Long Island families left with uncertainty after Nepal ends flood rescue

Nearly two months after flash floods swept through the Nepal-China border region, Rajendra Karki, of Hicksville, is still holding onto hope his sister Krishna Kumari Shrestha, 62, is somewhere out there.

Though Nepalese officials told Karki's family his sister likely hadn’t survived the flood, he still was upset to hear search and rescue efforts have ceased.

"We hope they magically find our sister. ... I wish they’d continue searching for people. We don’t know if my sister died. We’re all hoping they’re alive," said Karki, 48, who told Newsday Krishna was at home with three relatives — Dhan Kumari Shrestha, 64; Deb Kumari Shrestha, 59; Kopila Shreatha, 36 — when the flood inundated the Himalayan region.

A September report from World Weather Attribution said the Aug. 26 disaster was caused by a rock-ice avalanche that evolved into a debris flood. The nonprofit found human-caused warming that melted glaciers and thawed frozen ground likely further destabilized an already vulnerable mountain slope.

Last week, the office of Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah announced it concluded search and rescue operations for victims of the floods, The Associated Press reported. The bodies of at least 1,455 people have been recovered, but 5,285 remain missing.

The president of the Long Island Nepalese Society, Sabitra Siwakoti, said the decision to halt the search and rescue effort has generated mixed emotions within her group. Some believe the Nepalese government did everything it could, while others wish search efforts would continue a bit longer.

"Even one body is a big deal for us. That’s a human being. But unfortunately, this disaster [came without] any warning," Siwakoti said. "Personally, I feel like they try their best. ... The Nepali government spent a lot of money and lots of resources to search for them as far as we know."

Siwakoti said many members of the group wanted to fly to Nepal to support their families but concluded that money was better spent contributing to the Nepalese government’s search efforts and financially supporting displaced relatives.

"I tried to go right away, but my parents said, ‘It’s too fresh, and even if you come here, you cannot do anything right now. You'd just be crying. That's what we're doing here,’ " said Karki, who watched from afar as his family priest cremated bodies made of kusha grass to represent his four missing relatives in a Hindu ceremony, called Pratika Antyeshti.

With recent developments, he hopes to return as soon as possible to help memorialize his sister, who was a retired school teacher.

Just days before the floods, Karki said his sister sent him a message wishing him blessings for the Hindu festival Rakhi, which celebrates the bond between brothers and sisters.

He hadn’t initially panicked after being unable to contact her after the disaster. But when her husband and two sons called days later, Karki knew something was wrong.

"They were crying and that’s when I knew the news. ... I could not believe that. It’s not possible. Her home is not close to the river. I said, ‘How could the flood go that high?’," he said.

Newsday also followed up with Aditi Patel, who said in September her mother, Tejal Vyomesh Patel, her mother-in-law, Amita Amin and family friend Jitendra Manubhai Patel had crossed the border into Tibet with a tour group at the time of the catastrophic floods. About 400 family members and friends of the tour group gathered in Queens on Sept. 27 for a prayer meeting.

Unanswered questions 

Patel, 42, of Old Westbury, said she received death certificates for her mother and mother-in-law from the Nepalese government on Friday morning, which she obtained via email from the United States government.

"It was not easy seeing that in the email," Patel said. "It was kind of like this is the end of the road."

She did not receive one for their friend.

While the documents provide some closure, Patel said some questions are left unanswered. "Mentally, our closure would be knowing exactly where they were."

Patel and her father-in-law traveled to Nepal in September and met with the owner of the tour group company, whose own son-in-law and guide on the trip are missing. They also took a helicopter ride with the Nepalese army.

"You think you see it just like in videos and you think you know it, and then seeing it in person, it just hits you 20 times harder," Patel said. "There is no way anybody would have made it out alive if they were within that disaster zone."

Seeing the full scope of the disaster also gave them perspective on just how many people it affected, as the mudslides wiped out "countless other lives, houses, businesses," as well as entire families.

"It just seemed not so just personal to us anymore. It just seemed like such a big humanitarian crisis. ... There are thousands of other people like us," Patel said.

Patel said recent identifications of 9/11 victims gave her hope that someday, her loved ones' DNA could be confirmed through collection of samples.

But right now, Patel said the hardest thing about this is someday explaining it all to her children, who are too young to understand.

"They ask about them, they talk about them and it doesn't make it easier for us," Patel said. "This seems unfair that they have to be without both their grandmothers."

Correction: Aditi Patel received death certificates for her mother, Tejal Vyomesh Patel, and her mother-in-law, Amita Amin. She did not receive one for family friend Jitendra Manubhai Patel. An earlier version of this story had incorrect information.