'Our parents were crossing the border an hour before the flood hit' - BBC News
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'Our parents were crossing the border an hour before the flood hit'
"We just want them home": Daughters of couple missing after Tibet pilgrimage
By Nardine Saad and Rebecka Pieder
Published 26 August 2026 Updated 5 hours ago
Hundreds of foreign nationals are desperately waiting to hear from loved ones thought to be caught in the deadly flash flood and mudslide along the Nepal-Tibet border.
Sisters Shreya and Ashna Ahuja are among those anxiously waiting for some news of their parents, Deepak and Madhu Ahuja, who had travelled from Texas to Mount Kailash on a group pilgrimage.
"It's only been one day, but it has felt like much longer," the sisters tell the BBC. "We just love them a lot and want them to come home." One of the siblings spoke to their parents just before the floods struck.
More than 1,300 people are missing, including tourists from the US, Australia, Canada, India, and the UK. Nepali authorities say more than 380 people have died.
Follow live updates: Fears of second flood as search for survivors continues
About 90 US citizens may have been impacted by the floods, the State Department said on Thursday, confirming that three Americans had been rescued.
The Ahuja sisters have contacted the State Department and US embassies in Delhi, Nepal and China, but they say they have no concrete information on the whereabouts of their parents.
The region is a pilgrimage site for Hindus and Buddhists, and visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims each year.
Radhika Sharma's parents, Ramesh Sharma, 65, and Neelam Sharma, 64, two US citizens who live in New York City, were also travelling to Mount Kailash in the Kathmandu region when the disaster struck.
"The last we know is they were at the border at 8am, so about an hour before the floods," she said. "And we are hoping that they made it to the Tibet side."
Sharma has been in contact with the US embassies in Beijing and Kathmandu, but says: "No one has any answers."
She has also connected with other Americans who are in a similar situation, to support one another and consolidate information.
At least 77 people caught in the disaster are part of a pilgrimage organised by the Isha Foundation, a non-profit group headquartered in India that also has a base in McMinnville, Tennessee.
Leslie Crespi, a community liaison for the Foundation, told the BBC that the group had been working on immigration paperwork in what was meant to be an earthquake-resistant building near the border when the water came through.
"They were like family," she said, her voice breaking.