Families descend on Nepal in search of missing tourists

KATHMANDU

Flash flood survivors gather to receive utility aid from a temporary relief camp at Devighat in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on September 3, 2026. (AFP Photo)

Desperate families of missing foreigners were clinging to hope as they combed hospitals and morgues in search of clues, a week after catastrophic floods tore through Nepal’s Himalayan border region.

Outside Kathmandu’s tourist police headquarters, Sanjeev Rai was trapped in agonizing uncertainty.

The 53-year-old American flew to Nepal after learning that his wife, Jiwan Jyoti, was untraceable while returning from a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, the sacred peak revered by Hindus and Buddhists.

“The day I arrived I said, let’s find a helicopter, I’m going to look for her,” Rai told AFP.

But Timure, the village in Rasuwa district where she was when disaster struck, remains inaccessible and dangerous.

“I feel desperate, it’s been so many days,” he said.

Jyoti, an engineer at Intel, had embarked on the journey as a spiritual quest and an adventure to mark her 50th birthday.

Now Rai says he has all but abandoned hope of finding her alive.

“I’m no longer counting on survivors. I just hope the DNA samples will match. I want to be able to mourn.”

The Aug. 26 flood has become one of the deadliest disasters to hit the Himalayan nation in recent years.

The huge wave of debris has killed more than 1,200 people and left more than 4,750 missing in Nepal and China’s Tibet region, smashing towns, roads, bridges and multiple hydropower dams.

According to Nepali police, some 294 foreigners have been rescued, most of them Chinese and Indian nationals.

But 583 foreigners remain unaccounted for, many of them pilgrims who had spent months preparing for the demanding trek around Mount Kailash.