One month after deadly Nepal flood, Georgia couple grapples with why they made it home

September 22, 2026 / 6:30 PM EDT / CBS Atlanta

One month after a catastrophic flash flood swept through a Himalayan river valley, a Suwanee couple is safely back home. The people they were traveling with are not.

Mita and Hemant Parikh were part of a group of 47 people on a long-planned spiritual pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet. Nearly a month after the flood, the tour company that organized their trip tells CBS News Atlanta that none of the missing families from their group have been found either alive or deceased. Seven guides are also missing. All remain unaccounted for.

For the Parikhs, the past month has been spent trying to understand how an ordinary decision — a side trip they almost didn't make — put them on a different road.

"That's what we talk to each other every single day," Mita said. "Why did we decide this way?"

For the couple, the pilgrimage had been 15 years in the making.

"Everybody has a bucket list, but this bucket list, you don't choose it," Mita said. "God chooses for you."

Mount Kailash, a remote peak high in the Himalayas, is one of Hinduism's holiest pilgrimage sites. For Mita…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/moneywatch/