THE frantically worried son of a man missing in Nepal has revealed the heartbreaking last communication with him.

Jitendra Patel, 63, a Long Island resident traveling on a Hindu pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, is among roughly 90 Americans still unaccounted for after flash floods swept through the Nepal-China border region Wednesday, killing hundreds of people.

The son of missing Jitendra Patel told The U.S Sun he is still waiting to hear from his dad

Experts fear the nightmare unfolding in Nepal could get worse with hundreds missing

The US State Department said Thursday it was not aware of any American deaths in the disaster and confirmed that three citizens had been rescued.

Officials said about 90 Americans remained missing, while a spiritual organization separately reported that 22 Americans connected to its group were also unaccounted for.

Many of the missing Americans were traveling through Nepal on religious pilgrimages to Mount Kailash, a sacred destination for Hindus, Buddhists and followers of other faiths.

Patel was traveling with a seven-member tour group organized by Nepal Trekking Planner when the disaster struck.

His son, Sunny Patel, said his father last contacted the family Wednesday morning through WhatsApp and told them he had crossed the border into Tibet.

“During that call, he told us that he had already cleared Chinese immigration and was in Tibet,” Sunny wrote in a public Facebook post. “We have been unable to contact him since that call.”

His father’s phone has not reconnected to WhatsApp, and messages sent since the flooding have remained undelivered.

“Unfortunately there are no updates,” he told The U.S. Sun on Friday. “There is still no contact with anyone who was with him.”

Jitendra and fellow travelers Amita Amin, 67, of Roslyn Heights, and Tejal Vyomesh Patel, 64, of New Jersey, were among those traveling with the group.

Aditi Patel, Tejal Patel’s daughter and Amin’s daughter-in-law, said the three had flown from John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens to Kathmandu on Aug. 22.

The group had planned to travel into Tibet to visit Mount Kailash but was reportedly delayed by landslides and problems with its tour vehicle.

Aditi believes the travelers eventually reached an immigration building near the Nepal-China border.

Her mother’s location through Find My Friends has remained at the immigration facility since Wednesday, when the floods hit.

“That’s where the story ends, and that’s where the story gets dicey, because we don’t know what happened after they left that building,” Aditi told Newsday.

A drone view of a broken bridge and damaged houses after the flash floods and mudslide, at Devighat, Nuwakot district, Nepal

Aerial view shows debris and mud covering settlements following devastating flash floods

“Did they actually leave? Did they leave and didn’t get too far, and the flood hit?”

Aditi said she has contacted U.S. embassies in Nepal, China and India, as well as the U.S. consulate and several politicians, in an effort to locate her relatives and determine what happened to the group.

Sunny described his father as the “life of the party.” Jitendra is retired, enjoys playing golf and socializing, and even drives for Uber because he likes meeting and talking with people.

The Patel family is sadly not alone in searching for answers.

New York City doctor Radhika Sharma said her parents, Ramesh Sharma, 65, and Neelam Sharma, 64, are also missing after traveling through the Himalayan corridor with the same Nepal Trekking Planner group.

Radhika said she last spoke with her parents about 40 minutes before the floodwaters struck.

“It’s probably been the worst 24 hours of my life, [and] my brother’s life,” she told NBC. “We’re just waiting to hear from them, and just any information, honestly.”

Another missing American, Venus Rajnikant Patel, 45, recently moved from St. Louis to Cincinnati to help his family.

His brother, Dennis, said Venus spoke with him and their parents just hours before the flooding.

From his hotel room on the Nepalese side of the border, Venus showed his family where he was staying and spoke excitedly about finally crossing into Tibet.

He had reportedly spent two years planning the pilgrimage.

Venus’ friend Jolene Gosha said she and others became concerned after learning that his hotel was near the area devastated by the floods.

“We’re just hoping, hoping that by some chance he was able to climb his way out of it,” Gosha said.

Gosha described Venus as an enthusiastic traveler who loved dancing and frequently organized surprise flash-mob performances at friends’ weddings and birthday celebrations.

“He’s always smiling from ear to ear,” she said. “He’d dance so goofily and didn’t care who was watching.”

The disaster has also affected a much larger group of American pilgrims connected to the Isha Foundation, a spiritual organization headquartered in India.

Spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev, widely known as Sadhguru, said on X that 77 people returning from Mount Kailash with groups organized by the foundation were at an immigration center in Gyirong, Tibet, when the floods struck.

Leslie Crespi, a community liaison for the foundation’s U.S. campus, said 22 of those people were Americans affiliated with the organization. Three additional volunteers assisting the trekkers were also at the immigration center.

According to Crespi, the group’s coordinator contacted the foundation at about 9.05am local time to confirm that the travelers had reached the immigration center.

About nine minutes later, the flash flood struck.

Crespi said the trekkers were “like family” and that for many of them, traveling to Nepal and visiting the Himalayan region had been a lifelong dream.

At a candlelight vigil in New York City Thursday, Tak Ruwali, a Long Island resident originally from one of the Nepalese districts affected by the flooding, said he had been communicating with people in Nepal and that many local tourist guides remained out of contact.

“It means they are probably gone,” Ruwali said.

The flooding sent a massive surge of water and mud through the mountainous region, sweeping away vehicles, buildings and roads. Local officials described the event as a “tsunami from the sky.”

More than 390 people had been reported killed and more than 1,400 remained missing as of Thursday.

President Donald Trump has told Nepalese leaders they have his full support.

“We’ve offered them anything they want,” Trump said in the Oval Office, while noting that officials had not yet completed a full accounting of Americans in the affected region.

Despite the lack of communication, Aditi said she continues to hope that her loved ones and the other missing travelers will be found.

“I am feeling hopeful that we can still hear good news about every single person who’s missing — not just ours,” she said.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/16914238/nepal-flooding-americans-missing/