Wollongong Woman Cara Severino Found Safe After Nepal Flood Disaster

WHAT HAPPENED

Cara Severino, a 26-year-old from Wollongong, was partway through the multi-day Langtang Trek in Nepal when catastrophic flash flooding tore through the Nepal-Tibet border region on August 26, the country's worst natural disaster in more than a decade. She was reported feared missing as the disaster unfolded.

STRANDED WITHOUT SIGNAL

Severino's parents, Debbie and Frank, later learned she had been stranded at Kyanjin Gompa, a high-mountain village and Buddhist monastery that sat outside the floodwaters' direct path but left her with no phone reception and a dead battery. It was days before she could get word out, and her parents first learned she was safe from a voicemail message rather than a call.

HER ACCOUNT

Severino credited the strangers she banded together with on the first day of the disaster for getting her to safety.

"I'm so grateful for the crew we formed on that first day when we entered the national park on the tractor. Sudha, Lucas, Samir and Saugat. It's thanks to these amazing people I got out safely."

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Nepal's flash flood and landslide death toll has since climbed past 1,300, with nearly 5,000 people still reported missing. Severino was the only Australian confirmed to have been located, and Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong called her safe return "a rare piece of positive news amid a disaster that has brought immense loss and uncertainty."