St. Albert man, trapped by earthquake, helps search for his parents

A St. Albert man who survived the Nepalese earthquake is now mobilizing the search for his missing parents.

When the ground started moving on Saturday, Fraser Macmillan knew exactly why.

He was walking down a sidewalk in the tourist area of Kathmandu.

"When it first hit, everything started shaking," he said. "It's my second earthquake, so I kind of instinctively knew what was going on.

"I ran to the middle of the street. It was shaking to the point that all these brick buildings were going to fall."

He started calculating in his head. How tall is that building? Tall enough that if it falls, it might land on me?

He ran towards smaller buildings, where there was a better chance to survive. The first quake lasted about 60 seconds, he said. Then the aftershocks came.

"My thoughts were with my parents," he said. "Because I knew they were hiking."

Kathy and Bruce Macmillan had spent the past six months travelling in Asia. They planned to meet Fraser and his brother, Jay, in Nepal to go hiking. But after they arrived early in Kathmandu, the couple decided at the last minute to hike into Langtang National Park by themselves.

They were in Langtang when the earthquake hit.

"They had a Nepali cellphone," said Fraser, 28. "I thought I would just be able to call them."

But it wasn't that easy. By that first evening, he learned he couldn't call them. Couldn't reach them.

He got his gear from his guest house, so he could sleep outside in a field, to stay away from danger areas. One little bakery in the area was selling bread and water.

At the Canadian consulate he asked to make an international call. But was told that wasn't possible.

A couple he met there told him the Langtang area had been "wiped out" by an avalanche.

"Then I started getting emotional," he said. "I started thinking that the chances of them being dead have gone way up."

Macmillan has spent the last couple of days at an American rescue compound in Kathmandu, where wifi, he said, "is gold."

There are about 150 people in the tent city now, and they have food and hot showers.

Information is sketchy and hard to come by. He and his brother, who is inIndia, are now connected with a social media group, including many family and friendsback in Canada, who gather whatever information they can and share it on Facebook. Whatever they learn, they share with teams arriving in Nepal to search for survivors.

Fraser Macmillan has not heard from his parents. He doesn't know exactly where they are.

But on Tuesday, he met a girl who had a list of 120 survivors from the Langtang area.

That offers some hope. For now, hope will have to do.