Washington: Families of Americans missing after devastating floods in Nepal have appealed to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for an expanded rescue operation, asking Washington to provide helicopters, drones, satellite imagery and search teams to help locate their relatives. Those listed include people from the United States, Australia, Canada, Britain, Singapore, France and South Africa. Many of the names in the list are of Indian origin.
The families said the US State Department had told them that 90 Americans remained unaccounted for and five had been rescued after flash floods swept through Nepal’s Rasuwa district on August 26.
Many of the missing were travelling to or from Mount Kailash, the sacred pilgrimage site in Tibet, along a route through Nepal that crosses the Chinese border at Gyirong.
“We are Americans, and we are asking our government to rescue our family members now,” the families said in an August 29 letter to Rubio.
The letter was signed by relatives and friends of 57 missing people — 31 Americans and 26 people of other nationalities.
The families said their relatives had been travelling with pilgrims, guides and workers from India and several other countries when floods struck the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli valleys.
The families thanked the US Embassy in Kathmandu and Nepali soldiers and pilots involved in rescue operations but said the scale of the American response was inadequate.
“We do not doubt the good faith of the people working on this,” they wrote.
“We are telling you that the urgency of the response has not matched what 90 missing Americans require.”
The families asked Washington to formally offer Nepal US military helicopters capable of operating at high altitude, together with crews, fuel and ground support.
They also sought drones equipped with thermal and infrared cameras, technology to detect people trapped beneath debris, equipment to locate mobile phones and temporary cellular coverage over the affected valley.
Another request calls for US satellite surveillance of the corridor from Rasuwagadhi to Trishuli Bazar and Devighat, including radar imagery capable of seeing through cloud cover.
The families asked the United States to move an urban search-and-rescue team to Kathmandu so it could be deployed immediately if Nepal accepted the assistance.
They also sought greater consular support, including a liaison for each affected family, US consular officers at hospitals receiving survivors and officers closer to the rescue operation in Rasuwa.
Some missing travellers were last known to be on the Gyirong side of the Nepal-China border, according to the letter.
The families therefore asked Washington to seek consular access and information from China and coordinate rescue efforts with other governments.
“Coordinate with Australia, the United Kingdom, India, and Singapore, whose people were in the same tour groups as our relatives,” the letter said.
The American citizens listed as missing include residents of Illinois, Virginia, Texas, New York, New Jersey, California, Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Massachusetts, Maryland, Tennessee and Ohio.
(IANS)
