Update as fears grow for Qld mum still missing in Nepal
The family of a Queensland mother of twins missing on the Tibet-Nepal border has shared an emotional update on their search, one week after a cataclysmic flood.
The family of a loved mother of twin girls, missing on the Tibet-Nepal border after a devastating flood, have shared a heartbreaking update on their search.
Renee Spry was among a group of Australians on their way home from a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash when the floods hit.
The group arrived in the immigration building at the Gyirong port about nine minutes before the disaster.
“There is still no news about her,” Spry’s sister Claire wrote on the family’s GoFundMe page.
“We continue to pray for her, the Nepalese people and those also still to return to the safety of their homes and families.”
As of Thursday morning, the family’s fundraiser had amassed more than $67,000 to “help ease some of the stress for her partner Shaun and their amazing daughters”.
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“Especially as they try to navigate how to possibly get to the area over the next few weeks or even how they can help others there.”
Sunshine Coast-based Liberal foreign affairs spokesman Ted O’Brien said community members were “doing everything they can” to rally around loved ones of the missing disability support worker.
“Every time we hear news of another person being found alive is a moment of extraordinary joy and relief,” O’Brien said.
“We all, of course, on the Sunshine Coast then turn our minds to Renee and it is with hope that we think of her predicament.”
Local officials fear many are buried under debris left by the cataclysmic flood that lashed the nation’s border with Tibet one week ago, as the death toll reaches 1114 people, with almost 4000 more missing.
Authorities say 38 Australians are still missing in the flood impact zone, after five citizens were confirmed safe.
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Rescuers are racing the clock in the search for survivors more than one week on from the disaster, but grieving community members in Australia continue to cling onto hope.
Australia’s Nepali community also remain hopeful for the welfare of loved ones still missing.
“Lots of people are stuck in the tunnels over there as well, and most don’t have any contact … we are still hopeful that maybe we can get good news,” Non-Resident Nepali Association Victorian co-ordinator Mahadev Dhanuk said.
The association has raised almost $75,000 through community donations for relief efforts in the region as part of the Nepali Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund.
The tight-knit Victorian Nepali community of less than 30,000 is wrapping its arms around those affected by the tragedy, with hundreds uniting at a candlelight vigil in memory of the victims in Melbourne on Monday.
“Many are not personally affected, but culturally we feel like one family. That’s why everyone is devastated,” Dhanuk said.
“All of the community is trying to overcome their own plight and trying to help and think how can we stand with the Nepal?”
An Australian RAAF C-17A carrying humanitarian and disaster relief supplies was touched down in Nepal on Wednesday.
Loaded with more than 1400 hygiene kits, 2200 solar lights and phone chargers, hundreds of shelter tool kits, tarps and ropes and more than 500 menstrual hygiene packs, the aid package makes up some of an $8 million pledge by the federal government.
There were 18 Australian response team personnel in Nepal, in addition to staff already on the ground, DFAT said.
The floods impacted almost 13,000 buildings and washed away 40km of highway and at least 68 bridges, satellite data accessed by HiRISK shows.
-with AAP
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