An Ottawa man is holding out hope his long-time friend and more than a dozen of their relatives will be found after catastrophic flash floods tore through Nepal, leaving hundreds dead and more than 1,400 people missing. “We couldn’t believe it at first we said ‘oh those could be some AI generated videos it was unbelievable,’” said Narayan Kshetri. Kshetri, who moved to Canada from Nepal 10 years ago, says his friend now lives in Australia and had been travelling through the region with relatives when the flooding hit. Just hours before the disaster, Kshetri says his friend posted a video documenting his travels in Timure. “He’s like my senior brother and it’s sad and we are hopeful we will find him and his family members,” he said. Flash floods tore through the border region between Nepal and Tibet Wednesday, a popular tourist area for trekers and a sacred destination for Hindu pilgrims. The disaster was triggered when a wall of ice, mud and rock collapsed into a mountain river in the Himalayas sending a surge of water downstream, killing at least 360 people. The Canadian Red Cross says search and rescue remains a priority, while damaged infrastructure is making access to remote areas challenging. “One of the priorities is search and rescue right now and then also getting access to remote communities,” said Carla Taylor, head of Asia Pacific International Operations with the Red Cross. “Roads and bridges are out and there’s a lot of the power has been cut so the access is challenging for sure.” Here in Ottawa, the Nepalese Heritage Culture Centre says the scale of the devastation has left many in the community shocked and feeling helpless. The centre is encouraging people who want to help to donate directly through Nepal’s Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund. “It’s really, really heartbreaking,” said Santosh Poudel, president of the Nepalese Heritage Culture Centre. “Among the Nepalese community, we are watching this devastation from thousands of kilometers away, but we feel like we are actually there.” The Red Cross is also collecting donations, which it say will be used to support immediate relief, recovery efforts, resilience and preparedness activities for future events in impacted and surrounding areas.
