Heavy monsoon rains hit 17 districts in the mid and western regions of Nepal in August 2014, causing the worst destruction Nepal has seen since flooding in 2008.

More than 12,000 houses were destroyed, another 13,695 partially damaged, and a massive 40,055 flooded. The extreme weather saw cattle, ducks, chicken and fish washed away or buried, and the destruction of crop supplies.

The result was mass displacement of people, with 12,276 families made homeless and left with nothing. Waterlogged farmland became useless to farmers, and the remaining yield was much lower than usual.

ACT response

ACT members provided immediate life-saving assistance and psychosocial support to around 2,000 severely affected and displaced families. Assistance included basic and supplementary food rations, non-food items, emergency shelter and other daily necessities.

Many of the areas affected were left inaccessible because of the rains, with some sections of road washed away or buried by landslides, and electrical supplies and telephone services cut off.

According to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IRFC), the floods and landslides claimed the lives of 202 people, with 248 still missing at the end of 2014.