UPDATE: Monday 6.30pm: Spalding man Jake Whyles, who was close to the epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal at the weekend, is “safe and well”.
Jake’s mum Maria contacted the Spalding Voice to say Jake had been in touch from Doha, the capital of Qatar, where he was staying in a hotel after catching a flight out of the disaster zone.
He was expecting to catch a flight to Barcelona at midnight and due to arrive in Spain at 7am on Tuesday.
Maria said: “I can breathe now I know he’s OK”.
MONDAY 4pm: A terrified mum said she planned her son’s funeral in her head during a day-long wait to hear if he had survived the terrible earthquake that has killed thousands in Nepal.
Maria Whyles was glued to news coverage of the 7.8 magnitude disaster on Saturday as she feared the worst for her 24-year-old son Jake, who has been in Nepal since February.
Speaking from her home in Spring Street, Spalding, Maria said: “As the hours went by we became more and more concerned.
“We didn’t know where he was in Nepal and I was sure that if he was alive he would have been in touch.
“I posted on all the disaster websites, trying to find any news of what had happened to him, and I even planned his funeral in my head.”
Maria knew that Jake had been planning to catch a flight from Kathmandu to Barcelona on Sunday, but didn’t know if he was in the capital when the quake happened just 80km away.
In fact, Jake, a former Spalding Grammar School pupil, was staying in the town of Pokhara, about 80km west of the earthquake’s epicentre when the disaster happened, ready to make his way to the airport the following day.
It wasn’t until 4am on Sunday morning when Maria finally heard from him – but the relief of knowing he was alive soon turned to fear.
Maria said: “My partner and I were taking it in turns to get a bit of sleep and stay at the computer in case he got in touch.
“I had just gone to sleep when Jake came online on Facebook.
“He said he was in Pokhara and had seen a cliff falling down, but at first he had thought it was just a small earthquake.
“He sent me a picture (left) of where he had slept out in the open with some monks.
“As he made his way along the road to Kathmandu, he said the scale of the disaster had become clear.
“He said there was rubble everywhere, electricity cables hanging down, buildings had collapsed.
“He said it was all totally crazy and the atmosphere was really dark.
“He described ambulances everywhere and rescue teams dragging dead bodies out of the rubble.
“I told him that I thought one of those dead bodies was going to be him.”
Unfortunately, the pair’s conversation ended abruptly with Jake’s message . . . “It’s happening again.”
Maria believes that was as the massive aftershock hit.
She is now once again in limbo, waiting to hear from Jake, who had still been hoping to catch his plane to Barcelona, due to land at 8pm tonight (Monday).
She said: “I know that he only had a little bit of battery on his phone, so I’m clinging on to the hope that he hasn’t been able to get back in touch because of that.
“It’s been a nightmare, just waiting for news.
“We are such a close family and Jake is a lovely person. There has been a lot of love for him online.
“He is really close to his sister, Tilly (15) who is just about to start her GCSEs at Spalding High School.
“She’s gone off to school today, trying to concentrate while not knowing what’s happening to her brother.
“But I believe that boy really does have nine lives and I don’t suppose for a minute that this will stop him going off travelling again – though I would definitely prefer it if he didn’t.”
