Kali Prasad Shrestha, 57, stands near Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, on the spot where his house once stood before it was swept away by floods in 2021.(AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
MELAMCHI, Nepal (AP) — In between the Himalayas' towering mountains, the town of Melamchi is no stranger to extreme weather, and its landscape bears the scars of years of floods and landslides.
Located just 50 kilometers (31 miles) outside Kathmandu, lush green mountainsides are dotted with landslips and rubble. Amid the debris, people live and work, and children play.
Saroj Lamichane, a 24-year-old resident of the region, says he still remembers “the terrifying sound of the flood.” Lamichane fled that night, returning only to collect belongings wedged between boulders and broken walls.
Many houses in Melamchi are on stilts to avoid the worst of the flooding. Still, floors are covered in a layer of loose rock. Windows have been ripped out of walls. And some buildings still slant after Nepal's devastating 2015 earthquake.
Farms are also not spared.
Sukuram Tamang, 50, lost his land and field to floods in 2021, and his home was damaged in a landslide this year. When The Associated Press visited, Tamang stood holding one of his goats — a literal handful of what survived Melamchi's incessant weather extremes.
“Even the little that remained has been swept away by floods earlier this year,” said Tamang's wife, Maya. “The river used to be a 20-minute walk from our house but during the floods, we were shocked to see it overflow and wash away everything we had.”
Another farmer, Sita Pandit, 50, took a loan to rebuild her home that was destroyed in the earthquake. But one year after construction finished, her new home was swept away by the 2021 floods. Rocks and debris now cover her farm.
In a 2021 report, the Kathmandu headquartered International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development found that cascading hazards are becoming more common in Nepal and the Hindu Kush Himalaya.
Rising temperatures are leading to heavy glacial melt and glacial lakes overflowing. They also lead to shifting rainfall patterns which bring heavy sediments downstream, said Sudan Bikash Maharjan, one of the authors of the 2021 report.
Maharjan said local and federal governments need to be better prepared and give people time to evacuate.
Until then, many work hard to rebuild their old lives. People reconstruct homes among the debris or build new ones entirely. They walk and live among pieces of homes and furniture. Layers of mud cover up the lives they once lived.
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Sita Pandit, 50, walks in her house at Chanaute Market, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, that was damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Children play volleyball with a landslide-damaged hill visible in the background at Saraswati Secondary School in Gyalthum, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Suntali Jyoti, 56, sits where her house and field once stood, in Chanaute, Melamchi, northeast from Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, now covered with large rocks brought by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Laxmi Jyoti, 41, walks near where her home used to be in Chanaute, Melamchi, northeast from Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, now covered with large rocks brought by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
A worker uses an excavator to clear land for a road that would connect to the upper villages of Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, on Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Sukuram Tamang, 50, stands with his goat in front of where his house once stood after it was damaged by recent landslides in Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
A man sets a fish trap near homes abandoned after flooding at Chanaute Market, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Rocks and sand fill an abandoned home in Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, June 26, 2024, that was damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Sukuram Tamang, 50, prepares to cook food inside a temporary shelter on rented land in Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, after he lost his home in a landslide. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
The sand-filled entrance of a house is visible in Chanaute Market, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, that was damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Saroj Lamichane salvages bricks from the ruins of his house northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, that was destroyed by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
A man walks by abandoned houses in Chanaute Market, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
A man gazes out from an abandoned house in Chanaute Market, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Footprints are visible at Chanaute Market, Melamchi, northeast from Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, on the sand inside a house damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Abandoned houses are visible in Chanaute Market, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
A girl runs in front of the recent landslide at Gyalthum, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)