FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 As search crews continue looking for thousands of missing people after a deadly avalanche and flash flood in Nepal, members of the Central Valley\u2019s Nepali community gathered at Fresno State to mourn the victims and show support for those affected.<\/p>\n
A vigil was held from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, at the Peace Garden next to the Fresno State Library. <\/p>\n
The event was open to the public and honored the 1,243 lives reportedly lost, while the search continued for 4,875 people reportedly still missing.<\/p>\n
The free event was organized by the Central Valley Nepali community, including Fresno State faculty members Dr. Mohan B. Dangi, Dr. Shailesh Rana and Dr. Anil Shrestha. <\/p>\n
Fresno State President Sa\u00fal Jim\u00e9nez-Sandoval and professor emeritus Dr. Sudarshan Kapoor spoke at the event. <\/p>\n
Larry Salinas, from Congressman Jim Costa\u2019s office, also attended.<\/p>\n
The gathering included a moment of silence, prayers and a show of solidarity for the citizens, families and children of Nepal and other affected areas.<\/p>\n
Attendees were invited to bring a flower to place for the victims.<\/p>\n
Donations supporting relief efforts can be made to the Government of Nepal Prime Minister\u2019s Disaster Relief Fund.<\/p>\n
The disaster began Aug. 26, when a slope failure caused a glacier collapse near Langtang National Park and the borders of Nepal and China, creating the equivalent of a magnitude 5.2 earthquake in the nearby Himalayas. <\/p>\n
An avalanche of water and rapidly melting ice overloaded streams and rivers with mud, rock, debris and other materials.<\/p>\n
Fresno State held a similar vigil for victims and families after a major earthquake in Nepal in April 2015 that killed about 9,000 people. <\/p>\n
After Fresno State helped raise money for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF\u2019s humanitarian efforts in Nepal, Dangi traveled with a team of 10 from Nepal and the U.S. to the Langtang National Park area in June 2015 to help local citizens rebuild a school. <\/p>\n
The Bokejhunda Rastriya Primary School is located in Bokejhunda in the Rasuwa District near where a flash flood occurred.<\/p>\n
Rana visits Nepal frequently for volunteer work aimed at strengthening education and economic development in the country. <\/p>\n
Shrestha also frequently travels to Nepal to work with government organizations, researchers, students and growers to share his weed science research and information about ecology and pesticide use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 As search crews continue looking for thousands of missing people after a deadly avalanche…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-453053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}