Canada responds as death toll from Nepal quake passes 3,200
Postmedia Network
First posted: Sunday, April 26, 2015 02:16 PM EDT
The death toll from Saturday's earthquake in Nepal has exceeded 3,200, officials said early Monday.
The 7.9 quake, which also resulted in Mount Everest's worst disaster with at least 17 people killed, was the strongest since 1934 when 8,500 people were killed, Reuters reports.
On Sunday, doctors moved hundreds of patients onto the streets of Nepal's capital Kathmandu when aftershocks rattled hospitals and buildings already damaged. Reuters reported that sick and wounded people lay on a dusty road outside Kathmandu Medical College while hospital workers carried more patients out of the building on stretchers and sacks.
Aid agencies around the world wasted no time appealing for donations to help Nepal. And with Kathmandu's airport reopening Sunday, the first aid flights began arriving with supplies.
David Morley, UNICEF Canada's president, said the agency's field teams "are updating us on the widespread devastation children in Nepal are facing today, horrors no child should have to live through."
UNICEF's Rupa Joshi was in Nepal when the earth shook.
"Last night was a sleepless one for most people in Kathmandu," she wrote in an e-mail. "It was for me. Sleep does not come easily when the earth shakes violently every now and then. Sometimes it starts with a gentle rocking, followed by the strange noises that homes make when an earthquake rolls in. At other times, we feel violent shakes that seem capable of uprooting the house, trees, anything."
The Canadian government pledged $5 million Saturday and said it is sending its Disaster Assistance Response Assessment Team (DART) to the country.
"Our officials in the region are working with Nepalese and Indian authorities to ensure that any Canadians affected by the earthquake are safe and accounted for," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement Saturday.
Canada's assessment team and DART members left from CFB Trenton, Ont., on Sunday night.
Foreign Affairs says it's aware of 388 Canadians in Nepal, but spokesman Diana Khaddaj said that figure is only an estimate as registration is voluntary.
Kali Pokhrel, Nepal's ambassador to Canada, described the earthquake as the worst natural disaster the country has seen in decades.
"This is something we have not experienced in our lifetime," Pokhrel said, who added falling debris killed one of his relatives.
Rahul Singh of GlobalMedic -- a Canadian disaster response charity -- said it too has sent a team from India to Nepal, with a team from Canada on its way over the weekend.
"It's a very big earthquake," Singh said. "We need the public support."
Canadians with friends and family desperately tried to contact loved ones in Nepal on the weekend.
Prasanna Man Shrestha, president of the Calgary Nepalese Community Association, said he spent three long hours trying to get hold of his family.
"The mobile service collapsed there, so it's very hard to get connected ... if you get connected you are very lucky," he said. "It's a nightmare.
"I managed to contact my brother and all my family members are safe, but my home where I grew up is destroyed. Everything is gone. It's very hard to visualize."
Shrestha said social media is proving to be useful, and families are seeing short, quick posts from their loved ones on Twitter and Facebook, saying "I am safe."
If you have Canadian friends or family in the earthquake-affected region, you can call 1-800-387-3124.
-- With files from Reuters
Canada responds as death toll from Nepal quake passes 3,200 | Canada | News | To
Ottawa man in Nepal describes quake-rattled surroundings
By
Dani-elle Dube, Ottawa Sun First posted: Sunday, April 26, 2015 02:09 PM EDT | Updated: Sunday, April 26, 2015 08:51 PM EDT
Brett Starke will always remember the sound of crows when he looks back at his experience surviving Saturday’s earthquake in Nepal.
“The crows always started cawing about 10 seconds before a tremor,” said Starke, 29. “I’m going to take that memory away from here. That sound is always going to remind me of Kathmandu.”
The Ottawa man was just one day away form starting his trek to Mount Everest Base Camp with a group from the Dream Mountains Foundation — which includes 22 members from Eastern Ontario — when the area was hit with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake.
Starke told the Ottawa Sun on Sunday what it was like to be in the middle of so much devastation.
