Pragun and Salina Rana, the husband and wife team who have owned and operated the Argia’s Restaurant in Falls Church for the last three years, are natives of Nepal, and endured hours of terrible stress last weekend before learning that all members of their close family in Katmandu, Nepal, where a devastating earthquake hit, are OK.

The quake hit about 3 a.m. last Saturday (F.C. time) when the two were notified of the disaster by a relative calling from China. All communications with Katmandu were down and there was no information on the status of anyone as the couple worried while having to stay busy preparing for a special group of over 100 due to arrive to dine at their restaurant that day. “Having to prepare kept our minds off the situation to some degree,” Salina told the News-Press. She said their brother in China finally got through by wireless phone to Katmandu and learned everyone in their family was OK. “That is because the worst devastation hit the rural areas,” Salina said, partly due to the fact that the buildings constructed in the last 20 years in the nation’s capital were much stronger, due to the known vulnerability of the area to earthquakes.

As the death toll rose above 5,000 this week, the Ranas recommend a relief fund to help, run by doctors in the U.S. and Nepal, accessible at life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/nepal-earthquake-relief-fund.