Four Indian-origin Texans remain missing after the Nepal-Tibet floods

A Texas non-profit said on 2 September that four Indian-origin residents of the state have been missing since the flash floods that tore through the Nepal-Tibet border last week, and that it has put $100,000 into relief and a tracing desk.

Deepak Ahuja, 60, and Madhu Ahuja, 57, own businesses in north Texas. He is an architecture engineer. She is a longtime certified public accountant. They were returning from a Mount Kailash pilgrimage timed to his 60th birthday when contact stopped near Gyirong Port, the China-Nepal crossing that the flood cut off. Their daughter Ashna said the family started calling at once and got no answer. Sushil Ahuja, Deepak's brother, told CBS Texas the search has been "a whirlwind of emotion."

A second couple from Murphy, Texas, Archana Suresh and Raghu Rajan, is unaccounted for in the Rasuwagadhi-Timure sector on the Nepalese side of the same basin.

How large the foreign missing list is

US consular officials first estimated 85 to 90 American citizens in the affected basin. Nepal's tourism board told CBS that 65 US nationals were among more than 1,400 missing in Nepal and Tibet at an earlier count. A preliminary Nepal Police bulletin listed 65 Americans, 178 Indian nationals, 53 Ukrainians, 35 Australians and 33 British nationals. Consul General Dadhiram Bhandari said the consulate had forwarded more than 25 missing US names to Nepal's foreign ministry and that most appeared to be Indian Americans. A review of surnames on the US list found more than 60 of 65 were names commonly associated with India, consistent with Kailash pilgrimage traffic.

Sewa International USA, based in Texas, said it raised more than $55,000 in 24 hours for a Nepal Flash Flood Relief drive and opened a missing-persons portal at sewausa.org/NepalRescue. Several of its own US-based volunteers who were near the border are among the missing. Associate director Vinayak Astekar said the first job is families without homes, food or heat.

Why identification is slow

Nepal Police have put recovered bodies at 1,127. Only a small fraction have gone back to families. DNA samples are being stored because many remains cannot be named on sight. Communications around Gyirong and Rasuwagadhi were among the first systems to fail. That is why a couple can be missing for a week in a corridor that, on a normal day, is a busy pilgrimage road.

India has already flown multiple relief aircraft into Kathmandu. That work does not locate four people from Dallas and Murphy. Their families are calling every official number they have. The portal is the public version of the same list.