Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Earthquake in Haiti

As you can imagine, I am devastated to receive the news of a 7.0 quake to hit Port au Prince. As Ewald and I sit glued to watching CNN. receiving email and test messages from numerous friends of Haiti wanting to know if we have heard from anyone, what is the latest news. We know very little really outside of what CNN has told us. Ewald's girlfriend is safe. Her mom has had a slight injury but their home was destroyed. His mom is ok but we have not heard anything of his sisters and aunt in Port au Prince. The same can be said for our many friends I have made during my visits there.
The place he worked before coming to the US- The UN building on Christopher has collapsed.
We have heard the Montana , a beautiful hotel less than a mile from our HHH property has collapsed. We learned a beloved St. Josephs Home for the street boys has been destroyed, but the thankfully the boys are safe. Wings of Hope sustained damage but the children are safe. St. Germaine is ok. The National Palace and the Cathedral has collapsed.
We continue to wait for news of our own clinic, guesthouse and apartments on the property leased by Healing Hands for Haiti org.
Haiti is not a country that is prepared to handle disasters- whether it is in the form of hurricanes or tropicals storms as we learned in 2008, or the collapse of a school soon after- this is impossible.

I feel helpless and I want to be there.

2 comments:

Nitrile Gloves said...

It is becoming clear that the damage has been catastrophic. Slum areas have also been badly hit by landslides. Haiti has a lot of problems as it is and this disaster risks the country sliding into an even worse state. nitrile gloves

*~~**~~**~ Sheree said...

I wish we could be there too!!!