A couple from San Francisco have described how they feared for their lives during flash flooding on the border between Nepal and Tibet that has killed at least 600 people, and left over 3,000 missing. "I knew I was going to die," Anjana Raja told CBS News when they saw the water approaching caused by a glacier in the Himalayas collapsing, sending torrents into the valleys below. Rescue efforts along the border between Nepal and China are in their fourth day on Saturday following the flooding on Wednesday August 26th, which took place along a stretch of the Trishuli River, hitting dozens of settlements.
Nepali authorities said Saturday that the combined death toll in Nepal and Tibet was 676 and nearly 3,000 people missing, among them around 90 Americans. Many of the missing were on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus, Buddhists and others. Newsweek has contacted the U.S.
State Department for comment about the missing American citizens. Dan Hovey, Vice President of Global Emergency Response Direct Relief told Newsweek on Saturday that the humanitarian organization is increasingly concerned about the secondary health risks for people who have been displaced from their homes. After their bus had stopped in Nepal's Rasuwa District, near the Nepal-China border, they saw what looked like a tsunami head towards them.
I thought it was fire.” Raja told the outlet she grabbed Venkatesan by the collar and said, "run," as they jumped off the vehicle and ran up steps to get to higher ground. They could see houses falling around them and people being swept away by the floodwaters below. "I saw death right in front of my eyes," Raja said.
A guide led them up to a flat area at the top of a mountain, where they spent a night in a goat shed with other survivors, including locals and tourists, and were airlifted the following day. Venkatesan said everyone on their tour bus survived, telling CBS, “the fact that we survived is nothing short of a miracle." Their story comes as social media posts from loved ones appealed for people to provide updates about Americans they had lost contact with. Among them was Jitendra Patel, 72, of Long Island, New York, whose son Sunny Patel had last heard from him just after he crossed the border into Tibet on Wednesday, 45 minutes before the flash flooding started.
Another American missing is Venus Rajnikant Patel, a 45-year-old Indian-born U.S. citizen who recently moved from St. His family and friends last heard from him a few hours before the floods. Patel’s friend Jolene Gosha told the family and friends were devastated when they realized his hotel hit by the floods, adding “we’re just hoping, hoping that by some chance he was able to climb his way out of it.” Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told a news conference Saturday that the immediate priority was to locate the missing and provide urgent relief.
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