Ottawa's Faye Kennedy injured but safe after Nepal earthquake
Trekker makes first contact with family 2 days after magnitude 7.8 quake
An Ottawa woman who had not been heard from since Saturday's devastating earthquake in Nepal suffered minor injuries but is safe in Kathmandu, her family told CBC News.
Faye Kennedy, 32, was trekking with two friends in Nepal's Langtang National Park when the magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit outside the capital of Kathmandu, killing more than 4,000 people.
Kennedy's family said her two friends are still at the park, where hundreds of people are dead.
"She says it's horrible. She says she's lucky to be alive," her sister Lisa Kennedy told CBC News. "She says it's been beyond harrowing and beyond scary. That she left her friends amongst hundreds of dead bodies in Langtang. It's just beyond what I can even comprehend."
Kennedy's family said they'd been scrambling to try and find information about her through the weekend.
Just after noon on Monday, her family told CBC News that Kennedy had been in touch via email after being airlifted to Kathmandu.
"It's relief but it's a whole new fear now," her sister said. "We just want to get her back. Get her fixed up."
Hundreds of Canadians missing
Other people with connections to the Ottawa area were among the hundreds of Canadians missing after the earthquake, including Abha Satyal's husband Sam Caldbick, who was travelling in the same area as Kennedy.
Sam Caldbrick has since turned up safe.
"It's like a nightmare, you just can't believe it," Satyal said before her husband was able to get in touch with her. "The villages in the area he was trekking have been wiped out, the place he called from last time — the whole village has been wiped out. We're really worried."
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The International Committee of the Red Cross has an online message board where people can be reported missing.
CBC News has also heard from people who survived the earthquake and its aftermath, including filmmaker Elia Saikaly, whose camp near the Mount Everest base camp was hit by an avalanche.
Foreign Affairs has been tweeting out the phone number and email address for Canadians needing emergency consular assistance in Nepal: + 977 (1) 444-1976 and email: [email protected].
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