Michael Ryan Keats, a 37-year-old New South Wales man, has become the first Australian confirmed to have died in the devastating flash floods along the Nepal–China border.
His partner, Emily Boyd, confirmed his death in an update to a GoFundMe appeal on Monday evening, after Mr Keats travelled to the region as part of a spiritual pilgrimage to Mount Kailash.
Mr Keats was believed to have been at an immigration centre near the Nepal-Tibet border when the floods struck. His sister, Karen Hayley, previously said he was travelling with a group organised by the Isha Foundation.
In her fundraising post, Ms Boyd wrote: “My partner, Michael, was tragically killed in the devastating floods in Nepal.”
She said Mr Keats had been “an incredibly important part of our family” and was the stepfather of her young son, adding that he was the only father the child had ever known.
“His loss has changed everything for both of us,” she wrote.
Ms Boyd said she was seeking financial support to travel to India with the couple’s son to take part in a spiritual ritual honouring Mr Keats.
She added: “There’s a bittersweetness knowing that there was nothing more that Mike wanted than to know God, and to merge with the divine.”
The Australian Government said on Sunday that 42 Australians remained unaccounted for following the disaster, with consular officers, crisis response personnel and Australian Federal Police deployed to Kathmandu to support the response.
It has committed a further 3 million Australian dollars in humanitarian assistance, bringing its total support for the flood-affected region to 8 million Australian dollars.
