Physician Shreya Ahuja seeks help locating parents missing in Nepal floods

Shreya Ahuja, a 30-year-old physician who lives in North Carolina, had spoken to her parents just hours before floods struck Nepal. They had finished a pilgrimage trek to Mount Kailash and were heading toward the border. The next morning, Ahuja began seeing messages from relatives about flash flooding.

"I tried texting them. I tried calling them. And initially, I wasn't too concerned," Ahuja told Morning Edition. "I feel like everyone thinks, what are the chances that they were in that exact spot?"

As of Friday, police in Nepal said more than 500 people had been killed on the Nepal side of the border, while more than 1,500 people in total were still missing after nearly 30-foot-high waves raced down a river between Tibet and Nepal.

Ahuja's parents, Deepak and Madhu Ahuja, were born in India and came to the U.S. in the 1990s. They are U.S. citizens and small business owners in Dallas. They were making the pilgrimage for her father's 60th birthday. Ahuja said their last known location was the Gyirong border crossing between China and Nepal. She said CCTV footage shows the flooding destroying the building where their group was supposed to be.

Ahuja is now in Washington, D.C., with family, including her grandparents.

"It's essentially been one long day. Haven't really slept," she told NPR's Steve Inskeep. "We're just really hoping that we can get to them in time."

She called on people to contact their local legislators and asked for more collaboration among India, Nepal, China and the United States. She also called for Starlink to be authorized in Nepal, saying friends who work with SpaceX told her the company had tried to deploy dishes there but had not received approval.

"These are all tangible things that could really help us get into contact with people on the ground," Ahuja said.

Listen to the full interview by clicking the play button above.

The radio interview was produced and edited by Lilly Quiroz and Adam Bearne. The digital version was edited by Treye Green.