Family Searches for Missing American in Nepal Flood After Realizing His Location

<p>A family is seeking information after an American traveling on a spiritual pilgrimage went missing during a significant flood in the Himalayan region, which has resulted in hundreds of fatalities and thousands of individuals unaccounted for.</p><p>Sunny Patel was viewing viral footage of the flooding at the border between Nepal and China's Tibet Autonomous Region when he recognized that his father, Jitendra Patel, might have been affected by the disaster.</p><p>"I watched the video and I just thought of how horrific it was. And then... probably 30 seconds later, it registered," he recalled.</p><p>Sunny texted his mother, who expressed concern that they had seen the video. She later confirmed, "That's exactly where he was," referring to the location of the flooding.</p><p>Sunny last communicated with his father on Wednesday morning, local time, when he believed his father had crossed from Nepal into China, but he has not been able to verify this information.</p><p>He expressed frustration over the limited information available from China. The family has contacted embassies in Kathmandu and Beijing, as well as the U.S. State Department.</p><p>They have submitted missing person reports to various agencies, with some providing responses.</p><p>"We're trying to go on these media segments and get the awareness out there that there are people on the Chinese side that we aren't getting a ton of information about," he stated.</p><p>Experts suggest that the mudslides and flooding on Wednesday were triggered by a large piece of ice breaking off a glacier and falling into the Lhende Khola River, creating massive waves of rock, ice, and debris.</p><p>Recent reports indicate that over 600 individuals have died, more than 3,000 are still missing, and over 4,000 have been rescued.</p><p>On the day of the disaster, Jitendra was part of a group traveling to Mount Kailash, a popular site for spiritual pilgrimages, according to Sunny.</p><p>"They were actually supposed to be there the day prior and unfortunately had some car troubles from what we can make out... which, you know, of course, could be all the difference," he noted.</p><p>Sunny described his father as someone who "believed in the goodness of everybody, probably to a fault," and who "lived with kindness in his heart."</p><p>"He always, always, always said, 'God is good...' If you called him and said, 'How you doing?' He would say, 'I'm the best, God is great.' And he was just the most upbeat, positive person I've ever met," he added.</p><p>Search and rescue operations were temporarily halted on Saturday due to rain and heavy fog. Authorities are also monitoring two lakes upstream formed by the disaster, one of which has been overflowing at times.</p>