Search continues for Schaumburg High graduate swept away by flash flood in Hawaii

A Schaumburg High School graduate remains the subject of a search on the island of Hawaii after she and a hiking companion were carried away by a flash flood last Friday, officials said.

Kelly Mrowinski attended Schaumburg High School from 2004 to 2007 and is now employed as a traveling nurse by Aya Healthcare, based in San Diego, California.

Officials from the Hawaii Fire Department confirmed Thursday that a woman in her late 20s had been hiking with a man along the Wailuku River near the Piihonua Falls when they were both swept away by a flash flood.

The man made it to shore, but the woman has not been located. A search remained under way Thursday, authorities said.

Family members of Mrowinski in Schaumburg declined to comment Thursday and asked that their privacy be respected.

Erin Stafford, marketing director for Aya Healthcare, said its traveling nurses work on short-term contracts, often 13 weeks long, at hospitals across the U.S.

Mrowinski's assignment in Hawaii was her fifth contract, but Stafford could not immediately say where the others had been.

Aya Healthcare has reached out with emotional and financial support to Mrowinski's family as well as her roommate and fellow employee in Hawaii, Stafford said.

“We can only imagine what they must be feeling right now and want to make sure that they know we're here to help,” the company said in a statement Thursday. “We've offered our support and are doing everything we can to be of assistance at such a difficult time. Kelly, her family and friends are all in our thoughts and prayers.”

According to Mrowinski's Facebook page, she previously was a registered nurse at Northwestern Medicine, studied nursing at Saint Xavier University in Chicago and was a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.