(CNN) — Sitting at home, Shekhar Agrawal dials number after number, hoping one of them might offer clues to the whereabouts of his sister and teenage niece – American tourists who have been missing since catastrophic flash flooding devastated Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday.
“This is the crucial golden hour,” he told CNN on Thursday from the Indian financial hub of Mumbai. He flipped through several photos of his sister, 54-year-old Rekha Shashidharan, and her daughter, 14-year-old Rashi Shashidharan, both from New York.
The next two to three days will be critical for “quick action” to find those injured or missing, he said, urging authorities to share information promptly with families.
The mother and daughter are among 90 Americans missing after the devastating landslide and flood, which tore through steep mountain gorges near the Nepal-China border and surged downstream along a river, wiping out entire villages.
President Donald Trump said the US is willing to send “any help” to Nepal, calling it a “terrible” disaster, as countries around the world send aid, relief supplies and assistance.
So far, hundreds have died and more than 1,300 are missing – including more than 700 foreign nationals who are unaccounted for in both Nepal and China. The missing foreign nationals hail from 31 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and more – leaving countless people like Agrawal around the world desperately searching for their loved ones.
Many of these foreign tourists were religious pilgrims, especially among the South Asian diaspora scattered around the world. Some had saved for months or years to make the trip to Nepal, hoping to follow a route through the border into China, and ultimately to Mount Kailash in Tibet, which is sacred in multiple religions.
In the past two days, many stories have emerged from frantic family members. One missing American couple is a pair of retirees who had made the pilgrimage after their children encouraged them to travel and “go live life” after working hard for decades. Another couple from Texas made the pilgrimage to celebrate the husband’s 60th birthday – which his children described as a “bucket list dream.”
That was the case for the Shashidharans, too. Rashi, an eighth grader, had originally planned to do the Hindu pilgrimage solo, and had been “very excited,” said Agrawal. Her mother eventually decided to accompany her so that she wouldn’t be traveling alone.
“This is Rashi enjoying her temple visit,” her uncle said, holding up one picture of the mother and daughter. They can be seen sitting cross legged on the floor, Rashi in a forest green shirt and jeans, and her mother in a pink head covering.
The two had spent a few days in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu to acclimate to the higher altitude of the Himalayas, before continuing north toward the Chinese border with a tour group. Agrawal last spoke to the pair around 7:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday; they planned to go to the immigration checkpoint around noon that day, and cross into Tibet.
But just over an hour after their conversation, at 8:37 a.m., a vast chunk of glacier sheared off the mountainside and plunged into the valley below, according to international scientists. The ensuing torrent of ice and rock created a wall of water that slammed into towns and villages that sat on the riverbank, decimating infrastructure and housing.
“After that, there was radio silence, nothing, no contact whatsoever,” Agrawal said. He thinks the mother and daughter may have still been in their hotel at the time.
The rest of the family is now scrambling to find information from various sources. The region affected has lost power and connectivity, and rescuers have been hampered by rain, mud and wreckage – meaning it’s not clear how many of the missing people survived and may simply have no way to contact the outside world.
Dozens of missing foreign nationals were rescued on Thursday, and rescue crews are still feverishly searching for survivors.
In a statement Thursday, the State Department said 90 Americans remained unaccounted for, a day after the deadly floods. Trump said he was aware dozens were missing, but had not received the full list yet. At least three Americans had been safely rescued, State Department officials said.
“Whatever (phone) numbers the internet or television or friends are giving us, we are trying to contact them,” Agrawal said. Many numbers provided for those seeking information about loved ones didn’t even work; and the ones that did work had no information to offer.
The whole experience has left him feeling “helpless,” like he “can’t do much,” he said. But he’s also holding tight to the possibility that his sister and niece may be safe somewhere and eventually reunited with the family.
“We are hoping for the best because these kinds of things have happened earlier also, and we have seen cases where people have walked after three days, four days, five days,” he said. “Right now, the only thing that you can do is be hopeful.”
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