Rabi Chitrakar has been watching the news and scrolling through the Internet at his home in Beechville, N.S., trying to get a sense of the scope of the tragedy in his homeland.
He and other Nepalese Canadians in the area are frantically trying to contact loved ones by phone or online.
“I finally got a hold of my sister and mother and heard that they were fine, but I struggled quite a bit to get a hold of my other friends and other relations,” Chitrakar said.
Many of the ancient temples and palaces in Chitrakar’s photos from a recent trip to Nepal are now in ruins.
Paresh Lacoul said his parents are safe for the moment, but aftershocks keep coming.
“Now there are 27 tremors that have been felt, on the scale from three to four to five on the Richter Scale,” Lacoul said.
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake was followed by avalanches near Mount Everest.
Arzun Banskoda’s family live in one of the hardest hit areas. He was relieved to find out they are safe.
“There’s a lot of casualties and a lot of damage. Mostly the old wood houses, they collapse,” he said.
Banskoda said the wooden temples and palaces that were destroyed are a major tourist attraction, and their loss will have a major impact on the local economy.
With files from CTV Altantic’s Ron Shaw
