A Whangarei nurse was among volunteers working in a hospital in Nepal who snatched their belongings and ran to open ground when the second big earthquake jolted the Asian country.
Donna Collins said the May 12 earthquake was "pretty scary" and she felt the hospital moving in all directions and saw huge pine trees moving and swaying for ages.
The women's health nurse and midwife is part of the New Zealand Red Cross Disaster Response Team assessing health of communities affected by the first earthquake, which claimed more than 4000 lives.
Luckily, she said, there was little damage in Dhunche, about 45km from the capital Kathmandu, although people were still fearful of returning to sleep in their homes.
"One of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen was one of the big Spanish guys, called Elisardo, carrying out one of the wheelchair-bound children with cerebral palsy.
"The minute the quake struck, he raced upstairs and retrieved her. The kids filed downstairs and were hysterical, shaking and crying," she said.
Ms Collins said the Canadian and Philippine Red Cross teams had set up a surgical hospital in the grounds of the hospital in Dhunche where she was working.
"Women are birthing in tents and the operating theatre is in a dome tent next door, with Caesarean section capability."
As a health delegate for the regional disaster response team, Ms Collins is now with the Spanish Red Cross unit in Kalikasthan. They specialise in water and sanitation, and are based near a local hospital that houses a dozen disabled children whose carers disappeared after the second earthquake.
She said aftershocks were experienced on a daily basis.
"I'm getting very pro at aftershocks, as there was one at 3am next morning that I slept through, but woke to find a Spanish colleague freaking out, running out of the tent yelling in Spanish.
"I then heard the kids upstairs in the hospital crying, so realised the earth had shaken again."
This week, she is working with a group of displaced people from the mountain villages, who are fearful that huge cracks in the hillsides will result in landslides and avalanches once the rainy season begins early next month.
Ms Collins said there was an increase in people suffering from fever, laryngitis and diarrhoea, skin rashes and infections.
A lot of work still remained as aid workers moved into the recovery phase, Ms Collins said.
"We have had to trek to many villages to assess them, as road access is either non-existent or blocked by landslides or boulders. I have always wanted to trek in Nepal but never expected to be doing it this way."