'It's essentially been one long day': A daughter details search for parents in Nepal
A U.S. physician is searching for her parents who went missing during catastrophic flash flooding in Nepal. The floods, exacerbated by a melting glacier, have left hundreds dead and thousands missing, prompting calls for international cooperation and better communication infrastructure.
Why it matters
The incident underscores the growing threat of climate-induced natural disasters and the challenges of emergency response in remote, cross-border regions.
Climate A melting glacier contributed to the deadly Nepal floods. We can expect more like this Shreya Ahuja, a 30-year-old physician who lives in North Carolina, had spoken to her parents just hours before floods struck Nepal. They had finished a pilgrimage trek to Mount Kailash and were heading toward the border. The next morning, Ahuja began seeing messages from relatives about flash flooding.
"I tried texting them. I tried calling them. And initially, I wasn't too concerned," Ahuja told Morning Edition. "I feel like everyone thinks, what are the chances that they were in that exact spot?"
As of Friday, police in Nepal said more than 500 people had been killed on the Nepal side of the border, while more than 1,500 people in total were still missing after nearly 30-foot-high waves raced down a river between Tibet and Nepal.
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