The impact of Nepal’s deadly flash floods is rippling through New York, where several tri-state residents and their relatives are believed to be among nearly 100 Americans reported missing.
Long Island residents Amita Amin, 67, and Jitendra Manubhai Patel, 63, were traveling with Tejal Vyomesh Patel, 64, of New Jersey, as part of a seven-person religious tour group headed for Tibet when catastrophic flooding tore through the region Wednesday, Newsday reported.
“It’s been the most devastating 48 hours, I think, of my life,” Tejal Patel’s daughter and Amin’s daughter-in-law, Aditi Patel, told the outlet.
Aditi, who also lives on Long Island, said Amin, Tejal Patel and Jitendra Patel departed from John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens on Aug. 22, flying with their tour group to Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.
The group, traveling through Nepal Trekking Planner, spent a little more than a day in Nepal before trying to cross into Tibet, where they hoped to visit Mount Kailash, a revered mountain considered sacred by Hindus, Buddhists and followers of other faiths, the publication reported.
Aditi said the seven travelers were delayed in Kathmandu for an additional night after several landslides and a breakdown involving their tour vehicle kept them from reaching the Tibet border as planned.
Before Wednesday’s floods struck, Aditi believes the group had made it inside an immigration building near the border. She said her mother’s Find My Friends location has remained fixed there since Wednesday, Aug. 26 — the day the deadly flooding hit.
“That’s where the story ends, and that’s where the story gets dicey, because we don’t know what happened after they left that building,” Aditi told the outlet.
“Did they actually leave? Did they leave and didn’t get too far, and the flood hit?”
Jitendra Patel last spoke to his son, Sunny Patel, at 8:13 a.m. local time Wednesday before the catastrophic flooding hit.
The flood waters first hit around 8:37 a.m. local time, according to Earth Sky.
“During that call, he told us that he had already cleared Chinese immigration and was in Tibet,” Sunny Patel wrote on a public Facebook post. “We have been unable to contact him since that call.”
“His phone has not reconnected to WhatsApp, and every message sent since then remains undelivered,” he added.
Aditi said she called the hotel the group was supposed to stay at the following night but the manager said the group never checked in.
Since the harrowing flash flooding event tore through the trans-Himalayan nations, Aditi said she has contacted US embassies in Nepal, China and India — as well as the US consulate and several politicians.
Similarly, Big Apple doctor Radhika Sharma said her parents Ramesh, 65, and Neelam, 64, are “missing and unaccounted” for since crossing the Himalayan corridor with the same Nepal Trekking Planner group.
Sharma last spoke to her parents 40 minutes before the harrowing waters hit and told NBC on Thursday that it’s “probably been the worst 24 hours of my life, [and] my brother’s life.”
“We’re just waiting to hear from them, and just any information, honestly,” she said.
In Queens, Dawa Cerpa, owner of A Taste of Nepal restaurant in Jackson Heights, said his uncle has been missing since the deadly torrent of water and mud swept through, CBS News reported.
“It’s very tough in this time,” Cerpa said, adding that he’s tried desperately to reach loved ones by phone.
“Many friends and one of my uncles, two days ago, they are not returning [calls],” he said.
At least 90 Americans have been reported missing since the devastating natural disaster tore through Nepal and Tibet, killing more than 390 people as of Thursday.
The catastrophic flood, which was triggered by a glacier collapse, was described as a “tsunami from the sky” by local officials.
More than 1,400 people remain missing as of Thursday.
Aditi, however, remains hopeful that she will be reconnected with her loved ones despite the phone lines being down.
“I am feeling hopeful that we can still hear good news about every single person who’s missing — not just ours,” she told Newsday.
“That is the hard part, to get that information in such a devastating situation,” she added. “We just want to spread the word.”
“We want to know that they’re OK.”
