RAMhaiti's latest tweet:
The praying and singing is getting louder..more and more people are gathering..so much suffering..so much destruction
http://twitter.com/ramhaiti
RAMhaiti's latest tweet:
The praying and singing is getting louder..more and more people are gathering..so much suffering..so much destruction
http://twitter.com/ramhaiti
And yet, in it, so much hope and communal support. That, to me is the beauty of it. All these people have gone through something devastating, and yet they're also there to support each other.Originally Posted by Echo
"Attempted murder, I mean really. Do they give a Nobel Prize for attempted physics?" -- Sideshow Bob
Its bad.
Bodies are being put by the side of the Canape Vert road so friends and relatives can come pick them up
26 minutes ago from web
http://twitter.com/ramhaiti
It's so easy to wrap yourself in a cocoon, To pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist.
That these folks who bleed and feel just like we do chose to be born in a place that mother nature could ravage so quickly and ruthlessly.
Can't do it. My prayers are there. I wish I could do more. I cannot imagine the horrors those lucky enough to survive will have to live with for the rest of their days.
God be there. Just be there
my problems can wait
Before and after palace pics here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_421510.html
"Bless the Beasts and the Children" ~~ Carpenters
Ramhaiti tweets:
Time magazine is mis-crediting photos
20 minutes ago from web
Time magazine is printing out of date photos and trying to pass them off for today
20 minutes ago from web
Panic, Looting and Triage After Major Haiti Quake
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 13, 2010
Filed at 8:05 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010...ake-Scene.html
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- The tiny bodies of children lay in piles next to the ruins of their collapsed school. People with faces covered by white dust and the blood of open wounds roamed the streets. Frantic doctors wrapped heads and stitched up sliced limbs in a hotel parking lot.
The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, still struggling to recover from the relentless strikes of four catastrophic storms in 2008, was a picture of heartbreaking devastation Wednesday after a magnitude-7 earthquake.
Tuesday's quake left a landscape of collapsed buildings -- hospitals, schools, churches, ramshackle homes, even the gleaming national palace -- the rubble sending up a white cloud that shrouded the entire capital.
On Wednesday, ambulances weaved in and out of crowds, swerving to miss the bodies lying in street and the men on foot who lugged stretchers bearing some of the injured.
Shocked survivors wandered about in a daze, some wailing the names of loved ones, praying or calling for help. Others with injuries fast growing into infections sat by the roadside, waiting for doctors who were not sure to come.
Search-and-rescue helicopters buzzed over the bodies of partially clothed victims who lay face-down in mounds of rubble and twisted steel.
Everywhere, there was panic, urgency, pleas for help.
''Thousands of people poured out into the streets, crying, carrying bloody bodies, looking for anyone who could help them,'' Bob Poff, divisional director of disaster services in Haiti for the Salvation Army, said in a posting on the agency's Web site.
More at link.
This is absolutely horrible.
"Bless the Beasts and the Children" ~~ Carpenters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34829978...cas/?GT1=43001Looting began almost as quickly as the quake struck at 4:53 p.m. on Tuesday and people were seen carrying food from collapsed buildings.
This is Katrina in Nolo, only swifter.
"Bless the Beasts and the Children" ~~ Carpenters
It is amazing to see the world put their political differences aside and mobilize to help the people of Haiti.
• Brazil's Ministry of Defense ordered its troops in the country to offer whatever assistance they can, Brazil's official news agency reported. The South American nation has 1,266 troops -- including 250 in an engineering unit -- in Haiti as part of a United Nations stabilization force.
• China was preparing to send a 50-member rescue team, including three sniffer dogs, the official news agency Xinhua reported. China has 125 peace-keeping police in Haiti, but no diplomatic ties with the country, Xinhua reported.
• Spain was sending three planeloads of aid -- two from Panama in Central America and one from Madrid, the Spanish capital, CNN affiliate CNN+ reported. Spain was also making 3 million euros ($4.35 million) available for aid and will coordinate the European Union response.
• France, Haiti's former colonial ruler, dispatched two planeloads of rescue personnel, one from Guadeloupe in the Caribbean and one from Marseilles, France.
• Russia was sending a mobile hospital with a staff of 45, including 20 doctors, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Elena Chernova told CNN. The mobile hospital "has intensive therapy, surgery, diagnostics, ultra-sound, X-ray, electrocardiogram modules as well as a blood test laboratory," and can accommodate 50 patients at a time, she said.
• Cuba sent an additional 30 doctors, plus medical supplies, to join the 344 doctors and paramedics it already had working throughout Haiti on humanitarian missions, said Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.
• Iceland was sending a 37-man search-and-rescue team and offered to help evacuate foreign nationals, its foreign ministry said.
• Canada had a five-man team already in Haiti as part of the U.N. relief efforts there. All five were helping with the relief effort, Capt. Elizabeth Tremblay told CNN.
