Nepal earthquake: 'Pure terror' for homebound Kiwi

Lucette Dillon from Auckland was in Kathmandu working at an orphanage at the time of the quake. Photo / Supplied

A 29-year-old Aucklander was in a three story building in the Kalimati area of Kathmandu when the first earthquake hit

Lucette Dillon says she will never be able to describe the "pure terror" she experienced in Kathmandu on Saturday, as the deadly 7.8 earthquake violently shook the house she was in.

The 29-year-old Aucklander was in a three story building in the Kalimati area of Kathmandu when the first earthquake hit. She said she could hear local families in the floors above "screaming and screaming" as the room shook.

"It was a massive shake - the first one. You were shaken from side to side - there's no way you would have been able to stand up or run out of the building."

Miss Dillon had only been in the Nepalese capital a week, volunteering in a local orphanage. She said once they were able to evacuate the house, the street outside was "just mayhem" with people running out of buildings crying and screaming.

"We saw a young child - I don't know what happened to his leg but it was severely broken or damaged, and another woman came out and apparently her skull was cracked and she was bleeding everywhere.

"I think they were trying to tie a scarf or something around her but she was heavily bleeding and the boy was also - I don't know where he went in the chaos, but it was severely broken or crushed - his leg."

Miss Dillon said her group were forced to stay on the street overnight as walls at both ends of the road had collapsed.

"We were trapped in, the brick walls had collapsed, the power lines had come down and there was just a lot of debris everywhere."

She spent the night under a corrugated iron shelter with 16 others -- 10 locals, including eight children, and the five other international volunteers from the orphanage.

She said it was sleepless night constantly interrupted by aftershocks.

"You could just hear people for miles screaming and crying every time there was another one - it was terrifying."

Miss Dillon said the group left early the next morning, climbed over the rubble blocking the road and started walking to the airport. The scene that met them was sobering, she said.

"We saw a huge number of buildings that had been collapsed to dust. All the temples were destroyed that we had been at all week. They had just collapsed.

"There was people everywhere, everyone was on the street... people are just outside with nothing - they've got no food, no water, no electricity, no clothes. They're just all sitting outside waiting."

Miss Dillon's group were able to catch a taxi to the airport after walking for half an hour.
She was then able to catch a flight out of Kathmandu around 2pm on Sunday. She described the relief and emotion of those on board the plane as it finally took off.

"We had another big 6.5 earthquake just as we were about to board, so we had to evacuate the airport again and we thought they were going to cancel the flight.

"So when we actually got in the air, the whole aeroplane cheered and clapped and people just started crying. People were just embracing and crying."

Miss Dillon was last night waiting in a Bangkok hotel for her connecting flight to Auckland. She was expecting to arrive back in New Zealand tomorrow morning.
She said she was still very shaken by it all.

"I will never be able to describe how afraid I was. I couldn't sleep last night - I had to sleep with the lights on. My legs are still shaking."