A Bay Area technology worker is among dozens of Americans still listed as missing after devastating flash floods in Nepal on Wednesday killed more than 300 people and left thousands unaccounted for.
Nepali officials released an initial list identifying 65 U.S. citizens who remain missing, among them 48-year-old Prabhath Sajeepa.
Sajeepa has served as an engineering leader at Pure Storage, the Santa Clara-based data storage company, since 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously worked for Cisco, the software and networking technology giant.
His niece told the BBC that Sajeepa had been involved for several years with the Isha Foundation, a nonprofit spiritual organization known for offering yoga programs.
Kavya Koulagi Jayatheertha, Sajeepa’s niece, said a group affiliated with the foundation had been traveling in the region. Eighty members of that group, including 22 people from the United States, are still missing.
“It has been terrible,” she said. “I hope he is somewhere safe.”
Jaggi Vasudev, the foundation’s leader, said in a video posted Thursday that the group had been inside an immigration building in Gyirong shortly before floodwaters swept it away. He said the final message he received from the group leader came just nine minutes before the flood struck.
“This is a terrible and an extraordinary event,” Vasudev said.
The flooding is believed to have been triggered when the lower part of a glacier broke off and fell from a height of around 17,000 feet, smashing into a valley floor, creating what is known as an ice avalanche, Al Jazeera reported.
It was not clear what caused the glacier to collapse, but the powerful torrent of water and debris it caused swept away homes, roads and businesses in Nepal. Tibetan officials said they feared “major casualties” in the wake of the calamity, according to reports in local media.
At least 19 bridges and nearly 25 miles of road were all swept away by the floodwaters, with several villages and hydropower projects also decimated, locals officials said.
The US Embassy in Nepal said it was working with local authorities and tour operators to account for affected Americans.
US officials had said about 90 U.S. citizens remained unaccounted for on Thursday, with three rescued.
