The final messages from a New York mother and her teenage daughter have surfaced as relatives brace for devastating news from Nepal’s catastrophic flood zone.
Rekha Shashidharan, 54, and her daughter Rashi, 14, have not been heard from since August 26, when glacial collapse in the Himalayas triggered flash floods that have killed more than 1,000 people and left thousands missing. The pair, both from New York, had traveled to Nepal for a Hindu pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet.
Rashi’s uncle, Shekhar Agrawal, told The U.S. Sun that his sister joined her daughter on the spiritual journey after Rashi had initially planned to travel alone. The mother and daughter spent time in Kathmandu acclimating to the altitude before heading north toward the Chinese border, he explained.
“She messaged her father, and my sister also spoke to him on Wednesday morning,” Agrawal said. “They were planning to have breakfast and then they had an appointment at the embassy at 12pm. That was the last time we heard from them.”
The timeline suggests the Shashidharans were still in their hotel when disaster struck. Nepal’s disaster management authority has said more than 800 people remain missing in the area, including an estimated 500 foreign tourists believed to include 85 Americans.
Agrawal described the agonizing wait for information in the disaster’s chaotic aftermath. “First days were chaotic in terms of getting information but now we are being updated,” he said.
He continued: “We are hoping for a favorable outcome but at the moment we have nothing. It is upsetting because they are still missing. My phone is constantly ringing but no updates.”
The uncle emphasized the pair had not yet crossed into China when communications went silent. “My sister and niece were in Nepal, they hadn’t crossed over into China, they were still on the Nepal side,” he said.
Agrawal has studied footage of the flooding that severed contact with his relatives. “I have seen footage of the floods, the waves were going at over 100mph, and 150ft tall,” he shared. “It was such a powerful force. If I get good news, I will be the first person shouting it out.”
The Shashidharans are not the only New York family torn apart by the disaster. Rahhika Sharma is also awaiting word on her parents, Ramesh, 65, and Neelam, 64, who were on the same Mount Kailash pilgrimage route. Sharma said that her parents crossed the Nepal-China border approximately 40 minutes before the floods and landslide hit, and she has received no communication from them since.
The August 26 catastrophe began when a massive glacial collapse high in the Himalayas generated a magnitude 5.2 seismic event, unleashing floodwaters that authorities now fear could trigger a second tsunami. The official death toll across the region has surpassed 1,000, with an additional 4,400 people still missing. Recovery efforts are estimated to cost around $5 billion, with international assistance beginning to arrive.
Nepali rescue teams have been working desperately to recover bodies and locate survivors swept away in the deluge, as the grim task of manually identifying remains for return to families continues across the devastated region.