American Families Seek Expanded Rescue Efforts After Nepal-China Border Floods

Mukti Patel has remained at her parents’ Richmond, Virginia home since her father, sister and two relatives disappeared during severe flooding along the Nepal-China border. While she confirmed that the hotel where they were staying was destroyed in the deluge, she struggles between hope and despair as rescue operations continue. “I shouldn’t talk in past tense yet,” she said during a Friday interview. “We don’t know anything.”

The disaster claimed hundreds of lives and left more than 2,000 people missing, with roughly 90 Americans among those unaccounted for according to the U.S. State Department. Families clinging to hope have begun questioning whether trapped relatives might have survived in air pockets, said Sanket Pandey, managing director of Himalayan Glacier Adventure and Travel Company. The Baltimore-based tour operator had arranged a two-week expedition with 40 guests and seven guides—all 47 individuals are now missing.

Patel’s father Umesh Kumar, 56, had long dreamed of making this journey and traveled through India to Nepal to meet up with his daughter Akanksha, 32, and her husband Ishan Patel, also 32. Ishan’s mother Shilpa, 59, was also part of the trekking group. While Ishan and Shilpa hold dual Canadian and U.S. citizenship, Umesh Kumar and Akanksha are Canadian citizens.

Akanksha Patel works as a psychiatrist focused on reducing mental health stigma, while her father is described as a compassionate person who aided COVID-19 pandemic victims. Ishan Patel, an orthopedic surgeon, turned 32 on Wednesday—the same day the floods struck—and the family’s final contact came when they called to wish him a happy birthday.

Jiwan Jyoti, a 50-year-old from Lexington, Massachusetts with U.S. citizenship, was also traveling with Himalayan Glacier and is among the missing. According to her longtime friend Manmeet Singh Meet, Jyoti called her family from breakfast on Wednesday as she prepared to cross into Tibet. The call ended around 8:40 a.m. local time, with the flash floods arriving approximately five minutes later, according to Meet.

Vaasavi Unnava, a 31-year-old doctoral student, was unaware her parents had not yet crossed into Tibet when she learned of the flooding. Her text message to them went undelivered, leaving her without confirmation of their whereabouts. Her father, Hanumantha Rao Unnava, recently served as dean of the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis, while her mother Vasundhara lectured at the university.

The couple from Woodland, California had embarked on a retirement journey with plans to spend two months in India following their Mount Kailash pilgrimage. Vaasavi Unnava said her father was particularly eager to spend time with his mother during the extended visit. She called on additional international resources to support ongoing rescue and recovery operations in the region.