2 Thurston friends missing

As members of the Eugene/Kathmandu Sister City Association intensify a local effort to raise money for victims of the devastating earthquake that struck the mountainous Asian nation on Saturday, a Eugene mother worries but remains upbeat.

“We’re really hopeful we’re going to hear from them really soon,” said Jennifer Brazil, a PeaceHealth educator. “I just want to know that she’s safe.”

Brazil’s daughter, Amber Brazil, 21, a University of Oregon student, was hiking in Nepal’s Langtang National Park with good friend Alicia Scroggins, also 21, when the deadly 7.8 magnitude quake hit.

Both women are 2011 graduates of Thurston High School in Springfield.

Nepal’s worst earthquake in 80 years, with a death toll that’s now over 4,000 and still climbing, has destroyed homes, caused numerous landslides and created a massive food and water shortage.

“It’s devastating,” said Dr. Binaya Rimal, 45, of Springfield, a critical care and pulmonary doctor in Springfield who is from Kathmandu.

His parents and sister still live in the Nepalese capital and all survived, Rimal said.

“For now, they are OK,” he said. “But having water that is safe, and an adequate food supply, is an issue.”

The spread of infections such as cholera and typhoid are a big concern, said Rimal, a member of the Eugene/Kathmandu Sister City Association that is trying to raise money to send for relief efforts.

The association has a goal of raising $100,000, and had collected about $1,200 as of Monday afternoon.

Eugene has four sister cities around the world, the others being Irkutsk, Russia; Jinju, South Korea; and Kakegawa, Japan.

Kathmandu has been a Eugene sister city since 1975, said Dennis Ramsey, president of the Eugene/Kathmandu Sister City Association. The alliance was created when former Eugene Mayor Les Anderson went on a trek to Nepal and decided to introduce himself to the mayor of the nation’s capital, Ramsey said.

Ramsey lived in Kathmandu from 1982 to 1995, working for UNICEF, the United Nation’s Children’s Fund, and owned a home there until 2010. His wife, Rindu, is from Kathmandu.

“Her family is living on the street, basically, because they can’t go back into their home,” Dennis Ramsey said of his wife’s parents, sisters and nephews.

Ramsey is also president of Renewable Energy Development International, a nonprofit organization that provides solar electrical lighting and other renewable energy solutions for public institutions in Nepal.

The 20 or so members of the Eugene/Kathmandu association met Sunday night at the Saraha Nyingma Buddhist Institute in south Eugene, Ramsey said. About half the group’s members are Nepalese, he said.

As soon as we know “who is on the ground, who is able to work,” the association will send the money it has raised, Ramsey said. “Only then will we feel right about where to send our money.”

The biggest needs are food, water and medical care, he said.

Rimal is hoping to go to Nepal next week, if possible, with four other Nepalese-born doctors from Lane and Douglas counties, he said.

“They are running out of space, (operating) rooms, intravenous medications and fluids, antibiotics,” Rimal said.

“Holding out hope”

Amber Brazil left Eugene in January, her mother said, and headed for Thailand, where she was going to finish her UO degree in environmental studies by doing an internship with an elephant rehabilitation sanctuary.

Scroggins, who now lives in Auckland, N.Z., went to Thailand about a month ago to visit Brazil, said Scroggins’ sister, Annie Wood of Medford.

The women left on their trek, accompanied by a guide, on April 19 or 20, Jennifer Brazil said.

“We’re holding out hope that we’ll hear from them and that they’re OK,” said Wood, who was in Eugene Monday visiting another sister, Katie Casey.

Amber Brazil sent her father, Casey Brazil, owner of American Mattress in Eugene, a text message before the trek saying that cellphone coverage would be scattered but that they would try to email from a village if they found Internet access, Jennifer Brazil said.

They’ve determined the women were on the fifth day of their trek when the earthquake struck, so they were likely closing in on the village of Briddim, where 90 percent of the homes were destroyed, Jennifer Brazil said.

But she has found nine people via Twitter who were in the same area and are alive, she said. And those people have been notified about Amber and Alicia, Brazil said.

Scroggins is the daughter of Bob and Lisa Scroggins, formerly of Springfield, who now live in Auckland. Bob Scroggins grew up in Springfield and is the former pastor of Wayside Open Bible Chapel, now Life Church at Wayside, in Springfield.

Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkBakerRG . Email [email protected] .