“I was in my room with my roommate (Matt Carson) and we were laying in our beds,” said Starke. “At first I wasn’t sure if (the shaking) was normal and didn’t think much of it. But when the closet doors and drawers started opening and slamming shut, I knew there was a problem. That was the point we headed downstairs.”
When Starke and Carson entered the hallway, they remember it being hard to see through thick clouds of dust.
“We went downstairs into the courtyard and noticed the fish from the pond were all over the lawn and about a third of the water from the pool had spilled over. Then there was another earthquake,” said Starke.
And as soon as they could, team members rushed onto e-mail and Facebook to let friends and family back home know that they were safe. No one from the group was injured.
Since the earthquake, Starke said that there have been 30 aftershocks.
And because of the unpredictable nature of the earthquake, the residents at the hotel that Starke and his team were staying at were advised to camp outside in the courtyard by the hotel manager.
“The situation is calm as can be through now,” said Starke. “It’s a hard picture to paint. We’re literally in a beautiful courtyard with a pagoda, swans, flowers and birds chirping. There’s tons of food and water for everyone at the hotel so we’re in great hands.”
Starke also said that the hotel continues to have power, Wi-fi, running hot and cold water and that they are in the best case scenario possible.
“Spirits are high,” said Starke. “Many of us are on social media trying to tell our versions of what happened. I don’t think we will ever be able to explain what we’ve seen to people who weren’t here but it brought our team together and we’re the closest we’ve ever been.”
dani-elle.dube@sunmedia.ca
Ottawa man Brett Starke was in Kathmandu, Nepal, Saturday April 25, 2015, during the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has left hundreds dead. Starke overlooks some of the earthquake's aftermath from a balcony. submitted by Brett Starke to the Ottawa Sun
Ottawa man in Nepal describes quake-rattled surroundings | Ontario | News | Toro
Canadians await word from loved ones in Nepal
Dani-Elle Dube, Postmedia Network
First posted: Monday, April 27, 2015 06:26 AM EDT | Updated: Monday, April 27, 2015 06:42 AM EDT
Canadians with family in earthquake-ravaged Nepal are experiencing the joy of hearing loved ones are safe and the overwhelming panic of no news.
Sudbury, Ont., resident Steve Walter is one of the people who's left waiting for word.
His son Cody, 28, is missing in Nepal where he and a friend were hiking in the mountains. They haven't been heard from in more than three days.
The worried dad hopes that because his son was in the mountains and not the city he will be safe and is unable to call home because communication has been poor since Saturday's 7.8 earthquake.
"That's obviously what I'm hoping," Walter said. "They weren't in the city at the time, so my thoughts are that they're probably just out of communication with everybody, because they're hiking.
"They weren't that high up. They weren't hiking to the top of the mountains; they were just doing a 20-day hike at the lower levels."
Ottawa's Brett Starke will always remember the sound of crows when he looks back at his experience surviving Saturday's earthquake in Nepal.
"The crows always started cawing about 10 seconds before a tremor," said Starke, 29. "I'm going to take that memory away from here. That sound is always going to remind me of Kathmandu."
The Ottawa man was just one day away form starting his trek to Mount Everest Base Camp with a group of 22 from the Dream Mountains Foundation when the earthquake struck, killing more than 3,200 people.
"I was in my room with my roommate (Matt Carson) and we were laying in our beds," Starke told Postmedia Network on Sunday. "At first I wasn't sure if (the shaking) was normal and didn't think much of it. But when the closet doors and drawers started opening and slamming shut, I knew there was a problem. That was the point we headed downstairs."
When Starke and Carson entered the hallway, they remember it being hard to see through thick clouds of dust.
"We went downstairs into the courtyard and noticed the fish from the pond were all over the lawn and about a third of the water from the pool had spilled over. Then there was another earthquake," Starke said.
And as soon as they could, team members rushed onto e-mail and Facebook to let friends and family back home know that they were safe. No one from the group was injured.
Ottawa-based filmmaker Elia Saikaly is among the climbers on Mount Everest who survived the avalanche.
Saikaly, who was on the mountain for filming a project, was at Mount Everest Base Camp when the avalanche hit.
According to social media posts from Saikaly, the 24 hours after the earthquake were devastating.
