Anjana Raja and Pattabiraman Venkatesan, a couple from the San Francisco Bay Area who were travelling on a pilgrimage to Tibet, described a terrifying escape after a huge mass of mud and debris suddenly rushed toward their tour bus near the Nepal-China border. Speaking to CBS News’ Ramy Inocencio, the couple recalled how an ordinary journey quickly turned into a desperate race for higher ground.Raja said the group was travelling through Rasuwa District and passengers were chatting with people from other countries when she noticed the bus driver suddenly leave the normal road and head uphill. She did not initially understand why he had changed direction. When she turned toward the front of the bus, she realised several people were missing. The driver, guide and other helpers had already jumped out and started running. Within seconds, Raja said she saw what appeared to be a mass of earth and debris, roughly 60 to 70 feet high, moving toward them. Neither she nor the other passengers immediately understood what was happening.
A terrifying wall of debris
Venkatesan described what he saw in similarly frightening terms. “It looked like a tsunami, but dark,” he said. Raja said the approaching mass felt dusty, while Venkatesan added that it looked almost like fire. Raja described it as muddy water, but the couple could not determine what exactly they were witnessing. They also did not know whether an earthquake, avalanche or another event had triggered the sudden rush of material. What they did know was that it was extremely close.The couple estimated that the mass was about 50 feet from where their bus had been parked. For passengers still inside the vehicle, there was almost no time to understand the situation or decide what to do. Their chance to escape came partly because the bus door had been left open.
A desperate climb
Raja said she grabbed her husband by the collar and told him to run. The couple immediately began moving uphill. Venkatesan recalled that once they had climbed about 10 feet, he could see the enormous mass coming down toward them. The couple continued running as people directed them toward steps leading to higher ground. As they climbed, Raja witnessed another devastating moment. She said the first police base camp was swept away directly in front of her.According to Raja, the structure and the people there disappeared almost immediately as the rushing material overwhelmed the area. She recalled seeing the roof and everything around it being washed away. There was no time to stop. The couple kept running toward the next level, trying to reach safer ground as quickly as possible.
‘I knew I was going to die’
Raja said the experience left her convinced that she was about to die. “I knew I was going to die,” she recalled. The couple said they had to run about 500 feet toward higher ground within seconds. Throughout the escape, Raja’s focus remained on her husband.She said she kept grabbing him and making sure he stayed with her. There was no time for a conversation or for thinking about what might happen next.“I just kept grabbing him. I wanted him in my life. That’s it,” she said.
From pilgrimage to survival
The couple had travelled to the region as part of a pilgrimage to Tibet. Instead of a peaceful journey, they suddenly found themselves running from a powerful and unfamiliar wall of mud and debris. Their account highlights the confusion that can accompany a sudden disaster. At first, they could not tell whether they were witnessing an avalanche, an earthquake-related event or something else. The only clear decision was to move uphill.The bus door had been left open, giving the couple a way to get out and run toward higher ground. Once outside, the couple followed the steps toward higher ground and continued climbing. For Venkatesan, the approaching mass looked like a dark tsunami and then like fire. For Raja, the most frightening moment came when she watched the police base camp disappear before her eyes. They survived by continuing to run.Their experience was not simply a story of witnessing a disaster from a distance. They were inside its path, with only moments to react. Raja’s instinct to keep hold of her husband and Venkatesan’s determination to follow the escape route ultimately brought them to safety. What began as a pilgrimage became a life-or-death escape, leaving the couple with a vivid memory of a wall of mud and debris racing toward them and the desperate climb that followed.
