For Seema Rawla the last few days have been filled with questions and pain. Her brother Sumit Rawla and her sister-in-law Shubhakshi Rawla were in the epicentre of the flash flooding along the Himalayan border on Wednesday preparing to take part in a mountain hike.
“He called us up at 7 a.m., he actually facetimed us,” she tells CityNews. “He was walking around, he was sitting at some small tea stall with his wife. He said that the weather was really nice here, he was so excited, he showed us the river which was so calm and he said he was just loving it here.”
That changed just after 8 a.m. local time when officials say a massive ice chunk broke free in the Himalayas leading to the flash flooding. Rawla’s brother and sister-in-law are now amongst the missing. The pair, from Vancouver, are permanent Canadian residents with Singaporean passports who travelled with a group of others from Canada.
“As of today we are aware of 32 Canadians, some of which are permanent resident, whose whereabouts have not yet been confirmed,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, who added that Global Affairs is aware of 866 Canadians who are in Nepal. “We have 24 hour emergency watch response centre based in Ottawa that is responding to calls.”
No Canadians were reportedly among the 121 foreign nationals who had been rescued on Friday, according to the Nepal Tourism Board.
Nepal’s disaster management authority said 1,924 people are listed as missing.
Anand also announced the federal government would contribute $5 million in urgent humanitarian aid toward organizations such as the Red Cross to deliver life-saving assistance to people on the ground.
Global Affairs Canada has deployed five consular officials to Kathmandu to support Canadians and work with local officials, and Anand said more can be sent if needed.
Rawla and Somali Raturi of Toronto, whose two friends Poonam Dilip-Kumar Thakkar and Himanshu Agar-Wal are also reported missing, say they welcome the relief funds but hope search efforts increase.
“All the Canadian families who were impacted, do not lose hope. Let’s raise our voice, let’s bring ourselves together to bring our families back,” said Raturi.
Families are being told to contact Global Affairs Canada but at this time its unknown yet if the team is on the ground and when these families will start to get answers.
Files from The Canadian Press and Associated Press were used in this report