"Dozens were critically injured by the avalanche and many are deceased," he wrote in a Facebook update Sunday. "It's all been incredibly surreal. A nightmare I desperately want to wake up from."
Saikaly described a vivid scene that revealed a lot of death and emotion. "Bodies remain wrapped in blue tarp awaiting evacuation," he said. "Blood on the white snow, bodies being carried by stretchers and ladders."
Saikaly was also part of the team to help move the body of his friend, Goggle executive Dan Fredinburg, who died in the avalanche.
"I can't even explain the grief and shock I felt," Saikaly said. "I held his toe after we lay him down. Tears flow down my face as I said goodbye to his beautiful soul. My head weeps for his closest friends and family." According to his website, Saikaly has climbed Mount Everest twice before and has been a part of 16 other expeditions around the world.
He is also a former actor, model and MuchMusic VJ and has appeared on numerous Canadian and American broadcasts including NBC, CBS, CTV and CBC.
In Calgary, the words “I’m alive” is all one family got from their loved one in Nepal late Saturday evening before the line went dead.
Time stood still until that point for the family of Jeremy Davidson, 25, as they desperately waited for the phone to ring ... to hear those words.
Davidson landed in Katmandu April 20 to spend two weeks volunteering at Pema Chuling Monastery.
The young humanitarian’s aunt, Tiara Falica, told Postmedia Network that Davidson would normally call home every time he’d come down from the mountain monastery.
This time they weren’t so sure they were going to get that call.
“We’re happy, but we’re still really worried. We don’t know that he’s out of danger yet,” Falica said.
“Now we wait.”
A skilled mountaineer from Edmonton cheated death after the base camp he and his team were in was hit first with a massive earthquake, then by an avalanche in the Himalayas.
"It shook here at base camp. The whole mountain at base camp was covered in mist, it just went on and on," said Al Hancock in a voice mail message from his satellite phone to his spokesman, Olivia Pilip on Saturday.
Hancock was at a base camp on Annapurna - the first 8,091-metre summit attempt scheduled over three years in his attempt to be the first Canadian to scale all 14 of the world's mountain peaks over 8,000 metres - when the earthquake struck.
"We were so lucky, we got down from the mountain yesterday," Hancock said in his message, adding, "it just wasn't meant to be."
The earthquake hit, followed by an avalanche that buried Hancock and his team members, including two Sherpas, in their tents.
Hancock escaped by cutting through the fabric of his tent with a knife and crawling through, but Hancock and his Sherpas quickly turned from victims to rescuers as they helped their teammate.
Against all odds, no one in Hancock's team was injured.
Faye Kennedy's family, meanwhile, hasn't heard from her in more than a week.
That ordinarily wouldn't trouble them. But since she's trekking in the Langtang National Park area of Nepal, their concern is growing and Kennedy's family has yet to have any updates on the 32-year-old.
"It's a difficult situation," said Justin Piche, Kennedy's brother-in-law. "We're hoping for the best."
Kennedy left Ottawa early April, Piche said, but didn't reach Kathmandu, Nepal, until April 20 -- the last time her family heard from her.
Because of her remote location in Langtang National Park, which is about 65 km north of Kathmandu, the family didn't expect to hear from Kennedy again until May 2, before she flew to her next destination in Tibet.
Since news of the devastating earthquake broke, her family has been doing everything they can to try and locate her.
"We're assuming she's still at the National Park," Piche said. "But we were told by the travel company she was dealing with that there is only one helicopter in the area tracking people down. And unless she was one of the first airlifted back to Kathmandu, she's likely still there.
"Given the damage that's been done and the fact that she's in a rural area we could be waiting for quite a long time before we hear back from her," said Piche.
And until then, Kennedy's family is sitting on pins and needles.
"We're just supporting each other and keeping an eye on the news and social media and waiting to hear anything," Piche said. "There's nothing much we can do."
-- With files from Dani-Elle Dube, Damien Wood, Claire Theobald and Mary Katherine Keown
dani-elle.dube@sunmedia.ca
Canadians await word from loved ones in Nepal | Canada | News | Toronto Sun
