Rasuwa was one of the districts, located in Northern Nepal, which was hit hardest by the flood. I was in the capital, Kathmandu, about six-to-eight hours away from the Rasuwa district when the floods began. But, even hundreds of miles away, the flood was on everybody's mind.
A cab driver told me he was worried because he hadn't heard from a friend in the neighboring district, and a shopkeeper told me she was kept up late into the night as she saw more and more videos from the flood emerge. When you called someone in Nepal, instead of a ringtone, you'd get a PSA about the flood and the regions impacted.
More than 1,100 people have died from the flash floods that swept through Himalayan communities in Nepal last month. With rescue efforts underway and access to the impacted areas being limited, it seemed like everyone in Katmandu was waiting with bated breath as the casualty number continued to rise.
In a Hindu temple outside Albany, thousands of miles away from Nepal, the same bated breath and anxiety could be found at a candle vigil held by the local Nepalese community. For Latham resident, Jagadish Dhakal, thinking about the flood felt overwhelming at times.
"If I really like start talking about it, it makes me really emotional. I just try to like avoid it because you know like, if I don’t think about it, like I, I obviously don't get emotional,” said Dhakal. “Yeah, there's nothing else I can do. I mean, it's just nature. You can't go against it."
Dhakal's home district of Nuwakot is about 35 miles from Rasuwa. He said the flood's impact was so huge, he didn't think it was real when he first saw it.
“I woke up, I checked my phone, and I saw really disastrous videos. First, I thought it was just AI and like someone was just trying to like get attention and grab views, but then I looked into more,” said Dhakal. “I just couldn't believe like my hometown, the place where I like grew up, where I went to school, where I made so many friends, just being like swept away by the flood, like it makes me really emotional.”
Dhakal said he is unsure how his town will ever return to normal after such a drastic flood. For now, he is urging his community to donate to relief efforts as he checks in with friends and family.
Ujjal Lamichhane, the director of communications for the Albany New Nepalese Society, said many in the community feel somber as they await for news from Nepal.
"Many of us, even though we are 1000s miles away from the home, our heart is over there. We have been looking at the videos coming from the Nepal, and everybody is saddened with that incident to happen,” said Lamichhane. “They are sharing the same emotions that the impacted people had back home."
With rescue efforts underway and casualty numbers increasing by the day, many Nepalis in the Capital Region, much like the Nepalis back in Kathmandu, say there is an air of worry and sadness as they watch and wait.
