'The Nepalese friends I made after the 2015 earthquake are suffering again - and praying for their relatives'

Nepal is a country which has sadly become all too used to dealing with tragedy. Rescue teams are searching for hundreds of missing people after a deadly torrent of floods and mud swept through communities following a glacier collapse. Buildings and bridges have been swept away as the deluge forged relentlessly on, swallowing up people and homes in its path. At least 273 people are dead and more than 1,300 missing. Rescuers have found bodies hundreds of kilometres downstream from the disaster district and dozens of injured people have been transported to Kathmandu for advanced medical care. The tally includes 33 British people - including a 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy. Nepal's Tourism Board says 517 of those missing are foreign nationals - including 178 from India, some of whom were on a sacred Hindu pilgrimage. But It is far from the first time this mountain nation has faced tragedy on such a devastating scale. In 2015 I travelled there after the horrendous earthquake which killed 9,000 people. Back then there were chillingly similar scenes to yesterday with buildings and bridges being completely destroyed. Entire neighbourhoods were left in ruins - razed to the ground. The “fixers” I used on that assignment have become good friends. I immediately messaged them yesterday after news of the terrible flash floods broke. I didn’t hear from them for hours on end and became increasingly worried until they suddenly marked themself as “safe” on a Facebook page. To my huge relief, my friends later messaged me on Whatsapp to let me know they were safe and in the Nepalese capital of Katmandu. One, Adhikhari said: "We have relatives in that region and we have not heard from them yet. We just pray they are ok." The village of Soley in Nuwakot, with about 25 has been virtually wiped out in the flooding. Nirajan Paudyal, a Kathmandu-based journalist whose parents and other relatives live there. Desperate for information, he traveled to the area on Thursday for news of his family. "There is no update till now. I fear there won't be any update," Paudyal said. It is all too reminiscent of the terrible scenes I witnessed In 2015. This week Nepalese officials said dozens of bridges have been destroyed and nearly 25 miles of roads damaged. Some of the regions hit are quite remote and the transport infrastructure, while it has impoved in recent years, in the country still isn’t great. Back then I crossed some of those bridges which were swept away yesterday. Photographer Rowan Griffiths and I were caught in a second quake three days later and were forced to flee to safety. We watched dozens of funerals in the capital as bodies were cremated on open log pyres. They took place next to the sacred Bagmati River at the historic Pashupatinath Temple and we watched as the ashes were then swept into the river. I particularly remember meeting one mum Chandra Kumari. She and husband Bhakta, had dug the lifeless body of their 18-month-old daughter Sapana from the ruins of their house. The grieving mum said: "She was sleeping in the next room but I just could not get to her to save her when the earthquake struck. She was born here but I never expected her to die here." Of all the assignments I’ve undertaken in the past 30 years for the Daily Mirror the Nepalese were the nicest people I met. To a person they were so friendly and polite. Even in the midst of great tragedy they were so kind taking us to their houses to meet their loved ones. The Nepalese people will of course react to this latest tragedy with typical bravery and stoicism. But I fear the death toll will rise dramatically. They have a relatatively new Prime Minister - Balendra Shah. He was only elected in March and he is just 36-years-old and this will be a stern test of his leadership.