Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Hurricane Ida: An ordeal for Indian Americans

Hurricane Ida: An ordeal for Indian Americans

FOUR Indian Americans have been killed in the US states of New Jersey and New York after they were swept away by flash floods caused by Hurricane Ida.

Hurricane Ida, which made landfall on August 29 in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, is the second-most destructive hurricane to hit the state on record, only after Hurricane Katrina (2005).


According to reports, 31-year-old Dhanush Reddy from Edison died last week after being swept into a 36-inch storm sewer pipe in South Plainfield, New Jersey.

Authorities said two men were swept into the pipe, which goes from South  Plainfield to Piscataway. While one of the men was rescued, the other could not be located and authorities found Reddy’s body in a wooded area a few miles away the day after he drowned.

A report in The New York Times said that the Ramskriets, a family of four, were in their Queens home when flood water reached their ankles. The flood swept the elderly Dameshwar Ramskriets across the home as he clutched for the hand of his wife Tara.

‘I tried to hold on to my wife, and she was trying to hold on to me,’ he said. ‘But the water pushed me away and I couldn’t feel her hand anymore.’ Tara Ramskriet and her 22-year-old son, Nick, drowned.

Another Indian-origin person, Malathi Kanche, 46, a software designer, was driving home with her 15-year-old daughter on Wednesday (1) when her vehicle halted in waist-deep floodwater on Route 22 of Bridgewater, New Jersey.

Kanche and her daughter held onto a tree as floodwaters pulled them, according to a family friend, Mansi Mago, but the tree fell, pulling Kanche in the torrent. Initially, officials put Kanche on the list of ‘missing persons’.

She was confirmed dead on Friday (3).

A Nepali family who lived in a basement apartment in Queens also died as the storm waters inundated their apartment, leaving them trapped inside.

Mingma Sherpa, her husband, Lobsang Lama, and their little boy named Ang all drowned in the storm.

Authorities in New Jersey are searching with the help of drones and boats for two missing young Indian-origin persons.

Nidhi Rana, 18, and Ayush Rana, 21, ‘were last seen Wednesday evening when Ayush’s car was caught in the floodwaters’, a report said.

Search for the pair continued Sunday as Passaic firefighters continued their search along the Passaic River for the two.

A strong reminder of Katrina

New Orleans area hotelier Vimal Patel has said that Ida was a strong reminder of Katrina.

‘This is a very strong, very strong reminder of Katrina,’ said Patel, who is president of QHotels Management in LaPlace, Louisiana.

'During Katrina, we were about to celebrate my daughter’s fifth birthday. But, we ended up taking a shelter at the Hampton Inn in LaPlace and we lost our water and we were stranded there for days.’

For Ida, he decided to close all of his hotels, evacuate his guests and leave for safer ground.

‘It was a stark, dark reminder of the Katrina, but luckily we had no guests in the hotel and we closed everything down,’ he said.

By Wednesday (1), as the remnants of Ida was causing massive flooding in New York, Vimal Patel said his properties were all still out of power. All nine of his hotels had sustained damage.

‘Now we have a challenge with the transportation of gas. Obviously, Laplace doesn’t have electricity and no running water,’ he said.

‘We are scouting in different places, travelling 75, 100 miles around trying to fill up gas.’

Hotel properties owned by AAHOA members fared differently depending on their location in the city, said Vimal ‘Ricky’ Patel, Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) Gulf Region director, who is based in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Hotels in the Thibodaux and Houma areas sustained very minimum damage to the members' hotel.

‘Kenner and south of New Orleans, there are quite a few properties that are damaged,’ Ricky said. ‘The hardest hit was Grand Isle. As far as I know, we don’t have any members there, but there are properties in a Boutte, Kenner and Metairie [owned by AAHOA members] and some of those properties are damaged.’

Other hotels are receiving evacuees from the storm, Ricky said, but most of the hotels are pre-booked up with the utility workers at this time. He said precautions are being taken in light of the resurging Covid-19 pandemic.

More For You

Tommy Robinson

The event, which Robinson has promoted for months, is being billed by him as the 'UK's biggest free speech festival.' (Photo: Getty Images)

London prepares for rival demonstrations, police deploy 1,600 officers

Highlights

  • More than 1,600 officers deployed across London on Saturday
  • Far-right activist Tommy Robinson to lead "Unite the Kingdom" march
  • Anti-racism groups to stage counter-protests in Whitehall
  • Police impose conditions on routes and timings of demonstrations

LONDON police will deploy more than 1,600 officers across the city on Saturday as rival demonstrations take place, including a rally organised by far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, and a counter-protest by anti-racism campaigners.

Keep ReadingShow less
Baiju Bhatt

At 40, Bhatt is the only person of Indian origin in this group, which includes figures such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. (Photo: Getty Images)

Baiju Bhatt named among youngest billionaires in US by Forbes

INDIAN-AMERICAN entrepreneur Baiju Bhatt, co-founder of the commission-free trading platform Robinhood, has been named among the 10 youngest billionaires in the United States in the 2025 Forbes 400 list.

At 40, Bhatt is the only person of Indian origin in this group, which includes figures such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. Forbes estimates his net worth at around USD 6–7 billion (£4.4–5.1 billion), primarily from his roughly 6 per cent ownership in Robinhood.

Keep ReadingShow less
Mandelson-Getty

Starmer dismissed Mandelson on Thursday after reading emails published by Bloomberg in which Mandelson defended Jeffrey Epstein following his 2008 conviction. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Minister says Mandelson should never have been appointed

A CABINET minister has said Peter Mandelson should not have been made UK ambassador to the US, as criticism mounted over prime minister Keir Starmer’s judgment in appointing him.

Douglas Alexander, the Scotland secretary, told the BBC that Mandelson’s appointment was seen as “high-risk, high-reward” but that newly revealed emails changed the situation.

Keep ReadingShow less
Shivani Raja MP leads fight to save Leicester Diwali celebrations

Shivani Raja MP

Shivani Raja MP leads fight to save Leicester Diwali celebrations

TWO Conservative MPs have launched a petition to stop Leicester City Council cutting back this year's Diwali celebrations.

Shivani Raja, MP for Leicester East, and Neil O'Brien, who represents nearby Harborough, Oadby and Wigston, started the Change.org petition on Wednesday (10) after the council announced plans to remove key elements from the October 20 event.

Keep ReadingShow less
Deadly Pakistan floods force over two million to flee their homes

Residents sit in a rescue boat as they evacuate following monsoon rains and rising water levels in the Chenab River, in Basti Khan Bela, on the outskirts of Jalalpur Pirwala, Punjab province, Pakistan, September 10, 2025. REUTERS/Quratulain Asim

Deadly Pakistan floods force over two million to flee their homes

OVER two million people have been forced to leave their homes as devastating floods continue to sweep across Pakistan's eastern regions, authorities announced.

The worst-hit area is Punjab province, where more than two million residents have been evacuated. An additional 150,000 people have fled Sindh province, according to national disaster management chief Inam Haider Malik, who warned that the "number may rise over the coming days".

Keep ReadingShow less