I knew I was going to die,” Anjana Raja told CBS News. “I knew I was going to die.” The catastrophic flash flood that hit a mountainous border area between Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday – when a glacier in the Himalayas collapsed and sent torrents of water into the valleys below – has killed nearly 600 people, and an estimated 2,500 more are missing as search and rescue teams frantically search for survivors. An aerial view of extensive destruction and debris deposits along the Trishuli River corridor following catastrophic flooding in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on Aug. 28, 2026. Sameer Shrestha/Anadolu via Getty Images The U.S. State Department said Friday that around 90 Americans are estimated to be among the missing. from Timure, near where Raja and his partner Pattabiraman Venkatesan were on their tour bus. The couple was making their first pilgrimage to Tibet, an autonomous region of China that shares a border with Nepal. They had passed through Timure and were on the bus in the Rasuwa district of Nepal, near the Nepal-China border, when what looked like a tsunami appeared. “It’s like 60, 70 feet, it looked like a tsunami, but dark black,” Venkatesan said. “…I could see this monster coming down. At the time I didn’t know if it was water. I thought it was fire, a forest fire, honestly.” Raja said he grabbed Venkatesan by the neck, pulled him and told him, “Run,” as the two jumped off the bus. As thousands of people ran for their lives, cell phone videos showed some being swallowed by the churn, while others managed to climb to safety higher up and were eventually airlifted out. The couple said they ran up a series of steps trying to get to higher ground. “All along the road, houses were collapsing, houses were collapsing,” Venkatesan said. Raja said he could hear the screams of people being swept away by the flood waters. “I saw death right before my eyes,” Raja said. A guide led them to a flat area on top of a nearby mountain. The climb was treacherous. “It’s so high I don’t even know how we got up,” Raja said. “It was really difficult.” Venkatesan described the climb as “narrow and very slippery”, with “mud, stones, rocks and everything”. They spent that night in a goat shed with several other survivors, including local residents and tourists, and were airlifted the next day. The couple said everyone on board the tour bus survived. “The fact that we survived is nothing short of a miracle,” Venkatesan said. The couple counts their blessings. Venkatesan said the experience has given them a renewed appreciation for life. “It strengthens my thinking about life,” Venkatesan said. “Be good, do good, think well and leave the rest to whoever is above us. That’s all I can say.” More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press in:
