Cara Severino, a 25-year-old Australian woman feared lost in the Nepal flooding, reached her parents by phone on Friday, becoming the first of 39 Australians reported missing in the disaster to be confirmed alive. She now faces a trek of more than 110km on foot to reach Kathmandu, with roads and bridges washed away across the region.
At least 469 people have been killed and more than 1,500 remain missing after a catastrophic torrent struck the China-Nepal border on Wednesday morning. A glacier collapse triggered flash floods and mudslides, sending a wall of water and debris several stories high through communities in the Nuwakot and Trishuli areas.
Among those still unaccounted for is a Sydney family taking part in a pilgrimage when the flood hit. Shylaja Muralitharan, 42, her husband Chandrasekaran, 47, and their sons Ashwin, 14, and Aarush, 11, were last heard from before the surge. Relatives describe themselves as worried but hopeful, waiting for any word.
The Nepalese army has turned to helicopters to reach survivors because so many roads and bridges are impassable. Rescue convoys, ambulances and hearses have been moving along the route from Kathmandu toward Trishuli, where the scale of the destruction is now becoming clear. The earlier stages of this catastrophe were tracked as the toll climbed past 150 in the first days after the water receded.
Rescuers now warn of a second threat. A landslide near the Nepal-Tibet border has dammed a river, forming a barrier lake that could burst and send another surge downstream. Engineers are monitoring water levels closely, and communities below the natural dam have been urged to prepare for possible evacuation.
The economic damage is mounting alongside the human cost. Early estimates put the rebuilding bill at roughly $5 billion, covering roads, bridges, hydropower infrastructure and homes destroyed along the river corridor. Analysts expect regional engineering and construction firms to take on much of the reconstruction work in the months ahead.
Humanitarian groups are mobilising. Direct Relief had pre-positioned emergency medicines in Nepal ahead of the monsoon season and was preparing further shipments on Thursday. “This is going to be a long recovery process,” said Dan Hovey, the organisation’s vice president of emergency response, calling Nepal one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.
Relief agencies say cash donations are currently the most useful form of support, giving local nonprofits flexible funding to sustain operations. With the barrier lake unresolved and hundreds still missing, search teams intend to keep working the riverbanks by helicopter while officials weigh how to drain the new lake before it fails.