Nepal earthquake affects hundreds of Canadians
Survivors recount tales of avalanches, crumbling buildings, chaotic aftermath
Theearthquake in Nepal killed and injuredthousands of peopleand caused destruction from the capitalKathmandu to small villages to Mount Everest.
There are 462 Canadians registered in Nepal, but registration is voluntary, so the number of people in the countryis almost certainlyhigher.
Here are stories fromsome of the hundreds ofCanadians who have been caught in the chaos.
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Joan and Kelsey Griffith-Parker, Winnipeg
Joan and Kelsey Griffith-Parkerhad beenon MountEverest just two days before thequake triggeredan avalanche.
"I checked the news at 8 a.m. It wasn't until about three or four hours later that we got a call they were all right," said family member Lauren Griffith-Parker in Winnipeg. "We were definitely really scared and praying a lot."
Griffith-Parker said this was her sisterKelsey's first attemptatthe climb, while her mom Joan did it almost 30 years ago.
Griffith-Parker got both an email and a call this weekend from her sister and mother reassuring her they made their descent two days before the earthquake andare safe.
Al Hancock, Edmonton
"You probably heard the news, we had a major, major earthquake today," Hancockcan be heard saying on a voicemail message sent hours after his team was buried by snow.
Hancock said the avalanche buried him and hisclimbingteam in their tents as theyslept, recovering from an unsuccessful attempt on the summit hours earlier.
"We had to use knives to cut our way out," he said.
Faye Kennedy, Ottawa
Her family told CBC News Monday that Kennedy had been in touch via email and said she was "incredibly lucky to be OK,"though "very injured" and has been airlifted to Kathmandu.
Kennedy, who works in the public service, was travelling with two friends, her family said.
Before she called, her sister,Lisa Kennedy, said family members werescouring social media, contacting those in Nepal directly for information, because there hadbeenlittle official information out ofLangtangNational Park compared to the Everest base camp.
"From what we're seeing, it's chaos," she said then.
Emilie-Anne Leroux, Montreal
Leroux, 28, says she was in a taxi on the way to theairport to return to Canada to be with her father who is havingheart surgery when the quake hit.
It felt like the car "had four flat tires at differentmoments," Leroux said Sunday, adding she thought it was car trouble until the driver stopped and let her out.
The groundwas shaking so much that everyone was holding onto handrailsat the side of the street "because we thought we could fall if wedidn't hang on," she said.
Aedan Magee, Vancouver
Michael Magee, chief of staff for Vancouver Mayor GregorRobertson, awoke to a phone call early Saturday assuring him thathis20-year-old son Aedan was safe in a campsite outside Pokhara.
Aedan had been staying with a Nepalese family in Pokhara, nearthe quake's epicentre. But he recently left the city fora hike in the mountains with other students in his universityprogram.
"We dodged a bullet," said Magee. "It's nerve-wracking. I feelterrible and heartsick for the tragedy and what it means. At thesame time I'm relieved to have word immediately that my son issafe."
Sheri Meyerhoffer, Calgary
Meyerhoffer, part of an international pro-democracy organization, wasupstairs when the magnitude 7.8earthquake rocked her home. She says she did a "duck and hold" by an inside wall and wasn't injured.
"I broke a nail," she said.
Meyerhoffer says the area has suffered dozens of aftershocks
"This is what keeps you on the edge, you just never know."
Mitchell Pineo, Berwick, N.S.
"I got up and had a text, and then I turned on the news and went 'Oh my goodness,'" she said. "I'm so glad he texted me before I turned on the news."
Pineo, who was in Nepal for a music festival and hiking, told Melansonthere aresigns of the disaster everywhere.
"There's bodies around, buildings collapsing, they're rationing water, it's just mayhem. He described it as a war zone," shesaid.
Elia Saikaly, Ottawa
Elia Saikaly, aclimber and filmmaker from Ottawa, was near the Mount Everest base camp when the earthquake struck.
"Before we knew it, there was this 200- to 300-foot tidal wave of snow heading directly towards us, so we dove into the mess tent, zipped it down and just dove onto the ground and started to pray," Saikaly told CBC News.
Saikalysaid he briefly opened up the tent to film what was happening before a guide pulled him back and closed the tent again.
"All we could do was stay put and wait for the avalanche to subside. ... It felt like an eternity," he said.
When it stopped,Saikalybegan looking for friends. One of them didn't survive.
"He was gone, just like that. ... It's a nightmare that you just want to wake up from."
Reena Vohra, Toronto
Reena Vohra was walking through a narrow alley in anancient city of Bhaktapurwhen the earthquake struck.
The Toronto aid worker fled with a group of her World Visioncolleagues to a nearby shop entrance, where they watched as thehistoric site crumbled around them.
"People were screaming and crying all around me," she said inan email. "I'm still incredibly shaken up. I've never experiencedanything like this."
Elizabeth Weir, Saint John
The former New Brunswick NDP leader tweeted about feeling aftershocks outside Kathmanduand sleeping outside for two nights because of fears of another quake.
"Inconvenient for us but this is life-shattering for so many Nepalis," she wrote.
On the way back to Kathmandu - so many ordinary Nepali families and homes devastated. pic.twitter.com/gTX0vbn2XU
—@ElizabethWeir2More on the earthquake in Nepal
With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press
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