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UCF scholars from Nepal are leveraging their firsthand experiences with natural disasters to inform their research and help educate students in Orlando.\u00a0This package aired in the Sept. 25 newscast. Anchored by Sabrina Hansen.<\/p>\n
Claire Macchiarola
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Dr. Suman Acharya was driving to campus and listening to the news when he learned that deadly flash floods had hit his home country, Nepal.<\/p>\n
Because of the disaster in August 2026, he said friends working in an impacted national park are missing.<\/p>\n
These floods weren\u2019t the first environmental catastrophe in Nepal to hit close to home for Acharya. In 2015, a major earthquake<\/a> hit Nepal while he was on the third floor of his house near the country\u2019s capital city, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the craziest experience I ever had in my life,\u201d Acharya said. \u201cI was feeling like dancing for a couple of minutes or so, and then I rushed down.\u201d<\/p>\n He said his family survived the disaster, but watching disasters unfold in his country pushed him to pursue an education studying environmental policy. He is now an assistant professor at UCF in the School of Politics, Security and International Affairs.<\/p>\n Bikash Adhikari, a fifth-year doctoral student in UCF\u2019s public affairs program, was an engineering student in western Nepal when the 2015 earthquake ravaged the country. He said his family members lost their homes and friends went missing. He decided to involve himself in the chaotic recovery efforts.<\/p>\n Adhikari said witnessing his community band together gave him hope, but it made him perceive existing gaps in housing infrastructure and emergency systems.<\/p>\n “People living there can’t just rebuild,” Adhikari said. “They have to resettle somewhere else and completely leave their hometowns.”<\/p>\n Now researching emergency management and organizational behavior, Adhikari looks at the current floods through an analytical yet painful lens. A night owl, he discovered the flood news late at night on his phone, only to realize that three of his former engineering classmates deployed to a regional hydropower project were among the missing.<\/p>\n “I was in contact with them like three months before,” Adhikari said. “Still now we don’t know about their situation, and I think families are now losing hope that they will be returning safe and sound.”<\/p>\n While Adhikari works to finish his doctorate and bring his emergency management skills back to Nepal after graduation, being away from home remains difficult for the time being.<\/p>\n “During recent disaster events, I am missing Nepal more than ever. I miss Nepal every day, on every occasion,” Adhikari said.<\/p>\n Dr. Sanam Aksha, an assistant professor in the School of Public Administration, is also from Nepal. Last month\u2019s flood hit his home village Tupche, with friends missing too.<\/p>\n