haiti update - january 16, 2010

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”
Psalm 46:1-3

On Tuesday afternoon while we were preparing for the arrival of visitors who would be arriving the next day an earthquake struck Haiti without warning at around 4:30pm. A forceful shaking started (around 7.0 magnitude) and I yelled to everyone that it was an earthquake and to get out of the house. The house was shaking and it was difficult to run. We all got bumps and bruises getting out of the house but by God’s grace the house didn’t collapse. People in the neighborhood were screaming and prayers were lifted up to God. The quake ended after only about 2 minutes. 3 of our walls surrounding our property are down or partially down. The wall separating one of our neighbors is completely down.
We went over to Sherri’s house to find that her house had collapsed at the back. One of the children died but everyone else escaped before it fell. There were many injuries and also many deaths in all areas of Port-au-Prince. Fonise Cadeau’s father was hit by a falling wall on Delmas 31 near our house and his son who runs the boutique across from us came asking for help. I will never forget the look on all the people’s faces. It was one of shock. Frenell told me that his father’s leg had been severed almost completely just above the ankle and he asked if we could transport him to hospital. After we went on the street others came running up with injured and we piled everyone into the truck. We tried going to Delmas 33 at Hopital La Paix first and it was chaos there. The medical staff at the hospital fled the building and no care could be provided inside. There was traffic on the streets that made it difficult to advance. We then tried to get to Medecins Sans Frontieres with the same answer. There was nothing open and traffic was heavy. We saw so many large collapsed buildings that we thought were well built.
Several people in the vehicle were severely injured and I was frustrated that they would all die because we couldn’t get medical care for them. Our last idea was to go the Missionaries of Charity on Delmas 31. They took in the wounded and provided care for them. They worked around the clock for the next few days taking care of the wounded. So many of the injuries were amputations and severe compound fractures. We went through the neighborhood and made continuous trips to the Missionaries of Charity with injured children and adults from the Delmas 31 area. When our vehicle was full we told other walking wounded to make their way to the Missionaries of Charity. During this time the Haitian people helped one another and are still doing so. There was an electricity pole that fell on the street leading to the Missionaries of Charity home and we had to carry people the rest of the way. I would ask men who were walking by to help carry and not once did anyone refuse. One man whose eyes were swollen shut from his injuries asked us to help him walk, as he couldn’t see well. People tried to remove rubble with their hands to get at people buried alive under the rubble. The church across our street was destroyed. The 2-story house on our street corner was destroyed killing 3 people inside. People removed dead bodies and set them out on the road. The Haitian press is estimating that 100,000 people died in the earthquake. Many more people were injured. We have been working all week transporting injured to makeshift clinics. Since the earthquake it has been unsafe for people to stay in their homes (that are still standing) because of risk of aftershocks. I am trying to find out when this risk of aftershocks ends. We are camping out in our yard now along with about 80 refugees who come in to sleep at night. We took in one mother and her 3 children who lost her home. Staying here are infants, children and families, mostly from Pastor Marcelin’s church. His church as well was destroyed in the earthquake. Many schools have been destroyed. 2 people who are part of our Coram Deo family that live here are missing and presumed dead. Samuel Marcelin who is a teacher at Adoration Christian School and Jackenmy Millien who is the teacher of our handicapped class here at Coram Deo went to their university that they attend in the afternoon to write their exams. GOC University is a large 3-story building. Samuel’s classes are on the 3rd floor. When the earthquake struck the building completely collapsed. Pastor Marcelin is his father. The family has been going every day to the university site to find news of the rescue/removal efforts going on there. Keep everyone here at Coram Deo and their families in prayer. Amos Marcelin is Samuel’s brother and he has been strong in dealing with his brother’s death and also working to help injured people. He is an amazing person.
The day after the earthquake we visited people we knew to see if they were okay as telephone communication wasn’t an option. We went on foot because we didn’t have much fuel and no gas stations were open. There were lots of bodies lying on the sidewalk. People were hoping that someone would pick them up but nobody did. We were walking down Delmas 33 and we approached what I thought was an artificial leg for a child laying on the sidewalk. We got closer and found it to be the lower leg of a child with the shoe still on the foot. That was all that was there. We walked in front of the state hospital Hopital La Paix. The entire courtyard was full of dead, dying and injured people. Lying on the sidewalk by the road near the hospital gates we saw what we thought was an “albino” Haitian. I took a closer look and saw that it was a missionary and someone that I knew. Barb Lataillade had been brought to Hopital La Paix with a lower leg injury caused by her collapsing home. Her leg was almost severed. A tourniquet was in place. She had been in the yard of the hospital waiting for medical care for the entire evening without any medical care being given. She had asked the person who was with her to put her out front out on the sidewalk and find transportation to go somewhere else. She asked if we could drive her out to Blue Ridge Ministries. She told me that she knew that she would probably need an amputation and just wanted to get to the United States by airplane and get into a hospital there. Mimi of Lamp Foundation was there as well and she found a van driver willing to bring her. We later found out that she made it out of Haiti alive and is now in hospital in the United States. Pray for all those who are suffering.
The entire city of Port-au-Prince is a refugee camp with people sleeping anywhere they can. Yesterday we started visiting refugee camps in the Delmas 31/Cite Aux Cayes area searching for injured people. One large camp in the Cite Aux Cayes area has around 3,000 people there who have lost their homes. Bed sheets are their walls. At first we got harassed a little bit from some of the tougher guys but when they saw we were going to injured people they then walked by and said “Respect”. The Belgian government has opened a tent hospital next to Hopital La Paix on Delmas 33 and we brought a lady from a refugee camp there, as her cut foot was infected and smelling. The Haitian people are thankful for everything being done. Everyone is struggling to get by but are persevering. The security situation is difficult, as all the prisoners have escaped from prison. Wednesday evening a thief armed with a knife entered into the refugee camp by the Apostolique church not far from Coram Deo and the people together killed him. Everyone is in survival mode and the word that is out is that if you steal you will be killed. Prison is not an option. Last night there was a lot of gunfire in the neighborhood. We are keeping the gates locked at all times and controlling access to the yard. We have anything that can be used for defense outside and the guys are monitoring the yard. The guys have an axe, machetes and baseball bat handy. Right now we are our own security. With the amount of people in the yard we have security in numbers. My cousin Jeff is approaching Haiti through the Dominican Republic. He is attempting to cross the border today. My sister Tanya is coming along with a team from Angels to Haiti on Tuesday. They are also traveling through the Dominican Republic and entering Haiti by bus. There are armed guards on the bus to make sure that their passage is secure. Pray for all the work that needs to be done here in Haiti and for the Haitian people during this time. There are a lot of unknowns for the future of Haiti but the Haitian people are strong. Pray for all the missions that are working to help improve the conditions of the people.
That is all the news for the day. So much more has happened but I’ll write another update later.
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo