People are coming to take photos of the green-painted house, which kept the Pyakurel family safe as the area all around them was destroyed by rampaging floodwaters.

When a ferocious torrent of water, mud and debris swept away everything in its path in Nepal last week, it created a whirlpool of destruction around the Pyakurel family home in Dhunge Bazaar. A video spread far and wide on social media, showing the family helplessly looking down from their third-floor balcony at the angry deluge slamming against their home. But the house stood firm. Chhatra Bahadur Pyakurel, 67, said he had just dropped his grandson off at the school bus and returned home when the floods — caused by a massive glacier collapse in the Himalayan region between Nepal and Tibet — reached their home.

For over an hour, all the family could do was watch the carnage around them, first from the balcony, and then after climbing to the roof, as the wall of water and debris kept growing taller and wilder. "At first we did not know what would happen or whether we would survive," Mr. Pyakurel said. "But after some time, we realized there was nothing more we could do. Our lives were in the hands of the almighty God."

The house went viral as photographs of it still standing, alone amid a wasteland of mud and debris, circulated online. The death toll in Nepal rose above 1,100, with almost 4,000 more people still missing. Rescue missions have managed to rescue over 11,000 people. In the surrounding Nuwakot district alone, over 1,200 homes have been fully damaged and more than 1,000 others partially damaged.