Peoria pastor's daughter and her family survive Nepal earthquakes

PEORIA — Kristi Loper called it ironic: her Nepal construction company’s building is now structurally unsafe.

The office is vacated, all of its items carefully hauled through a single window, since one wall is so badly mangled and the door is so badly jammed that opening it would cave everything in.

The Envision Builders structure was damaged in the April 25 earthquake, as were thousands of buildings in Kathmandu. The Peoria pastor’s daughter’s home is better, but not by much. Her family camped outside the first six nights after the massive quake rocked Nepal.

“No one knew what would happen for three to four days (after the earthquake) because everything was shut down,” Loper said. “The fear of going into a building was widespread for everyone.”

Loper was briefly back in the United States last week attending a family wedding. She’s the daughter of Dean Grabill, pastor of Peoria First Assembly of God church. Even though it’s been a month since the disaster, Loper said it was strange being here.

“It was an extremely difficult situation to come back,” she said. “For a couple of weeks, I wanted to cancel it because of all the guilt ... for being here when I know it’s broken where I’m leaving.”

Loper grew up in the Midwest before she and her husband, Jason, had college internships in India and stayed with friends in Nepal.

“We went to visit and fell in love with it,” Loper said. “The culture is gentle. The people are very hospitable.”

In 2001, the newlyweds moved to the capital city. They did humanitarian work, then started the construction company. Their three kids, ages 13, 10 and 7, attend an international school. They speak Nepalese.

In the last few years, talk ran through town about a future massive earthquake. Foreigners, like Loper, prepared by buying earthquake alarms and creating emergency kits. But they never knew when the disaster would arrive.

At 11:56 a.m. April 25, the Lopers were leaving church. That’s when it happened.

Loper’s two oldest children ran out of the building, and Loper grabbed her youngest son, attempting to put on his shoes after the service. Her husband ran out a back door through an alley of narrow buildings, and the family reunited outside.

“It was very chaotic. Nepalis are more emotional than Americans. ... People were screaming, praying, singing. There was a lot of noise,” Loper said.

Her family waited in a crowd of 300 as the ground shook and cracks ran through the church walls.

“It was a quick realization for us that this was the ‘big earthquake,’” Loper said.

The family waited two hours, through numerous aftershocks, until they deemed it safe enough to drive between buildings back to their damaged home.

“Our house was still standing, and we’re very thankful for that,” Loper said. “But we weren’t going back into it for a while.”

The family lived outside for nearly a week with limited water supply. The international school was shut down for some time, then closed again when a second earthquake hit May 12. Their business is empty for the time being. Their home is livable, for now, and Loper hopes a government engineer can assess it before the strong monsoon season kicks up next month.

Aid has been streaming into the country, but it’s dwindling, Loper said. She advocates for Convoy of Hope, an organization that provides initial and long term relief to disaster-ridden places. Donations can be made at give.convoyofhope.org/nepal.

Loper hopes people in her native country will keep her new home in their prayers.

“Our Nepalese brothers and sisters are just as devastated now as the day it happened,” she said. “They need help. They can’t be forgotten. They deserve to be remembered.”

Victoria Berkow can be reached at 686-3257 or vberkow@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @thevberks.