Indiana University hosted a community forum and fundraiser to raise awareness for flood victims in Nepal on Wednesday at The Cook Center for Public Arts and Humanities.
Flooding began Aug. 26 and caused major damage across several parts of the country, including Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading. As of Sept. 9, Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported 1,367 bodies had been recovered and about 5,100 people were still missing.
“Some of those videos and photos are kind of dystopian — this great body of water just coming at people and houses,” said Samrat Upadhyay, a Nepali-born fiction writer and IU professor of English and humanities.
Upadhyay said that the IU community has many connections to Nepal. This summer, he took a group of students to an area of Nepal that would not be affected by the floods, returning only 10 days before the natural disaster.
Upadhyay also said there is a growing Nepali community in Bloomington. His wife, Babita Uphadyay, lived in Nepal until 1995 and has family and friends living there.
“This is my country,” Babita Upadhyay said. “I cannot sleep through the night seeing that and not being able to do anything.”
The couple worked with IU faculty, staff and student organizations to organize the event. The Asian Pacific American Faculty and Staff Council, Asian Culture Center and the Nepali Student Association were co-sponsors.
IU faculty also provided context on the flooding to attendees. Bryan Yanites, an Earth and atmospheric sciences professor, presented research, satellite images and seismograms that showed flood locations and ongoing hazards in Nepal. He explained how a large glacier collapse triggered tremors equivalent to a magnitude 5.2 earthquake, sending water, ice and debris downstream to the China-Nepal border.
Yanites said flooding in 2025 may have made the damage from last month’s floods more severe. He said there were signs of glacial debris and possible rockfall on Aug. 12 that may have been an indication of the coming flood. Experts fear a secondary landslide could create a dam along the valley, posing another flooding hazard. For early scientific assessments of the disaster, Yanites recommended visiting the Center for Land Surface Hazards’ site.
Sushobhan Bhattarai, a Nepali graduate student of environmental and sustainability studies, spoke about the economic impact of the flooding on Nepal. He said the flooding affects infrastructure, tourism and trade, including damages to schools, homes, hospitals, cell towers and roads. Upadhyay estimated that 20,000 homes need to be rebuilt, and many people need a space to hold memorial services.
The Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund and Narra Foundation are working to rebuild important infrastructure like schools and hospitals. Bhattarai and other speakers encouraged attendees to support these organizations.
Bhattarai specifically noted the damage to hydropower centers, which he became familiar with while earning his mechanical engineering degree in Nepal. He said there is a major demand for people skilled in the energy sector in the country, especially as it works to rebuild.
Adin Kawate, the director of IU’s Asian Culture Center, helped organize and facilitate the event.
“It’s a beautiful thing to see different organizations and communities within IU come together to support a community that needs help,” Kawate said. “It’s not even a question of, ‘Should we do this?’ It’s ‘How can I help?’”
Upadhyay closed the conversation by highlighting preventative measures for future natural disasters, including new radar satellites and methods of observing glacial movement. He also praised the Nepali government’s quick response and promoted the disaster relief fund as a reputable place to donate in support of the flood victims.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct a year.
