Roughly 90 U.S. citizens remain unaccounted for after devastating flash floods swept through a border region between China and Nepal, leaving hundreds dead, U.S. officials said on Thursday. State Department stated that while it is unaware of any American deaths, three U.S. citizens have been successfully rescued. A large number of the missing individuals were participating in a pilgrimage to Tibet’s Mount Kailash, a holy destination for Hindus, Buddhists, and other faiths.
Loved ones turned to social media on Thursday to plead for news or share details regarding missing Americans, including a Virginia woman on a tour, a Texas couple taking a birthday trip, and a mother traveling with her 14-year-old daughter. Venus Rajnikant Patel, a 45-year-old Indian-born American citizen who recently relocated from St. Louis to Cincinnati to support his family, was among those on a guided tour.
Patel’s friend, Jolene Gosha, explained that friends were devastated to realize he was staying at a hotel in the border zone hit by the floodwaters. "We’re just hoping, hoping that by some chance he was able to climb his way out of it," Gosha said. "I don’t want to give myself false hope because I know the reality is that he's probably not with us." Gosha remembered Patel as an enthusiastic traveler who loves dancing and frequently coordinates surprise "flash mob" routines for his friends' weddings and birthdays.
"He’s always smiling from ear to ear," Gosha said. "He’d dance so goofily and didn’t care who was watching." Writing on X, Indian spiritual guru Jaggi Vasudev, known as Sadhguru, reported that 77 people returning from Mount Kailash with groups arranged by his Isha Foundation were at an immigration center in Gyirong, Tibet, when the flooding hit. The Isha Foundation informed ABC News that 22 of those individuals were Americans.
The India-based spiritual organization operates a U.S. location called the Isha Institute of Inner-sciences, a mountain retreat center for yoga and meditation near McMinnville, Tennessee. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, President Donald Trump said American officials have communicated with leaders in Nepal and offered to assist with "anything they want." Trump noted that there were 50 or 60 Americans in the area, adding that a complete count has yet to be finalized. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
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