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One month after a deadly flooding event in Nepal, a B.C. family is among several Canadians still waiting for answers.
Over 1,400 bodies have been recovered and over 5,600 people remain missing — the Canadian Press reports — a month after a catastrophic flash flood struck the Himalayan border between Nepal and Tibet on Aug. 26.
Global Affairs Canada said on Saturday that 29 Canadians and permanent residents remain missing.
Coquitlam, B.C., couple Sumit and Shubakshi Rawla are among them, according to family.
“We are still clueless,” said Shubakshi’s cousin Vikram Khosla.
The couple lived with their two daughters — one a teenager and one in her early 20s, he said.
“We are helpless, we can’t do anything,” said Khosla.
He said the couple and their two daughters had been in India visiting family at the time, when Sumit and Shubakshi took a trip to the Himalayas for a trek to Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus, Buddhists and others.
The couple spoke with a family member about an hour before the flood struck, but nobody has heard from them since then, said Khosla.
He said the daughters are back in Canada and various family members are taking turns caring for them.
A collapsed glacier in Nepal caused catastrophic flooding that killed more than a thousand people, while thousands more are still missing. Andrew Chang breaks down what accelerated the flood to such a violent degree and how factors like the scale of the Himalayan mountains and the region’s climate make prediction and monitoring so challenging.
(Photo credits: The Canadian Press, Reuters, Adobe Stock and Getty Images)
The federal government says Canadian officials continue to work with authorities in Nepal and China to support efforts to locate the missing Canadians and provide assistance to affected families.
“Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be provided, and we cannot comment on what is being discussed with families,” said the statement.
Global Affairs Canada would not specify how many of the missing Canadians are from B.C., but CBC News has spoken with the family of another missing couple from Port Moody — Dhaval and Megha Shah.
Despite no news on his cousin, Khosla says the family holds onto hope that they can be found.
“Everyone keeps praying every single day, hoping that maybe they are injured, maybe they are somewhere stuck and maybe we will get to hear something about them,” he said.
Khosla described the couple as “beautiful souls.” He said the couple took care of others and were part of a very happy family.
“It’s hard to believe that something like that happened to them,” he said. “I don’t know why they had to be there at that time.”