Tour group with 2 Long Islanders who traveled to Nepal missing after catastrophic floods

The mother and mother-in-law of a Long Island woman, as well as a family friend, are among at least 90 Americans missing after catastrophic floods hit Nepal and Tibet earlier this week.

Aditi Patel, 42, of Old Westbury, said her mother, Tejal Vyomesh Patel, 64, of New Jersey; her mother-in-law, Amita Amin, 67, of Roslyn Heights; and Jitendra Manubhai Patel, 72, of Merrick, were on a religious pilgrimage with a seven-member tour group to Tibet when deadly floods from a glacier collapse hit the area on Wednesday.

“It's been the most devastating 48 hours, I think, of my life," Aditi Patel said.

Vyomesh Patel, Amin and Manubhai Patel flew out of Kennedy Airport on Aug. 22 with their tour group, Nepal Trekking Planner, to Kathmandu.

They spent a little over one day in Nepal before attempting to enter Tibet and see Mount Kailash, considered a sacred peak by Hindus, Buddhists and people of other faiths.

Aditi Patel said she and her mother spoke several times a day. She even purchased an international phone plan for her mother to use while on her trip so they could keep in touch.

“I am extremely close to my mom," Aditi Patel said, explaining that her father died when she was young and her mother visits her often. “We speak multiple times a day."

Aditi Patel said the group was supposed to leave Kathmandu earlier in the week and cross into Tibet. However, after multiple landslides and the breakdown of their tour vehicle, they were forced to spend an extra night in Nepal.

Aditi Patel said she last spoke with her mother Wednesday morning, shortly before the floods struck.

She believes the group had gone inside the immigration building before the floods hit because her mother’s location in the app Find My Friends has remained in the same place at the border since Wednesday.

“That's where the story ends, and that's where the story gets dicey, because we don't know what happened after they left that building," Aditi Patel said. “Did they actually leave? Did they leave and didn't get too far, and the flood hit?"

Videos of the disaster showed people running before the floodwaters overtook them and washed out buildings and bridges, The Associated Press reported.

Aditi Patel said she called the hotel the group was supposed to stay in the next night. But the manager said they never arrived.

At least 469 people were killed, more than 1,400 are missing and hundreds of others have been displaced across the Himalayan region. As of Thursday, the U.S. State Department said 90 Americans are unaccounted for, three had been rescued and it was unaware of any U.S. deaths.

Aditi Patel said she had contacted the U.S. embassies in Nepal, India and China, as well as the U.S. Consulate and numerous senators and governors.

The office of Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) confirmed with Newsday it had received one report of a missing constituent.

“Constituents have reached out to me regarding family members and friends that are currently missing in Nepal and Tibet. We are working to learn more from our State Department contacts," Suozzi said in a statement.

“My heart goes out to the people of Nepal and Tibet, the families waiting for news of their loved ones, and everyone impacted by this terrible disaster, and we’ll do everything we can to assist."

Aditi Patel, a physician assistant, said she, her husband, her father-in-law and Amin work at their family-owned primary care facility in Queens.

She described both her mother and Amin as religious Hindu women. Patel said the trip was her mother’s first time in Nepal, but Amin had visited at least eight times before this visit and inspired others, including Vyomesh Patel and Manubhai Patel, to make the pilgrimage.

“I don't think, in all of these years that she's been there, there's ever been this kind of devastation," she said.

While communication lines are down, Patel said she is still clinging to hope.

“I am feeling hopeful that we can still hear good news about every single person who's missing — not just ours," she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “That is the hard part, to get that information in such a devastating situation. ... We just want to spread the word. We want to know that they're OK."