{"id":870533,"date":"2026-08-27T18:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/870533\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T18:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:32:15","slug":"lots-of-my-friends-are-missing-fears-and-prayers-as-australias-nepali-diaspora-desperately-seek-answers-after-flood-nepal-tibet-flood-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/870533\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lots of my friends are missing\u2019: fears and prayers as Australia\u2019s Nepali diaspora desperately seek answers after flood | Nepal-Tibet flood disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Suman Shrestha opened his phone at work and saw vision of a thick, muddy wall of flood water smashing into towns<\/a> in his country of birth, he almost did not believe what he was seeing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awful \u2013 I called my family to see if this was really happening and to see if the news reports were right,\u201d says Shrestha, who moved to Australia from Kathmandu in 2017.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long until the truth hit home. Like many of the 210,000 people who were born in Nepal<\/a> but now call Australia home, Shrestha has spent the last 24 hours scrambling to find out if his loved ones are safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see that lots of my friends are missing,\u201d says Shrestha, who now lives in Gosford. \u201cWe can\u2019t get in contact with them because the communications have been cut off in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly 1,300 people are missing<\/a> and at least 389 have been killed in Nepal and Tibet by the flood, which was caused by an avalanche of ice and rock on Wednesday. At least 35 Australians have been reported missing<\/a> in the area, including a child as young as 11.<\/p>\n

\"DeadlyDeadly flash flood shown sweeping through valley toward village in Nepal \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Shrestha fears two friends who he grew up with in Nepal may now be dead. They were working as tour guides and were leading a group of tourists on a trek in the area devastated by the flood water.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard,\u201d Shrestha says. \u201cOne of them is my close friend\u2019s brother. The other lived near my home in Nepal \u2026 I know them well.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir families know that they have been trekking in this area and now they cannot contact them,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were in contact until 9am on Wednesday, Nepal time, now they can\u2019t reach them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Shrestha says their families in Nepal are constantly trying to contact the government for help, but there is little they can do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for the government, as there is no proper way to reach them and no proper search can be done at the moment,\u201d Shrestha says.<\/p>\n

In Sydney, Sujan Tamang is growing increasingly worried about his uncle and aunt. He has not spoken to them since Wednesday. His sister, who works at a hydropower plant in Nepal, had to run from the flood water to safety. He says some of her colleagues are now dead.<\/p>\n

Suman Shrestha spent the last 24 hours scrambling to find out if his loved ones are safe. Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

When he first watched the footage from Nepal, Tamang could identify the buildings being swept away as if made of straw.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw that video, it was a very bad feeling,\u201d said Tamang. \u201cThat house, that place, I know every place and I know every person. I have entered their houses, we have eaten together, slept together, we were like family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vasan Srinivasan is also scrambling for answers.<\/p>\n

The chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation Australia is searching for 15 Australians who travelled to Nepal on a pilgrimage organised by the Himalayan Glacier tour group. All but one are Sydney-based members of his religious group, Australia Bharatha Brahmin Samaj.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been very busy using all my contacts, including Nepali community leaders here in Australia,\u201d says Srinivasan, who has also called on Australian ministers for help.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am concerned about their wellbeing \u2026 Hopefully, God can give me the privilege to get them back to Sydney.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chiran Tiwari, the president of the Nepalese Australian Welfare Society, says it has been a chaotic and stressful time for members.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are trying to call whoever is in the nearest area that they are able to contact,\u201d Tiwari says. \u201cIt is a very big disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Nepali community waits for the full scale of the disaster<\/a> to become clear, more than 100 people gathered for a special prayer service at a Buddhist temple in Melbourne\u2019s north-western suburbs.<\/p>\n

The service\u2019s host, the Australian Nepalese Multicultural Centre, said the community gathered \u201cin prayer for those who have lost their lives, those who remain missing, the injured and all families affected by this disaster\u201d.<\/p>\n

Others who feel helpless have turned their attention to fundraising, including for the Nepali government\u2019s disaster relief fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, we are in the initial phase of our community campaign here in Victoria, trying to raise awareness and mobilise support for those affected by the disaster in Nepal,\u201d said Prem Raj Upreti, the president of the Nepalese Association of Victoria.<\/p>\n

The Nepali T20 cricket team hold a minute of silence at the start of their game in Darwin. Photograph: Jack RiddifordThe Northern Territory government is providing support to Nepali players and team officials. Photograph: Jack Riddiford<\/p>\n

On Thursday afternoon, Nepal\u2019s T20 cricket team paused for a moment of silence before playing at Darwin\u2019s Gardens Oval.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Northern Territory\u2019s minister for multicultural affairs, Jinson Charls, said it was providing support to the players and team officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand shoulder to shoulder with our local Nepalese and Tibetan communities and will provide all support as necessary,\u201d Charls said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Suman Shrestha opened his phone at work and saw vision of a thick, muddy wall of flood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-870533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}