By admin 
TEMPE, AZ (AZFamily) — A revered spiritual leader from a Tempe temple and nine local pilgrims are among thousands of people still missing after catastrophic flooding tore through Nepal and Tibet last week, killing at least 900 people.
Read more Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is stepping down after 18 months on the job, White House says
The flash floods, which began Wednesday, Aug. 26, were triggered by a massive mountainside and glacier collapse high in the Himalayas. The collapse was so severe it registered as a magnitude 5.2 earthquake, sending a torrent of rock, mud, and water through valleys across the Nepal-China border, burying entire towns and villages.
Sri Keshava Rao Tadipatri, a spiritual guru affiliated with the Sri Venkata Krishna (SVK) Kshetra Temple in Tempe, was leading the group on the sacred Kailash Manasarovar Yatra pilgrimage when the disaster struck.
The temple, located near University Drive and Priest Drive, has served as a sanctuary for Valley Hindus for 26 years. Over the past several days, individual prayers inside its doors have merged into a collective echo of hope for Tadipatri, a fixture in the community.
“I’ve known him for almost 16 years now,” said Ravichandran Jagannathan, Tadipatri’s mentee.
Jagannathan spent Monday reflecting on his mentor’s lectures, finding comfort in the guru’s own teachings during this period of painful uncertainty.
“We are now using his teaching to prepare ourselves for what may come,” Jagannathan said. “We all know our times are limited on the earth, but his words are the guidance for us to accept the fact the way it comes, and continue the journey.”
Videos sent by the group just before the flood showed a peaceful pilgrimage, with members bathing in holy waters and immersing themselves in the landscape.
Now, families and friends are anxiously waiting for any word on Tadipatri and his fellow Valley travelers. The temple identified the nine other missing pilgrims as:
Read more Shooting in parking lot of Tucson gay bar investigated as a hate crime, double murder-suicide
- Anil Goel
- Srinivas Sudhir Rangu
- Mahendra Gupta
- Laxminath Gopisetty
- Kirti Acharya
- Sudhindra Yapalparvi
- Vivek Srivastav
- Venkat Balasubramanyam
- Venkat Bangalore
“May Lord Sri Krishna, Sri Hari Vayu Gurugalu, and the blessings of Poojya Sri Puthige Swamijis, protect them and guide them safely back home,” the SVK Temple wrote in a social media statement.
The anxious wait at the Tempe temple mirrors a broader unease rippling through Arizona’s Nepalese community, which is home to roughly 2,000 families.
“I’m finding more and more that a lot of people I know are missing,” said Gyan Nyaupane, a Chandler resident originally from Nepal. “I couldn’t even believe it. It was like watching a movie. But unfortunately, it was real.”
Gaurav Adhikari, a Tempe resident also from Nepal, described the situation as deeply unsettling. “It’s super scary, to be honest. It’s very hard to describe.”
According to Nepal’s national disaster agency, the death toll surpassed 900 on Sunday night, and more than 5,000 people across Nepal and Tibet remain missing.
Officials warned that the danger is not over. Heavy monsoon rains are causing another nearby river to surge, creating dangerous conditions that continue to hamper search and rescue teams digging through thick mud and debris.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Read more Grand Canyon flash flooding traced to Dragon Bravo burn scar