South Jersey Woman Shares Story Of Surviving Nepal Earthquake

By Cheryl Elias

HADDONFIELD, N.J. (CBS) -- The humanitarian effort is underway in Nepal where a massive earthquake struck on April 25th, killing more than 7,000 people, some Americans among them.

But for one South Jersey woman, the natural disaster is a story of survival.

At first, the phone call Elaine Ercolani received from her 26-year-old daughter Kate didn't sink in.

"I was awakened in the middle of the night by her phone call and hadn't known anything about an earthquake," Elaine says. "So when the call ended abruptly, I then got up and went to the computer and was horrified by the sights they were posting, and was scared to death for her."

Kate, from Haddonfield, Camden County, was having lunch in a restaurant in Kathmandu when the earth moved under her feet.

"Birds went up in the sky and then like a low rumble started happening," Kate says. "It sounds kind of like a train coming."

Kate and her friends who were staying at the Secret Garden Guesthouse, which was still intact, rolled up their sleeves to clear rubble in the streets.

"It was never on my list of places to go," Kate says. "I just happened to go."

And after sleeping very little for four days under the stars, Kate grabbed the last available seat on a commercial flight home where she was greeted by her relieved mother at Philadelphia International Airport.

"And boy was it great to see her coming through customs," Elaine says.

Kate's survival has taught her an important life lesson:

"Expect the unexpected," she says. "Of all the things that I thought could possibly happen to me or maybe were even in the realm of being possible to happen to me this wasn't one of them."

Kate's experience in Nepal is not slowing her down. She will be packing again soon, bound this time for Australia.