Shelter, fuel, food, medicine, power, news, workers — Kathmandu, Nepal"s earthquake-hit capital, was short on everything Monday as people searched for lost loved ones, sorted through rubble for their belongings and struggled to provide for their families" needs.

In much of the countryside, it was worse, though how much worse was only beginning to become apparent.

The official overall death toll soared past 4,000, even without a full accounting from vulnerable mountain villages that rescue workers were still struggling to reach two days after the disaster.

Udav Prashad Timalsina, the top official for the Gorkha district, where Saturday"s magnitude-7.8 quake was centred, said he was in desperate need of help.

Saturday"s earthquake spread horror from Kathmandu to small villages and to the slopes of Mount Everest, triggering an avalanche that buried part of the base camp packed with foreign climbers preparing to make their summit attempts.

More than 7,180 people were injured in the quake,  estimating that tens of thousands of people had been left homeless.