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Days after a massive wall of water tore through the Timure region of Nepal, families of two missing Metro Vancouver couples are desperately searching for information about their loved ones.
Port Moody couple Dhaval and Megha Shah and Coquitlam couple Sumit and Shubakshi Rawla are among thousands of people who are missing after the Aug. 26 flash flood struck, killing at least 676 people.
Vikram Khosla said his cousin Shubakshi was in the area for a trek to Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus, Buddhists and others, as a 50th birthday gift to herself.
He said the couple had been almost ready to depart for their journey when they spoke with a family member about an hour before the flood struck on Wednesday morning.
No one has heard from anyone in the group since then, he said.
“We are very hopeful that they went up and they are stuck somewhere,” he said.
The couple, Singaporean citizens who moved to Canada about four years ago, have two daughters, he said.
Speaking from Mumbai, India, Dhaval’s brother Kheval Shah told CBC his brother and sister-in-law were staying at Hotel Kailash, near the border, on Wednesday.
The family last heard from the two that morning as they were having breakfast, about 15 minutes before the flood struck.
“That hotel is completely submerged, there is no hotel anymore,” he said.
“We just want to find out where they were when the water hit…. Ultimately I feel that closure is very important.”
The couple have a 24-year-old daughter, he added.
Canada has said it will send $5 million in urgent humanitarian aid to support Nepal, with the money earmarked for organizations like the Red Cross to deliver assistance to people on the ground.
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But Shah said he wants the Canadian government to push Nepal for more information about the search for the missing.
Khosla, too, shared frustration with the lack of updates.
He said Shubakshi’s brother and sister have flown to Kathmandu and are trying to get to the affected area to search for answers.
He wants to see a centralized source of information for the families of missing people to get real time updates.
As of Saturday, about 3,000 people remained missing in the disaster.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Saturday that one of 32 Canadians unaccounted for in the country had been located safely. The person has not been identified.
