Virginia family with 4 relatives missing in the Nepal-China floods pleads for more rescue help

By SUDHIN THANAWALA

Mukti Patel has huddled with family and friends at her parents’ Richmond, Virginia, home since her dad, sister and two other relatives went missing in the catastrophic flash floods along the Nepal-China border.

She knows the hotel they were staying in was swept away. But as she shared memories of them on Friday, she caught herself.

“I shouldn’t talk in past tense yet,” she said. “We don’t know anything.”

As rescuers continued pulling survivors from the mud, family members of some of the more than 2,000 people missing in the disaster were still holding out hope — however dim — that their loved ones survived.

On a Zoom call Thursday night, some family members wanted to know if they could reach the site and whether a relative might be trapped inside an air pocket, said Sanket Pandey, managing director of Himalayan Glacier Adventure and Travel Company.

The tour group, which has an office in Baltimore, had organized a two-week excursion to the region with 40 guests and seven tour guides. All of them are now missing, Pandey said. Their families are desperate for any information.

“It’s really difficult to have nothing,” he said.

Patel’s family was in the Himalayan Glacier group when the floods struck on Wednesday, killing hundreds of people and leaving more than 2,000 missing. About 90 Americans are among those unaccounted for, according to the U.S. State Department.

Patel, 27, said her dad, Umesh Kumar, 56, had wanted to make the trip for many years and traveled through India to Nepal, where he was joined by her sister, Akanksha, 32, and her sister’s husband, Ishan, 32.

Ishan’s mom, Shilpa, 59, was also on the trek. Ishan and Shilpa Patel have dual Canadian and U.S. citizenship while Umesh Kumar and Akanksha Patel are Canadian citizens, according to Mukti Patel.

Akanksha Patel is a psychiatrist who wants to break stigma around mental health problems, her sister said.

“Everything I’ve done in life has been off the blueprint of my sister,” Mukti Patel said between tears in a phone interview. “There’s no ounce of meanness in her.”

Her father is a joyous person who helped victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, and her brother-in-law, an orthopedic surgeon, has brought great happiness to her sister’s life, she said.

Ishan Patel turned 32 on Wednesday, and the family called to wish him a happy birthday. That was their last contact.

Mukti Patel said she would like more countries to help the rescue and recovery efforts.

“I want my family to come home,” she said.