• The United Kingdom and Israel also pledged to send survey teams.
• Under a U.S. State Department program, individuals with U.S. cell phones can donate $10 to the Red Cross by texting "Haiti" to 90999. The State Department said Wednesday afternoon that the campaign had received nearly 83,000 hits.
• Musician Wyclef Jean's Yele foundation is accepting $5 donations for texting the word "Yele" to 501501. Text the word "Haiti" to 25383 to donate $5 to the Internal Rescue Committee. The donations will appear on mobile phone bills, in addition to any charges for texting and data.
• The Jolie-Pitt Foundation donated $1 Million to Doctors Without Borders for operations in Haiti.
"It is incredibly horrible to see a catastrophe of this size hit a people who have been suffering from extreme poverty, violence and unrest for so many decades," said Angelina Jolie in a news release.
The group, also called Medecins Sans Frontieres, said its medical teams have treated more than 1,000 people since the earthquake hit. Prior to the earthquake, its 800 staff members ran three hospitals in Port-au-Prince, but they were all badly damaged. Its teams have been operating out of open-air hospitals since Tuesday afternoon.
The group was focusing on re-establishing surgical capacity to deal with crushed limbs and head wounds, said Paul McPhun, an emergency management expert for the organization, also known as Doctors Without Borders.
• The United Nations was releasing $10 million from its Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF), Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said. It was also mobilizing an emergency response team to coordinate relief efforts.
• The American Red Cross promised $1 million in aid and said it was releasing enough supplies -- tarps, mosquito nets and cooking sets -- from its warehouse in Panama to meet the immediate needs of 5,000 families.
• Islamic Relief USA, which describes itself as America's largest Muslim relief organization, announced it would fly $1 million in aid to Haiti in coordination with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• The World Food Programme was airlifting 86 metric tons of food from its hub in El Salvador, enough for more than half a million meals, the agency said. The aid included ready-to-eat food and high-energy biscuits.
• AmeriCares was sending $3 million in medical aid, including antibiotics, pain relievers, bandages and other supplies, plus relief workers to distribute the aid. It was also releasing 10,000 pounds of emergency relief and pledging $5 million in aid.
• The U.S. Fund for UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, said it had released $500,000 to assist the efforts of the 10 international staff and 34 national staff in its Port-au-Prince office.
In Jacmel, southwest of the capital, thousands of people have sought shelter in camps set up by the government, UNICEF relief worker Guido Cornale told CNN. UNICEF is providing clean drinking water to the victims and has distributed 2,500 kitchen kits that can be used to set up kitchens in the camps. At least 1,000 people were to be fed a hot meal Wednesday night, Cornale said.
• The United Nations Foundation committed $1 million to address the most urgent humanitarian and re-construction needs in Haiti, UNF Founder Ted Turner said in a statement. Turner founded CNN but is no longer associated with the network.
• The World Health Organization was sending a 12-person team to Haiti to help with the medical response.
• The International Rescue Committee was deploying its Emergency Response Team, focusing on critical medical, water and sanitation.
• The Salvation Army was preparing to send a team from Florida that would include emergency disaster services personnel, including Haitian Salvation Army officers who speak Creole. The organization has more than 60 church/community centers on the island, it said.
• Catholic Relief Services had 340 staff members already in Haiti, and pre-positioned supplies in the country. The group said it would also send staff members from its home office in Baltimore, Maryland, to the neighboring Dominican Republic.
• National Nurses United issued an urgent call for registered nurse volunteers to provide assistance.
• The International Monetary Fund was planning to "coordinate with other international agencies, and mobilize our assistance as quickly as possible," Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in a statement.
• Businesses pledging relief in amounts exceeding $500,000 included UPS, Google, Coca Cola, Lowe's, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Wal-Mart and ConAgra Foods Foundation.
The quake, centered about 15 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of Port-au-Prince, struck shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Roads in Haiti were unsafe because of a lack of lighting and because many buildings had collapsed into the roads or were threatening to do so, said Ian Rodgers of the relief organization Save the Children.
More at link. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/am....aid.response/
For our Canadians:
Haitian Earthquake Relief IN CANADA: Donors can text the world “HAITI” to 45678 from any Rogers Wireless or
Bell Mobility phone to contribute $5.00 to The Salvation Army Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief
http://www.salvationarmy.ca/textdonations/
The Salvation Army in Canada| Text Message Donations: Questions and Answers
www.salvationarmy.ca
Donors can text the world “HAITI” to 45678 from any Rogers Wireless or Bell Mobility phone to contribute $5.00 to The Salvation Army.
Donation texts have raised an incredible amount of money from the US today. 1.7 million through the White House Text and 400,000 already through Wyclef Jean's YELE text.
Amazing. 10 and 5 dollars at a time.
