Family in Nepal searching for missing B.C. couple as catastrophic floods kill 579

The siblings of Shubhakshi Rawla, 49, arrived in Nepal's capital Friday to search for her and her husband, Sumit, 50, after the couple disappeared during a spiritual pilgrimage toward Mount Kailash. The Coquitlam residents are among 32 Canadians and permanent residents missing after catastrophic floods and landslides tore through Nepal, killing at least 579 people and leaving more than 2,000 others unaccounted for, including hundreds of foreign tourists.

Dipti Bhatnagar and her brother, Khushal, traveled from India to Kathmandu after losing contact with the couple Wednesday morning. Rawla was speaking to her sister by video call when Rawla turned the camera toward a tea stall outside Hotel Kailash in Timure, near the Nepal-China border, and said they were going to stop for tea. Rawla later sent a photograph of the couple having tea. It was the last contact Bhatnagar had with her sister.

The couple were traveling with 47 people, including 10 Canadians and two other B.C. residents, Megha Shah, 50, and her husband, Dhaval Shah, 52. The group was organized by Himalayan Glacier Adventures and had spent recent days visiting temples and taking part in prayers. They were scheduled to head to the border later Wednesday morning, but the flooding hit that day.

Now Bhatnagar and Khushal are headed into the remote mountain region where floods have destroyed roads and bridges, cutting communities off from cell service. As of Thursday, 858 Canadians were registered as being in Nepal, and another 18 were registered in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, according to Global Affairs Canada.

Emergency response teams have managed to pull more than 100 international travellers to safety, though none are reported to be Canadian. The federal government committed $5 million in aid Friday to help with emergency relief — including food, shelter, water, sanitation and health services — to be delivered through the UN, the Red Cross and Canadian aid groups. Five additional Canadian consular officials are now in Kathmandu, working to assist local authorities in locating Canadians.

From the Okanagan to Metro Vancouver, community groups are collecting donations. Gyan Kumar Shrestha, vice-president of the Nepalese Society of the Okanagan, said the devastation is personal. The 45-year-old Kelowna resident grew up in Kathmandu and spent years visiting the affected villages as a university professor specializing in environmental science and engineering. Several of his former students worked at hydropower projects in the affected region, some of which have been damaged. Two of his former students are among those still unaccounted for. The Okanagan non-profit started a GoFundMe campaign Friday morning, raising $900 by afternoon, with proceeds directed to Nepal's prime minister's disaster relief fund.