TEMPE, AZ — A Tempe-area man is among the thousands still unaccounted for after devastating floods and mudslides tore through parts of Nepal and Tibet, leaving the Arizona Nepalese community shaken and searching for answers.
Authorities are trying to locate Sri Keshava Rao Tadpatri, a member of a temple in Tempe who was in the region on a pilgrimage when the disaster hit. The flooding has already killed more than 780 people, and officials say more than 3,000 others remain missing.
For people connected to the local temple community, the loss is both personal and immediate. The scale of the destruction overseas has also prompted concern from Arizona State University professor Gyan Nyaupane, who said seeing the damage and reading about people swept away was heartbreaking.
Search efforts focus on a pilgrim from Tempe and the scale of the disaster
Tadpatri’s disappearance has become one of the Arizona links to a disaster that has affected large parts of the region. Temple authorities and local officials in Nepal are among those helping track the missing as the toll from the floods and mudslides continues to climb…