Springs man recounts earthquake while in Nepal

A Colorado Springs man was in Nepal more than a week ago, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit.

Jerry Rhodes and 15 others were trekking through Nepal in late April. On the 25th, they planned to arrive at base camp. They were less than 2 miles away, getting ready, when the earthquake hit.

“Some of us thought maybe it was our yak handlers bringing yak which carried a lot of the equipment and supplies for us, but then it got worse and I think we all realized within seconds, it was an earthquake,” he said. “It seemed like eternity, but it was probably 30 seconds, 45 seconds that it was shaking, and it was enough to knock you off your feet.”

Next, came the avalanche. Rhodes and the group barely missed it, because they were running behind schedule.

“The universe is a crazy place, and timing is everything,” he said. “Had we been 15 minutes earlier, we would’ve been caught with it. Had we been 24 hours later, we would’ve been caught in the destruction down the trail.”

The group returned to a building where they had stayed previously, only to find it had been destroyed. It was a common scene along the trail.

“You see entire walls, entire buildings just collapsed,” he said. “As we were coming out of Nepal, as we were heading down the hill, we stopped at a place where one gentleman had lost about everything. He lost the entire top floor of his dwelling. He had no running water, nothing at all, but he opened up his home to us.”

Rhodes encourages anyone who feels compelled to help, to do so.

He and his companions were picked up and taken to Kathmandu via helicopter. From there, he flew to India, then to Newark, then Chicago, before arriving in Colorado Springs Friday.