That's awesome. And this makes it really easy to donate.
"Bless the Beasts and the Children" ~~ Carpenters
http://www.newsday.com/news/world/re...aiti-1.1701238
Red Cross: 45,000 to 50,000 dead in Haiti
January 14, 2010 By The Associated Press
Desperately needed aid from around the world slowly made its way Thursday into Haiti, where supply bottlenecks and a leadership vacuum left rescuers scrambling on their own to save the trapped and injured and get relief supplies into the capital.
The international Red Cross estimated that 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday’s magnitude-7.0 earthquake.
President Barack Obama...
White House Taps Bush, Clinton to Help Lead Haiti Relief
FOXNews.com
President Obama has tapped George W. Bush, a prime target of Democratic criticism during the presidential campaign for his response to Hurricane Katrina, to help lead Haiti relief efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated the country two days ago.
Former President Bill Clinton, left, and former President George W. Bush will assist in the Haiti relief effort. (AP Photos)
President Obama has tapped George W. Bush, a prime target of Democratic criticism during the presidential campaign for his response to Hurricane Katrina, to help lead Haiti relief efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated the country two days ago.
Bush will join up with former President Bill Clinton, who is also the United Nations special envoy for Haiti.
"This is one of those moments that calls out for American leadership," Obama said Thursday, as he committed $100 million toward the recovery and pledged long-term U.S. help for the battered island nation.
He did not comment on the Bush-Clinton effort, but the White House and Bush's office later confirmed that Obama reached out to the two former presidents and is hoping they can replicate the relief effort that Clinton and George H.W. Bush led after the 2004 tsunami that struck Asia.
Obama's Republican predecessor may seem an unlikely candidate for the job considering how Obama and other candidates, even Republican John McCain, wailed on him in 2008 for what was widely seen as a bungled response to Katrina in 2005.
Obama accused the administration of "half-hearted leadership" and "half-measures" during one visit to New Orleans in early 2008. After taking office, Obama continued to criticize his predecessor over the response to the devastating 2005 hurricane blamed for more than 1,600 deaths.
"President Obama will keep the broken promises to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast," the White House Web site says to this day in a brief section on Katrina.
Bush and his top officials in charge of disaster relief became political punching bags after Katrina. They were criticized for what was seen as ineffective evacuation efforts, slow response, the poor and neglected conditions of mass refugee shelters like the New Orleans convention center, and the seeming aloofness of those in charge.
Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown resigned in the aftermath but polls show the public blamed state and local officials for the chaos as well as the Bush administration.
But after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, the United States appears to be summoning all resources to rescue survivors, feed and treat the population, and help rebuild the country.
Clinton wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post Thursday that the reconstruction effort should aim to build "Haiti back better" with better schools, stronger buildings and infrastructure.
"In the coming days, stories of loss and the triumph of the human spirit will be told. They will call us to help -- not just to restore Haiti but to assist it in becoming the strong, secure nation its people have always desired and deserved," Clinton wrote.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010...-haiti-relief/
Wow, and I heard all Fox News was covering was ACORN.
"Attempted murder, I mean really. Do they give a Nobel Prize for attempted physics?" -- Sideshow Bob
Lol! No. But I did read last night that FOX preempted coverage of the disaster to air Sarah..........they said it was because there was a lack of "pictures" and information coming in from the Island. Although CNN was covering it heavily. I guess CNN viewers don't need pictures to grasp, understand, or care about news?
Who knew?
Heres an update to the Orphange over there that Frank from here runs.Four dead at Chauvin's orphanage in HaitiWINDSOR, Ont. —http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Four...669/story.htmlRetired Windsor police detective Frank Chauvin received the news that he has feared most from Haiti when he was informed Thursday three of the girls and a staff member at his orphanage died in the earthquake.
Chauvin said he was told by the granddaughter of Paula Thybulle, who runs
his operations in Port-au-Prince, that the deceased girls were some of "the older ones" that he knows well. But names were not provided.
In addition, an orphanage employee was reported dead and two others are
missing. He said it was unknown if there were other injuries, although he
expects the building, at the heart of the earthquake-ravaged city, sustained
structural damaage.
"At least 67 of the girls are OK," said Chauvin. "That's my main concern
right now. The size of this earquake, so close to the epicentre. I could
have lost them all."
"Rescuing one animal may not change the world, but for that animal their world is changed forever!" - Unknown
For every murdered child
We fly with all prevailing winds of change,
For any quirk of fate we may arrange.
We are not "meek" or "mild";
Don't turn your back when twilight dims the sky -
We'll haunt the perpetrators till they Die
Haiti Earthquake - Frank Chauvinhttp://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2010/201001/20100114.html You can click on the link and it will guide you to his update with a radio showWe wanted to check in with someone we heard from yesterday. Frank Chauvin lives in Windsor, Ontario. Twenty-two years ago, he founded an orphanage in Port au Prince that has 70 girls ages 5 to 15. The orphanage is called Le foyer des Filles de Dieu. When we spoke to him yesterday, he hadn't been able to get through to the orphanage. Frank Chauvin joined us again for an update.
