TEXAS \u2014 The latest update from the Nepal Disaster Authority reveals over 1,000 are dead and nearly 4,200 are missing because of the Nepal and Tibet flooding. Texas is home to the largest Nepalese community in the U.S., and now those expats are mobilizing to send aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart just jumped down to the floor. I started calling my parents, close relatives, if they were safe or not,\u201d said Drona Gautam, an adviser for the Nepalese Association of Houston.<\/p>\n
Survivors who narrowly escaped described the destruction in a video captured as they were rescued by helicopter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just took the buses, houses, people, everything,\u201d said one survivor.<\/p>\n
The devastation hits close to home for Southwest Houston members of the Nepalese community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want to say our condolences to the families and rest in peace to the people who have lost their lives,\u201d Gautam said.<\/p>\n
The association\u2019s president, Gyanshor Shrestha, said he was in Nepal but he was miles away near the capital.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I see the breaking news on the TV, we start seeing all the dam breaking and the flash flood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Nepalese Association of Houston, a nonprofit founded in 2000, provides resources to up to 9,000 members in the Houston metro area, including over 200 lifetime members. They\u2019re now collecting financial donations to send to their homeland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we can, from the Houston side, we can help to recover and recoup that loss,\u201d said Shrestha.<\/p>\n
The association said it raised $200,000 for disaster relief following the 2015 Nepal earthquake that killed and injured thousands of people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe built around 10 schools,\u201d said Madhukar Amatya, a past president of the association.<\/p>\n
He said sending supplies created logistical and financial challenges, and so will the current muddy conditions. The association said, for now, financial relief will better help with on-the-ground relief efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease open your heart and open your pocket,\u201d Shrestha said.<\/p>\n
Association members are urging the public to donate and spread the word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014 The latest update from the Nepal Disaster Authority reveals over 1,000 are dead and nearly 4,200…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1038555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[7448,359,1596,31126,4345,50,7202,358,41035,52,3187,60449,5284],"class_list":["post-1038554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-app-top-stories","tag-austin","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-houston","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-top-stories","tag-tx","tag-valencia-jones","tag-vod"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117200683408315230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1038555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}