Nepal: Families of missing seek updates on loved ones after ‘Himalayan Tsunami’

Aug 31, 2026

Kathmandu (Nepal), August 31 (ANI): In the corridors of Kathmandu’s Teaching Hospital, hope is now pinned to photographs. Laxmi BK, along with her mother and other relatives, has been putting up pictures of her father and uncle on the hospital walls, hoping that someone might recognise them and provide a clue about their last known whereabouts. Laxmi’s father, Purna, and uncle, Suklal, had travelled to Timure, near the Nepal-Tibet border, for work. But since Wednesday’s devastating floods, described by locals as a “Himalayan Tsunami”, the two have remained missing. For days, the family has searched hospitals, morgues and every possible location, while repeatedly approaching authorities for information. But there has been no word on the two men, who were the breadwinners of the family. Now, as the search and rescue operation enters its fifth day, hope is giving way to despair. The family has gone through all the photos hanging on the side of the morgue in Kathmandu, checked the list of the rescued, injured persons as well but not able to find name of their loved ones. For RiteshKarki, a tourism entrepreneur, it is a huge responsibility to find whereabouts of his more than 35 friends who had gone to the Tibetan border side for trek when the disaster struck. Hundreds of relatives and families of people missing in the Tibet-Nepal flood which wiped off the entire settlement along the rivers after sudden burst of the glacial lake is being characterized as Himalayan Tsunami have been visiting the morgue and hospital on daily basis. The family members and relatives go through the list of the admitted ones as well as register the name of missing ones as death toll has continued to rise.