😨 Australian trekker Sarah Mitchell, 29, was hiking through remote Nepal when flash floods hit… Now her family has spoken out as the search continues. Sarah Mitchell, a 29-year-old woman from New South Wales, remains missing after deadly flash floods swept through the region during her multi-day trek. 💔 Her family has been waiting for answers for more than 48 hours as rescue teams, including local authorities and mountain guides, continue searching the remote area. The floods have reportedly affected at least three villages and left dozens of trekkers stranded, while difficult terrain and damaged routes are slowing rescue efforts. 👇 More details about Sarah Mitchell’s disappearance and the latest developments in the search are in the comments
Family of Australian Hiker Cara Severino Shares Statement of Relief After Deadly Nepal Floods
In the midst of one of the most devastating natural disasters to strike the Nepal-Tibet border region in recent years, a moment of profound personal relief has emerged for one Australian family. The parents of Cara Severino, a 26-year-old woman from the Wollongong area of New South Wales, have publicly shared their joy and gratitude after their daughter made contact following days of uncertainty. Severino had been hiking the multi-day Langtang trek when catastrophic flash floods tore through the mountainous Rasuwa region, leaving communities destroyed and thousands missing or dead.
The floods, triggered by a glacial collapse high in the Himalayas, unleashed a powerful wall of water, mud, ice and debris that swept through valleys near the Nepal-China border on Wednesday. Entire villages were devastated. Infrastructure was wiped out. Communication networks collapsed. In the chaotic aftermath, more than 40 Australians were initially listed among the thousands of people unaccounted for. Severino was one of them. For two long nights, her family waited in agonising silence, uncertain whether she had survived.
Then, on Friday morning, the silence broke. Cara managed to make contact. In a statement released on Sunday, her parents Debbie and Frank Severino described the moment with raw emotion.
“We are beyond relieved and so elated to have Cara safe and well and we can’t wait to hold her in our loving arms,” they said. “Seeing Cara’s name appear on my message bank, hearing her voice and now seeing her photo and speaking with her has been the most miraculous gift.”
The family explained that Cara had been stranded at Kyanjin Gompa, a remote mountainous village and Buddhist monastery in the north of the Langtang region. With phone reception non-existent and her own phone battery flat, she had been unable to reach anyone for days. When she finally got through, she was in Gosainkunda with a small group of Nepalese hikers. They were attempting the long and difficult journey on foot toward Kathmandu.
“We are so grateful to her Nepalese hiking partners who saw her through a harrowing several days of hiking in very difficult terrain, so thankful that they have all made it to safety,” her parents continued. “The scale of this tragedy is staggering and amidst our personal joy we continue to stand in prayer with the many families here in Australia, in Nepal and around the world who have lost loved ones or are still waiting to hear from them. We know that the waiting is horrendous.”
The statement also carried a note of faith. “We thank Jesus for answering these prayers. We are so thankful for God’s protection over her and for giving her the strength and resilience in this situation.”
Australian consular officials later confirmed they had located Severino and established regular contact. Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong publicly acknowledged that officials had driven out from Kathmandu to meet her. In her own comments after being reached, Severino expressed deep gratitude to the local hiking crew she had formed on the trail — named Sudha, Lucas, Samir and Saugat — and to the Australian government for its support. “I’m so grateful for the crew we formed on that first day when we entered the national park,” she said. “It’s thanks to these amazing people I got out safely. I feel for the families of those still missing – I know how much my family and friends went through. Blessed to be from Australia and have the embassy and Australian government giving so much support.”
Severino’s survival stands in stark contrast to the broader picture of the disaster. Official figures have continued to rise in the days since the floods. Death tolls reported by Nepali and Chinese authorities have climbed past 600, with some counts exceeding 669. Nearly 3,000 people remain missing across both sides of the border. More than 90,000 people are estimated to have been affected. On the Chinese side alone, hundreds are still unaccounted for. Rescue and recovery operations have been severely hampered by destroyed roads, ongoing landslide risks, and the remote, high-altitude terrain.
Among the missing are dozens of Australians, many of them travelling in organised tour groups or on spiritual pilgrimages. Several families from Sydney’s Bharatha Brahmin community were among those affected, including multi-generational groups with children as young as 11. Others were on Kailash-related journeys organised by different operators. One Royal Australian Air Force member, a father from Brisbane, remains among those unaccounted for. Families across Australia have issued desperate public appeals, sharing photographs and last-known locations, while some relatives have travelled to Nepal themselves in the hope of finding information on the ground.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been fielding hundreds of calls from concerned relatives. Australian officials have been working closely with Nepali authorities and have deployed additional consular and emergency personnel to assist with the response. The scale of the missing-persons list has led some observers to describe the disaster as potentially one of the worst losses of Australian life overseas since the 2002 Bali bombings, though confirmation of individual fates is still ongoing and many searches continue.
For the Severino family, the emotional shift from fear to relief has been overwhelming. In the space of a few days they moved from the terror of not knowing to the joy of hearing their daughter’s voice. Yet their statement deliberately avoided any sense of isolated celebration. They repeatedly returned to the suffering of others — the families still waiting, the communities destroyed, the enormous human cost that continues to unfold across the affected region.
The Langtang trek is one of Nepal’s classic multi-day routes, known for its dramatic mountain scenery, high passes and cultural richness. It attracts trekkers from around the world seeking a quieter alternative to the more crowded Everest or Annapurna trails. Kyanjin Gompa, where Severino was stranded, sits at a high elevation and serves as a popular destination point for many hikers. When the flash flood hit, the combination of sudden volume of water, mud and debris, and the steep topography of the valleys turned the landscape into a deadly force. Communication blackouts and destroyed trails left many people isolated for days.
Severino’s ability to link up with local hikers and begin the long walk toward safety appears to have been decisive. The group’s determination to keep moving through difficult terrain eventually brought them within reach of a place where a phone call could be made. That single call transformed the experience of one Australian family and offered a rare piece of good news amid an otherwise grim unfolding story.
As recovery efforts continue, the focus remains on locating the missing, supporting survivors, and providing assistance to the many communities that have lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones. For Debbie and Frank Severino, the immediate priority is simpler and more personal: bringing their daughter home and holding her again. Their public statement captures both the intensity of that private longing and a clear-eyed recognition of the much larger tragedy that still surrounds them.
In the coming days and weeks, more details are expected to emerge about the precise sequence of the glacial collapse, the path of the floodwaters, and the fates of those still unaccounted for. Official death tolls and missing-person figures will continue to be updated as search teams gain better access to the most severely affected areas. For one NSW family, however, the most important update has already arrived. Cara Severino is alive. She is safe. And after days of silence and fear, her parents finally have the chance to say the words every family in such a situation longs to speak: she is coming home.
The story of the Nepal-Tibet floods will ultimately be told through many voices — those of the survivors who walked out, those of the families still waiting, those of the rescue workers navigating impossible terrain, and those of the communities rebuilding from mud and loss. Within that larger narrative, the Severino family’s statement stands as a moment of light: a reminder that even in the darkest of disasters, individual stories of resilience and reconnection can still break through.
