Mita and Hemant Parikh have spoken out about surviving the Nepal floods that killed more than 1,000 people.
The Suwanee, Georgia, couple, who had spent 15 years planning a spiritual pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, were part of a 47-person group that included families from the US and Australia when disaster struck on August 26. Flash floods tore through the Himalayan river valley near Nepal’s border with China’s Tibet region, leaving approximately 4,250 tourists unaccounted for and triggering massive search and rescue operations by the Nepali army, local teams, and international aid.
The Parikhs revealed Atlanta that they survived only because of a last-minute decision to detour. “Usually we argue, or tickets are expensive — no, let’s not go,” Mita said. “But I don’t know why we both agreed.”
That spontaneous choice took them to Lhasa and Everest Base Camp instead of rejoining their group in Saga. While they were away, the flood obliterated the area where their fellow travelers were staying. “The hotel is not there anymore,” Hemant said. “Not a single piece of concrete or pillar or anything. Nothing is there.”
The couple had initially dismissed warnings from their guide. “Our guide said that, you know, there was a flood,” Hemant recounted. “And so I thought … it’s not a big deal. There’s always floods.”
The reality became clear only after they left Everest and found their phones flooded with missed calls and frantic texts from family members checking if they were safe. None of the missing families, nor the seven guides from their group, have been found dead or alive since the glacier collapsed near the Tibet border.
Back home in Georgia, the Parikhs remain haunted by those they traveled with. “As soon as I close my eyes, I see Kailash, and I see the people,” Mita said. “I don’t know what happened.”
The psychological weight of survival has settled heavily on both of them. “I ask myself why?” Hemant said. “And I don’t have an answer.”
Mita has found herself unable to escape the central question of their survival. “That’s what we talk to each other every single day,” she said. “Why did we decide this way?” She continued: “That’s what keeps me awake. Why? Why God chose us to live. So there has to be some purpose, right?”
The pilgrimage had held deep spiritual significance for the couple. “Everybody has a bucket list, but this bucket list, you don’t choose it,” Mita explained. “God chooses for you.”
The Parikhs had made plans to continue traveling with some group members after the pilgrimage ended, bonds forged during the sacred journey that now mark the enormity of their loss. The Nepali army and rescue teams from surrounding countries continue retrieval efforts for those swept away in the disaster.
The floods, believed caused by a glacier collapse, represent one of the deadliest Himalayan disasters in recent years, with the scale of unaccounted tourists underscoring the region’s vulnerability to climate-driven catastrophes.