Mary Sorensen (Courtesy of her son, Riley Wildeman)
KATHMANDU, Nepal - A Georgia family refuses to give up hope as rescue crews search for a 60-year-old Canton woman missing after catastrophic flash flooding struck the Nepal-China border.
What they're saying:
Mary Sorensen had just finished a spiritual journey and was waiting at an immigration facility in Tibet to head to India when severe flooding hit the area.
"She was absolutely excited about the trip, and if that was the last trip that she gets to go on, she would have been so excited that that was the last thing that she got to do," her son Riley Wildeman said.
She was last seen around 9 a.m. on Aug. 26 at the Gyirong Immigration Facility.
Wildeman said his mother is a woman of optimism who believes you can choose to find joy through hardship. Wildeman said his family is leading with those same values as they work to bring her home.
"She is somebody who is a firm believer in that you can make yourself happy or you can make yourself sad. And if she was in the inverse of this, and it was any one of us, she would have the same belief and the same optimism and the self-determination to find joy through all of it," Wildeman explained.
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Georgia woman missing following Nepal border flooding
There is a search for 60-year-old Mary Sorensen, a Canton resident missing following catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-Tibet border.
Wildeman stated that his family has worked tirelessly to connect with resources during the search.
"We will hope, and we'll believe, and we will pray over those people and believe that God will give them some divine intervention and that they'll find her and that will find her alive and well and just pissed off that she's so muddy," Wildeman added.
The U.S. State Department and Sorensen’s Indian tour group have maintained constant contact with the family, according to Wildeman.
Furthermore, Chinese and Nepalese officials assured the family that extensive boots on the ground are committed to finding her.
"We trust, and we believe that they are doing everything that they can. And it is another incredible godsend that they committed to it," Wildeman said.
Anyone who may have seen Sorensen can reach Brian Wildeman by phone at 770-331-5415 or by email at bjwildeman@aol.com.
Missing flyer for Mary Sorensen
What we don't know:
Authorities have not confirmed Sorensen's current location or condition. It remains unclear how many people trapped in flood-damaged structures survived.
Dig deeper:
The combined death toll in Nepal and China surpassed 950, with more than 4,400 people missing. At least 900 workers were unaccounted for across 12 hydropower projects damaged by flash floods in Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts, according to the Associated Press.
About 500 of those hydropower workers were believed to be trapped inside tunnels. Army officials in Nepal recovered four bodies from three mud-filled tunnels as search efforts intensified.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from the son of Mary Sorensen, Brian Wildeman, who provided personal statements and contact details, as well as official statements from Nepal’s army and disaster reports.