Baltimore-based tour company’s group among missing in Nepal-China floods

A group of 40 people was about to take its first steps on a three-day trek in Tibet on Wednesday before catastrophic flash floods swept away the Nepalese town where it was staying.

Now the group, along with seven guides who worked with a Baltimore-based tour company, is among thousands of people who went missing along the Nepal-China border following the disaster. The Himalayan Glacier Adventure and Travel Co.’s Baltimore office lost contact with the group Wednesday around 8:30 a.m. Nepal time.

Sanket Pandey, managing director, said company representatives are in touch with Nepalese authorities, who were still pulling survivors from the mud Friday. Nearly 600 people have been found dead, and almost 2,500 others are missing.

“I am still hopeful,” he told The Banner. “Miracles can happen, but the state of devastation … truly makes the situation grimmer.”

Pandey said he spoke with State Department officials Friday to coordinate efforts to find the nine Americans who were part of the group. About 90 Americans are among those unaccounted for in Nepal, according to the department.

They include the family of Mukti Patel, who has been waiting for information about her father, sister and two other relatives from their Richmond, Virginia, home.

She knows the hotel where they were staying was swept away. But, as she shared memories of them on Friday, she caught herself.

“I shouldn’t talk in past tense yet,” she said. “We don’t know anything.”

Patel, 27, said her dad, Umesh Kumar, 56, had wanted to make the trip for many years and traveled through India to Nepal, where he was joined by her sister, Akanksha, 32, and her sister’s husband, Ishan, 32.

Ishan’s mom, Shilpa, 59, was also on the trek. Ishan and Shilpa Patel have dual Canadian and U.S. citizenship, while Umesh Kumar and Akanksha Patel are Canadian citizens, according to Mukti Patel.

Akanksha Patel is a psychiatrist who wants to break stigma around mental health problems, her sister said.

“Everything I’ve done in life has been off the blueprint of my sister,” a tearful Mukti Patel told The Associated Press. “There’s no ounce of meanness in her.”

Her father is a joyous person who helped victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, and her brother-in-law, an orthopedic surgeon, has brought great happiness to her sister’s life, she said.

Ishan Patel turned 32 on Wednesday, and the family called to wish him a happy birthday. That was their last contact.

Mukti Patel said she would like more countries to help the rescue and recovery efforts.

“I want my family to come home,” she said.