We just stood stunned for a few minutes and I wasn't really sure what to do with myself. We could see a downed building and power lines down the road.
As it turned out, the hotel on the corner I had walked by on my way back to meeting Andrew had collapsed into the washing/courtyard area below. An astute man staying at our hostel started searching for people in the base of the ruined hotel and I did my best to help. He really knew what he was doing as he shouted to the woman beneath the rubble "cover your nose and mouth with your scarf!" and other mixed tidbits of reassurance and advice as we passed bricks along and tried to dig out the buried hotel guests.
Many people gathered on top of the rubble of the hotel where it had fallen into the sunken courtyard/washing area. The edges of the courtyard walls nearest to where the hotel had fallen were beginning to crumble, and as the Nepalese Army arrived they called for everyone to step back.
We waited out the first few of many aftershocks in the middle of a neighboring hotel's courtyard as we tried to figure out what to do. I left to look for some food (we didn't even have snacks) and found one of the few corner stores open (most places shut down immediately) and bought some cheese and crackers that I took back and we shared with those around us. Eventually, we heard that we might be able to grab a taxi from a main road a few blocks away. We hauled our packs (including my ginourmous bag of winter gear and souvenirs) to the road and a kind taxi driver got us to the airport.
Amazingly, Andrew's plane made it out that night. I had not yet made any plans for after he left, so I ended up just staying at the airport that night (and the next). I booked the next flight out I could get. As someone who had no ties to Nepal beyond tourism, I thought I would be more burden than use if I tried to stay. I had nowhere to stay, nothing to eat, nowhere to go.
