Bhubaneswar: Had we stayed in Trishuli for 10 more minutes, we would have been washed away, said Ramesh Das, a tourist from Bhadrak’s Chandabali. Das returned from Nepal on Monday night, much to the relief of his family.Das said he and other tourists from Kerala and Kolkata had a close brush with disaster while travelling towards Kathmandu along the Trishuli river on Aug 26. “We reached Gorakhpur on Aug 21 and continued our journey towards Kathmandu. On the morning of Aug 26, while driving along the Trishuli river, we were stopped by security personnel who told us that a flood had occurred a few minutes earlier and that the situation was becoming extremely dangerous. They asked us to turn back immediately. We did not waste any time and turned our vehicles around,” Das said.He said the decision to turn back proved crucial, as the group narrowly escaped being caught in the flash flood. “Those few minutes made all the difference. If we had stayed there for another 10 or 15 minutes, we could have been trapped in the flood. The journey back was terrifying, and we were constantly worried about what might happen next,” he said.The group drove uphill and watched the devastation unfold from a distance. “We could see thick, muddy water rushing through the river, carrying debris, including parts of houses, trees, trucks and other large vehicles,” he said.A different picture emerged from Pokhara, where the group of five Odisha footballers who returned home had a markedly different experience. The players, who had travelled to Nepal to participate in the Indo-Nepal International Sports Carnival, said they initially feared their matches would be cancelled because of the unfolding disaster. However, life in Pokhara continued largely as usual, even as the urgency of the situation was visible on the faces of local residents.The players said sporting activities continued despite the apprehension among people over the floods and landslides. Meanwhile, families of those still missing from Odisha continue to wait for answers. The Odisha Parivar, which has been coordinating efforts related to Odia tourists reported missing in Nepal, said it was following the standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by the Nepal govt for identification of bodies.Five persons of Odisha origin who had either travelled to Nepal or were residing in the Himalayan country during the catastrophic floods are still missing. They include Sandeep Mohapatra and his wife Sidharthi Kumari Sahu of Khurda, Surabhi Manmath Padhy of Ganjam, and Gunnam Saibindu Kumari and her daughter Gunnam Hareeksha of Bargarh. While Sandeep and Sidharthi had been residing in Melbourne since 2018, Surabhi is a British citizen and Saibindu and her daughter were residing in Nepal.Officials said relatives of the missing persons from Odisha have so far not visually identified any of the bodies shown in photographs released by the Nepal authorities. “The identification process is being carried out in accordance with the prescribed procedure,” nodal officer Pritish Panda said, amid continuing efforts to ascertain the whereabouts of those from Odisha who remain untraced.