Lexington’s Rai Family Clings to Hope as Massachusetts Woman Remains Missing After Nepal Floods

LEXINGTON, MA — For the family of a Lexington woman missing after catastrophic flash floods and landslides in Nepal, the past several days have been a painful wait between hope and despair.

Jiwan Jyoti Rai, 50, traveled to Nepal for a spiritual pilgrimage through the Himalayas to celebrate her birthday. She was part of a large group traveling in the region when a sudden avalanche, flash flooding and mudslides struck near the Nepal-China border, sweeping away buildings, vehicles and bridges and leaving hundreds dead and thousands missing.

Rai’s family in Lexington has been anxiously waiting for any word about her.

“Every second, every minute of the day, just waiting to hear anything,” her daughter, Hunar Rai, told NBC Boston.

CBS Boston separately reported that Rai was traveling with a group of about 35 other people and that none of the group’s members, including several guides, had been heard from following the disaster.

The reports from the two Boston television stations provide the most detailed account so far of the ordeal facing the Lexington family.

A birthday pilgrimage turns into a nightmare

According to NBC Boston’s reporting, Rai had been planning the Himalayan pilgrimage for some time and viewed the trip as a birthday gift to herself.

Her daughter told NBC Boston that her mother called the family Wednesday morning, local time in Nepal, as she was preparing to cross toward Tibet. Roughly 30 minutes later, the disaster struck in the Rasuwadadhi area near the Nepal-China border.

Satellite imagery and videos from the region showed extensive destruction after an avalanche and subsequent flooding and mudslides swept through the area.

CBS Boston reported that Rai’s group had been staying at the Hotel Kailash when the flash flood hit.

Manmeet Sangh Meet, a longtime friend and colleague of Rai, told CBS Boston that Rai spoke with her husband, Sanjeev Rai, shortly before the disaster.

“The next two or three minutes this devastation happened, this flash flood,” Sangh Meet told CBS Boston. “The entire hotel went into the river.”

Rai’s phone has reportedly remained at the location where the disaster occurred, but there has been no confirmed contact with her.

Husband searches in Nepal as children remain in Lexington

While Sanjeev Rai has traveled to Kathmandu in the desperate search for his wife, their two children remain in Lexington with family friends, according to CBS Boston.

The couple has been married for 25 years and has a 22-year-old daughter and a 15-year-old son.

Sangh Meet, who described Rai as his best friend of 15 years, said he is helping care for the children while Sanjeev tries to obtain information from Nepal.

“He is also overwhelmed by what’s happening there,” Sangh Meet told CBS Boston. “He’s broken down but I am going to hold him strong.”

Rai’s relatives in India have also joined the effort to locate her.

The family has been left with little information because communications in the disaster zone have been severely disrupted.

An entire pilgrimage group missing

The scale of the uncertainty is particularly painful because Rai was not traveling alone.

CBS Boston reported that she was part of a group of approximately 35 other travelers. NBC Boston reported that the group numbered around 40 people and included foreigners and several Americans.

According to CBS Boston, no one from Rai’s group had made contact following the disaster, including six or seven guides.

“None from those of 36 people. None,” Sangh Meet told the station.

The expedition company Himalayan Glacier, which was involved with the trip, told NBC Boston through a social-media statement that communications in the affected region had been extremely difficult and that it was working to relay information from the ground.

Search efforts continue amid a massive disaster

The disaster has caused widespread devastation along the Nepal-China border, with rescue teams searching for missing people amid destroyed roads, bridges and buildings.

NBC Boston reported that officials had said more than 390 people had died and more than 1,400 were missing as of Thursday night. CBS Boston, reporting on Saturday, said the death toll had risen above 600, with about 3,000 people still missing.

The rapidly changing numbers underscore the enormous scale of the catastrophe and the difficulty authorities face in accounting for people in remote mountain communities.

The U.S. State Department told NBC Boston that it was aware of approximately 90 Americans affected by the flooding. At the time of that report, three Americans had been rescued and the department said it was not aware of any American deaths.

U.S. officials were also working with local authorities and communicating with the Rai family as search efforts continued.

‘I cannot imagine a life without her’

For those closest to Rai, however, the statistics cannot capture the personal devastation.

Sangh Meet told CBS Boston that he has worked alongside Rai for more than 15 years, first in India and later in Hudson, Massachusetts, at Intel.

They spoke virtually every day.

He said Rai had recently celebrated her 50th birthday before embarking on the pilgrimage.

Now, her family is holding onto the possibility that she may still be found.

“It is devastating. You talked to somebody five minutes before and then that person is not there,” Sangh Meet told CBS Boston. “I cannot imagine a life without her.”

As the search continues, he said the family is trying not to give up completely.

“We are now losing hope,” he told CBS Boston. “I don’t want to say 100% we lost her. I am leaving .01% to a miracle, but 99.9% we lost her. It’s unbearable.”

Her daughter has expressed a similar determination to keep faith despite the uncertainty.

“She’s so incredibly loved,” Hunar Rai told NBC Boston. “She has the most beautiful personality anybody could ever have.”

For the Lexington family, the wait continues — with relatives in Massachusetts and India watching developments from thousands of miles away, while Rai’s husband remains in Nepal searching for answers.

Reporting sources: This article is based primarily on reporting by Paul Burton of CBS Boston, published and updated August 29, 2026, and Oscar Margain of NBC Boston, published August 28, 2026. Additional details attributed to those reports have been identified in the text.