As the death toll in Nepal climbed past 5,000 on Monday because of a devastating weekend earthquake, one San Francisco man survived to describe some of the chaos.
"Two days ago, afternoon violent earthquake, cliffs come down, four or five porters deceased, buried in the rockfall,” Dave Gordon, a US trekker told NBC News on Tuesday from Kathmandu. “We've been there just until an hour ago and we have been flown out."
He was one of the fortunate ones. There were more than 5,000 people killed after Saturday’s 7.8-Magnitude earthquake, including four Americans, including Vinh B. Truong of Sunnyvale, according to the State Department.
Gordon, who was airlifted to safety from the Lantang area, described how a handful of porters were buried under and how others are stuck on badly damaged trails which were badly damaged.
Gordon was poised to fly out of the airport terminal at Kathmandu, but he feared that there are many needing help, and when they get it, it might just be too late.
"The trails are destroyed,” Gordon said. “A lot of the trails are destroyed, people are stuck, they can't get out. It is very bad."
NBC Bay Area's Lisa Fernandez contributed to this report.
