The earthquake happened on Tuesday evening. All communication was cut off. We did not know what was going on except for what we were reading on the internet and on the radio.. Because of the heavy cloud cover here, we could not watch CNN. I wanted to go to Port au Prince, but with no telephone communication, I knew it could get complicated.
Thursday morning, around 11, the telephone started to work slowly. Just one company. So, we could try to reach anyone subscribed with Voila. However, people in Port au Prince could not be reached because there was no power to charge the phone. Some have lost their phones and it takes a lot of time to get through.
We arrived in Port au Prince at 5:00. However, it took over two and one-half hours to travel a one mile road to the airport. People were coming in to look for their loved ones and others are leaving town. We saw many people on top of roofs digging up collapsed buildings. Stockpiles of dead human beings were everywhere. At the cemetery, and in open fields, they dig large holes and fill them up. We found at one cemetery where they had put a pile of dead people and burned them with gasoline. To ignite the fire, they used old tires. The smoke was going up and I called it the Smoke of Hell.There is no fuel. However, there are lines of people by the gas station. They are just hoping that there will somehow be gasoline.There are no government ministries. Most of them have been crushed. Some Senators, some deputies, a lot of High government officials have lost their lives. There is no one in Haiti that has not lost a loved one. The schools and universities have been crushed to the ground with students underneath. The earthquake happened at the end of the day when most people were still at work. Many banks had all their employees and clients under the rubble.There is no water, no electricity, no open stores and no food. Dead people are piled by hundreds and dump trucks come by to pick them up. All the markets have been destroyed. The prisons have been crushed. The prisoners are on the streets and the earthquake has killed some of them. There is a lot of pillage, lootings, and rapes. There was even yesterday exchange of fire between the police and thieves. People fear their homes will fall again. Everyone sleeps on the streets where there is the smell of dead flesh. Banks are closed, churches have been destroyed. There is nothing left. The people sleeping on the streets don't know how long they will be forced to live there. They don't even know if they will ever return to their homes and have normal lives.
Port au Prince is a metropolitan center with 4 million people coming from all corners of Haiti. There is no money, no vehicles, no where to go.I left on Thursday morning and came back in the middle of the night with 18 people in the double cab Toyota. It was mainly students from CSS who are in Port au Prince for university education. Now their houses and apartments are destroyed and they are homeless. On Friday morning, I went back. We spent all day looking for Sainsoirs two daughters. One of them was found and the other one was nowhere to be found. We were looking for two other girls who go to nursing school in Port au Prince. On our way back, Sainsoir's daughter called us and we will go back on Sunday to pick her up. We rescued 23 people and we were back by 11:45 PM. Unfortunately, we had 6 flat tires.Today, Saturday, we bought 4 brand new tires. One family from the church had a daughter who is a nurse and who went to Port au Prince to look for a job. Both she and her son were found dead. The same family could not locate their son. He was found alive under the ruins of a government building. His leg is almost destroyed. We will pick him up on Sunday to take him to a hospital. A man from the Grande Riviere church has been found with multiple injuries. He will come back with us.
After I finish this e-mail I will head to Pignon where I will spend the night and need to be in Port au Prince before 8:am.My cousin's daughter was killed in school as the building collapsed and everyone inside was killed. A graduate of CSS, Sterly Manigat, was killed. Many other friends and loved ones were destroyed.I have seen death, but I don't understand it. I have seen the lives of people destroyed and I cannot understand it. However, I trust in the Lord and that He has a purpose for everything. Above everything His name will be praised and there will be a reason to see His glory in the midst of chaos. Please pray for our safety as we travel at nighttime and everywhere. Please pray for strength.