Dan Maurer had only been home in Rochester for two days visiting family when catastrophic flooding and landslides struck the country where he has spent much of the past 15 years.
“When I watched the first video, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I know exactly where that is,’” said Maurer, a Churchville-Chili High School graduate and founder and president of Elevate Nepal — a nonprofit that has been working to support sustainable communities in the South Asian country located in and along the Himalayas.
The flooding Wednesday was triggered by a glacial collapse in Tibet that sent a torrent of water and debris through river valleys in Nepal, destroying homes, roads, bridges and other infrastructure. Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority reported 538 deaths as of Friday, with hundreds more people missing.
One of the hardest-hit communities was Trishuli Bazaar, where Elevate Nepal worked in 2018, rebuilding Sarsyu Primary School in the surrounding hills. While there, Mauer and his team worked with local businesses and lived in the community.
“The saddest thing is knowing a lot of the shop owners and business owners in that area that we had worked with have sadly perished,” Maurer said.
All five of Elevate Nepal’s full-time staff members are safe, as are the organization’s project sites. Sarsyu Primary School also survived because it sits at a higher elevation.
For now, Elevate Nepal is raising money and communicating with partners on the ground while Nepal’s government and army continue search-and-rescue operations and assess the damage. Funds raised for the organization’s initial disaster relief efforts will be matched by a donor.
“It’s so new that assessing the scale of it is where we’re at,” Maurer said. “We’re raising money right now and talking with several partners on the ground of where those funds can be best utilized.”
Maurer first traveled to Nepal in 2011, visiting Mount Everest base camp and volunteering on farms in rural villages. He founded Elevate Nepal after the devastating 2015 Nepal earthquake. With $8,000 raised through crowdfunding, he returned to Nepal that year and helped build 50 temporary structures.
“Sadly, we’re no strangers to disaster over in Nepal,” said Maurer, whose initial efforts grew into rebuilding schools and homes and, more recently, on rural community development and providing basic infrastructure.
Through its Makwanpur Rural Community Development project, the organization has brought clean water, electricity and toilets to 210 homes serving more than 1,700 people since 2021.
Maurer said he believes the organization can draw on that experience as Nepal recovers from the flooding.
“Once we’re able to get in there and do our first reconnaissance, people are (going to) need water,” he said. “Our initial thought is can we build, whether that be permanent or temporary, water distribution centers for that area so people can at least get water?”
Maurer hopes to return to Nepal in October. Until then, he said the most effective way for people in Rochester and elsewhere to help is to support organizations working closely with Nepal’s government, so relief efforts are coordinated rather than duplicated.
