New York Nepali Family Loses Hope for Safe Return of Seven Relatives Missing in Nepal Floods
A flood-ravaged village in Nepal. Photo: Pradeep Raj Onta, Nuwakot
When Tsering Gyaltsen Sherpa learned of the disaster in Nepal’s Timure area, the news struck close to home.
Seven members of his stepmother’s family are missing following recent flooding in Timure, according to Sherpa, a New York resident originally from Dolakha. Of nine relatives living in the affected area, he said, only two — his stepmother’s brother and sister-in-law — were rescued and safely reached Kathmandu.
“They were rescued and made it to Kathmandu,” Sherpa said. “The other seven, there is no information.”
Days after the disaster, Sherpa said, his family has lost hope that the seven missing relatives will return alive.
“There is no hope now that they will come back,” he said.
Sherpa has lived in the United States for nearly 30 years but has maintained close ties with his family in Nepal. He visits Nepal periodically and remains closely connected to his father and stepmother, whom he calls “sani ama,” a Nepali term commonly used for a father’s second wife.
Sherpa’s biological mother died when he was a child, and his father later remarried. He said he has a close relationship with his stepmother and considers her family part of his own extended family.
The seven missing relatives are from his stepmother’s maternal family. They were living in Timure, a border settlement in Rasuwa district that was among the areas affected by the flooding.
Sherpa said his stepmother had visited her mother in Timure only a few weeks before the disaster. Her mother, who is nearly 100 years old and too frail to get out of bed, was among the relatives staying in the village.
“She had gone there and stayed for several days just two or three weeks before this happened,” Sherpa said.
The close timing of the visit has made the disaster particularly painful for Sherpa’s family. His stepmother had recently returned from seeing her elderly mother, only to learn that the area had been devastated by flooding and that several family members could no longer be reached.
Processing the loss has been made even more difficult by the lack of reliable information. Sherpa said he has been reluctant to press relatives in Nepal for details as they deal with the immediate shock and uncertainty.
“After the incident, my stepmother was so emotional and couldn’t talk properly,” Sherpa said. “When I called her, she said, with tears in her eyes, ‘Everything is gone.’”
Sherpa said his father and stepmother, who live in their family’s home area of Lamabagar in Dolakha, have remained in contact with relatives as information becomes available.
For Nepalis living abroad, disasters in their home country bring a particular kind of anguish: being thousands of miles away while waiting for news about loved ones. Sherpa said the experience has underscored how difficult it can be for families overseas to distinguish between confirmed information, rumors and incomplete reports during a disaster.
Initial information often reaches families abroad through fragmented phone calls, social media posts and messages from relatives. In Sherpa’s case, the uncertainty has been compounded by difficulties reaching people in the affected area and determining whether unfamiliar incoming calls are legitimate.
He said the family is hoping authorities, rescue teams and local officials can provide definitive information about the missing relatives. But as the days have passed without word, the family’s hope has faded.
Seven relatives remain unaccounted for, leaving Sherpa and his family in New York waiting for answers from a disaster thousands of miles away.