Ten Toronto residents on a trek in Nepal are unaccounted for after deadly flash flooding in the country this week, according to a representative of the group that organized the trip.
Leslie Crespi, a U.S.-based community liaison for the Isha Foundation in North America, a non-profit spirituality group, told CBC News Network on Thursday that the 10 are among 80 members of the foundation still missing.
The 10 were among 12 Canadians on the trek, Crespi said.
“At this particular time, we haven’t had any communication with the 80 people that were involved,” Crespi said in an interview from McMinnville, Tennessee.
The co-ordinator of the trek contacted the Isha Foundation at 9:07 a.m. on Wednesday, after the group arrived at an Chinese immigration centre in Gyirong County, Tibet. The flash flooding hit that particular area at 9:14 a.m., she said.
“Since that time, we haven’t had any communication with those people who are involved. We’ve been in close contact with the embassies, with officials, with everybody that we can to be plugged into what’s happening and to get continuous updates,” she said.
The group, which includes people from 19 countries, was returning from the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, a sacred pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet. The journey has significance to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Bon followers.
Crespi said families of the group members are in shock.
“It’s devastating news; it’s very, very hard to believe. This was incredibly unexpected and the magnitude of this flood is just something you can’t get your mind around,” she said.
“These people are like family to us.… Some people have been with us for over 20 years, so it has taken a devastating effect on all of us here.”
80 members missing from Isha Foundation
