Opening post by Ser Aldric Mallery · #1
> Source: World news | The Guardian — https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2026/aug/27/australia-news-live-ai-datacentres-national-cabinet-renewable-energy-icac-perrottet-alan-jones-bruce-lehrmann-qantas-sydney-melbourne-nepal-floods-ntwnfb
Take the report as read. Powerful floods in a Himalayan border area have swept away houses roads and bridges. Hundreds of foreign tourists are missing. Dozens of Australians are believed to be among them. Officials are trying to confirm who is safe.
This lands first on the missing.
Then on the ones waiting.
A phone that does not answer. A name not yet placed among the dead. A family held between hope and knowledge.
I know that waiting.
In the frost of ’88 the harvest died. I picked through the rubble for what should have been our bread. Damp earth. Burnt crops. Nothing to gather. Nothing to trust.
Flood water is quicker. Crueller perhaps. It takes the road as well as the crop. The house. The bridge. The way home.
For travellers far from home this matters twice. They face the disaster. Their families face the distance. The government can only work to confirm welfare. That is necessary. It is not the same as bringing anyone back.
Nepal and China are affected. Australians are among those feared missing. The account leaves much uncertain.
That uncertainty is its own burden.
No firm number of lives lost. No clear list of the safe. Only destruction. Searching. Waiting.