Days after catastrophic flash floods tore through the Nepal-China Himalayan border region, dozens of North American relatives of missing trekkers join thousands of grieving families worldwide clinging to fragile hope that their loved ones could still be found alive.
Among those waiting for answers is 27-year-old Mukti Patel, who has gathered with close friends and remaining family at her parents’ home in Richmond, Virginia, since learning the devastating news. Five members of her extended family are among the missing: her 56-year-old father Umesh Kumar, her 32-year-old sister Akanksha Patel, Akanksha’s 32-year-old husband Ishan, and Ishan’s 59-year-old mother Shilpa. The four had joined a 14-day organized trek run by Himalayan Glacier Adventure and Travel Company, a firm with a U.S. office in Baltimore. The entire group of 40 guests and 7 tour guides on the excursion has been unaccounted for since the flood hit.
Patel recounted that the final contact the family had with the trekking group came on Wednesday, the day the flood struck, when the domestic team called to wish Ishan a happy 32nd birthday. The group was staying in a local hotel near the flood zone that was completely swept away by the surging waters, but Patel refuses to give up on their survival. “I shouldn’t talk in past tense yet,” she said Friday while sharing memories of her loved ones. “We don’t know anything.”
She described her sister Akanksha, a psychiatrist who dedicated her career to dismantling stigma around mental illness, as a kind and guiding force in her life. “Everything I’ve done in life has been off the blueprint of my sister. There’s no ounce of meanness in her.” Her father Umesh, a long-time adventure enthusiast who had dreamed of making the Himalayan trek for decades, is known for his generous spirit and volunteered to support COVID-19 pandemic victims during the public health crisis. Ishan, an orthopedic surgeon, brought constant joy to his wife’s life, Patel added. The four missing relatives hold dual citizenship between North American nations: Umesh and Akanksha are Canadian citizens, while Ishan and Shilpa hold both Canadian and U.S. passports.
As of the latest update, more than 2,000 people remain listed as missing following the disaster, which has already confirmed hundreds of fatalities. The U.S. State Department reports that approximately 90 American citizens are among those unaccounted for. Rescuers are still working to extract survivors from layers of mud and debris left by the flood, but progress has been slow and difficult in the hard-hit mountainous region.
Sanket Pandey, managing director of the tour company organizing the trek, told reporters that during a recent Zoom call with family members of the missing trekkers, many asked if they could travel to the disaster site to support search efforts, and questioned whether any of their loved ones could be trapped in surviving air pockets in collapsed structures. “It’s really difficult to have nothing,” Pandey said of the ongoing uncertainty for waiting families.
Patel has issued a call for greater international support to speed up rescue and recovery operations in the affected region, as waiting families continue to hold out hope, however thin, that their loved ones will be brought home safely. “I want my family to come home,” she said.