Mud, Flood Water, and Missing in Nepal: Are Hoosiers Among the Americans Still Unaccounted For?

A tsunami of flash flood waters 1300 missing.

Half a world away from Indiana, an international disaster is unfolding in the Himalayas, where entire communities have disappeared beneath a violent mixture of water, rock and mud. For American families, the most troubling number may be 65 or more. That’s the number of U.S. citizens Nepal’s tourism authorities say remain missing.

For Hoosiers, there is another question that authorities cannot yet answer: Are any of them from Indiana, or do any have Indiana connections?

As of Thursday, the Hoosier Enquirer has found no publicly confirmed identification of an Indiana resident among the missing or dead. But that should not be confused with confirmation that no Hoosiers are involved.

Authorities have yet to publicly identify many of the missing Americans, leaving hometowns, family connections, universities and employers unknown.

A wall of water, rock and mud

The catastrophe struck Wednesday along the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border. What initially produced reports of an earthquake has since been identified by the U.S. Geological Survey as something different and extraordinary: a massive glacial collapse and debris flow.

The result was devastating.

Nepal Police reported Thursday that at least 270 people had died, while hundreds remained missing. Nepal’s Tourism Board has been attempting to account for hundreds of foreign visitors who were trekking, touring or making religious pilgrimages through the region. (CBS News⁠)

The disaster did not stop at Nepal’s border. Chinese state media reported 558 people missing in Tibet, including 260 foreign nationals, after a mudslide devastated the area around Gyirong Port, a major crossing between Tibet and Nepal. The nationalities of those 260 foreigners have not been fully disclosed. (CBS News⁠)

That makes the true international scope of the catastrophe — including the ultimate number of Americans affected — difficult to establish.

65 Americans on the missing list

The number of missing Americans has changed rapidly as rescuers locate survivors and tourism officials reconcile incomplete travel records. Early reports put the number at 33, then 47. By Thursday, Nepal tourism officials were reporting 65 Americans among the missing, although two Americans have reportedly been rescued. (CBS News⁠)

Reuters reported that 667 tourists, including 540 foreigners from 31 countries, were listed as missing in Nepal as officials continued trying to determine where tour groups and individual travelers were when the disaster struck.

Americans were among numerous nationalities caught in the catastrophe, along with travelers from India, Britain, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Ukraine and other nations. (Reuters⁠)

One tour company alone, Himalayan Glacier, reported 47 people missing from one of its groups, including eight Americans and a Russian-American dual citizen. (The Guardian⁠)

For now, however, there is no comprehensive publicly available list identifying the 65 Americans by hometown.

That is why the Indiana question remains unanswered.

An American reported missing could live in another state but have been raised in Indiana, attended Purdue, Indiana University, Notre Dame or another Hoosier college, have parents or children here, or work for an Indiana company. Until identities are released, those connections cannot responsibly be ruled in — or ruled out.

Entire communities swallowed

The images emerging from Nepal explain why identifying the missing may take time.

Floodwater loaded with rock, trees and sediment tore through mountain valleys, destroying roads, bridges, houses and hydroelectric facilities. CBS News reported that mud around parts of Gyirong Port averaged more than five feet deep, with some road sections buried beneath more than six feet. Communications were severed and roads into the region were damaged. (CBS News⁠)

This was not simply a river gradually rising over its banks.

Satellite imagery and scientific assessments point toward an enormous collapse of ice and rock that generated a debris-filled torrent. The USGS ultimately determined that the seismic signal initially interpreted as an earthquake was generated by the glacial collapse itself. (CBS News⁠)

The consequences were almost instantaneous. Buildings disappeared. Vehicles were buried. Survivors described running as a massive surge of mud approached.

Military helicopters are now flying into areas inaccessible by road, while thousands of Nepalese police and military personnel search for survivors. More than 100 people were rescued by Nepal’s army using helicopters Thursday, according to military officials. (CBS News⁠)

The death toll is still moving

Even the basic numbers remain fluid.

Different authorities and news organizations have reported totals at different stages of the rescue operation. The Associated Press reported Thursday that more than 360 deaths had been confirmed across Nepal and Tibet and more than 1,400 people were reported missing, while other counts based on Nepal Police figures put Nepal’s confirmed death toll at 270 earlier in the day. (AP News⁠)

Those discrepancies are not necessarily contradictions. They illustrate the difficulty of accounting for people across two countries, remote Himalayan communities and an international tourist population while communications and transportation systems are badly damaged.

The numbers will almost certainly continue changing as survivors are found and missing-person reports are reconciled.

Washington responds

The United States is now involved in the response.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed American solidarity with Nepal, while the U.S. Embassy said the State Department was closely monitoring the disaster. The United States is providing $500,000 in emergency assistance through Catholic Relief Services, and an adviser is being sent to assist with the response. (CBS News⁠)

For families waiting for a telephone call, however, international diplomacy and statistics are secondary.

They need names.

And Indiana needs those names, too.

The Hoosier Enquirer has not found evidence as of publication that an Indiana resident is among the dead or missing. Equally important, there is not yet enough publicly available information to say that no Hoosier is involved.

With dozens of Americans still unaccounted for and hundreds of unidentified foreign travelers missing across Nepal and Tibet, the Indiana connection remains an open question.

For now, 65 missing Americans are not merely a statistic. They are 65 individual stories whose families, hometowns and connections are still being established.

Somewhere among those stories may be an Indiana connection. Until authorities release the names, Hoosiers — like families across America — are left waiting.