"Rescuing one animal may not change the world, but for that animal their world is changed forever!" - Unknown
For every murdered child
We fly with all prevailing winds of change,
For any quirk of fate we may arrange.
We are not "meek" or "mild";
Don't turn your back when twilight dims the sky -
We'll haunt the perpetrators till they Die
The absolute devastation of this earthquake has created orphans out of orphans.
How incredibly sad.
Part of Haiti's History.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2p9ogP...=1&f=103943429
If Haiti Was Cursed, It Was By The French: Farai Chideya
3:06 pm
January 14, 2010
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Recommend (1)
By Frank James
Farai Chideya, a journalist and host of NPR's News and Notes program until its cancellation last year, reminds us of a little known or mostly forgotten (by the rest of the world) fact about Haiti. It never really ever had a chance after its independence in 1803.
Early into its life as the first black republic after pushing its French colonizers out, the French forced Haiti in 1825 to pay them a king's ransom, the equivalent of more than $22 billion in today's money, or face invasion.
Haiti actually paid the extortion, finishing its payments in 1947. That was money the island nation obviously couldn't put into development.
What made Chideya want to provide a Haiti history lesson was writer Tracy Kidder exclaiming after the earthquake that Haiti was "cursed" because of its many tragedies. The use of that word rankled Chideya, especially after Pat Robertson's Haitian "pact with the devil" absurd comments Wednesday.
We use language, like the selective telling of history, to confuse things sometimes. So Haiti becomes "cursed" instead of shackled by a post-Colonial debt that no Western nation ever had to bear. (Can you imagine if the U.S. had to pay England for its freedom? Talk about taxation without representation.)
I imagine, somehow, what might have happened had the billions of dollars in gold not been exported out of Haiti but helped to build its infrastructure and education. I imagine the fallen buildings rising off of the broken bodies, and rearranging themselves into new shapes: stronger, earthquake-resistant schools, homes, and roads; a countryside not stripped by the desperation of deforestation; and then, in this alternate Haiti, the stronger one built by its hard-earned resources, an earthquake could still hit, but the country would withstand more of nature's blows and remain a land blessed by the fruits of the hard work of its people.
Such devastation and suffering. Those poor people, I feel so terribly sorry for them. It is going to be a huge struggle for them to recover from this. The pictures coming in from Haiti are just shocking.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...try-apart.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...struction.html
Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are!
Ramhaiti's latest tweets: http://twitter.com/ramhaiti
won't understand the ramifications of all this for days to come.I'm still hearing of people trapped under buildings.3:44PM.Night is coming
25 minutes ago from web
I'm hearing of buildings collapsing in Jacmel.I'm getting bad news of folks with FOSAJ.No confirmations,
28 minutes ago from web
Today it occasionally sounds like a military operation with all the planes and helicopters flying around...then they go away.
33 minutes ago from web
Body clean-up.Where do you put bodies when the morgues are full?
38 minutes ago from web
Bodies.Bodies.Bodies Bodies.Bodies.Bodies.I don't know how else to say it.They're being brought out on the street.
43 minutes ago from web
Horrific stories of death.Death is everywhere.Death is all over PauP.doors as stretchers.Camionettes as ambulances.Don't forget JACMEL!!
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/vi....baby.cnn.html
Sanjay Gupta treats 15 day old baby.
Yes, there is something more vile than that.....wearing brown shoes with a grey suit.
Last edited by Pete Bondurant; January 14th, 2010 at 05:35 PM. Reason: AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,
Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf
Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn and unbegot,
That lift your vassal hands against my head
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
RAMhaiti latest tweets:
Bodies are being brought to the cemetery.decomposing bodies everywhere.looting is begining.The prison is empty.7 dead bodies in the prison
10 minutes ago from web
I guess all we can hope now is that the outpouring of aid will help build a Haiti that is stronger than ever.
Stuff like this makes me all teary-eyed.Islamic Relief USA, which describes itself as America's largest Muslim relief organization, announced it would fly $1 million in aid to Haiti in coordination with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"Now that ceaseless exposure has calloused us to the lewd and the vulgar, it is instructive to see what still seems wicked to us. What still slaps the clammy flab of our submissive consciousness hard enough to get our attention?"
My city in particular here in CT has a very very large population of people from Haiti. Usually you see everything written in English and Spanish, it's English and Creole here.
The schools are always running a type of fundraiser to benefit Haiti. It wasn't until today that I learned quite a bit about that country and them, or should I say cared to pay attention.
Their dead is very important to them. It's not so gross to hang out with the bodies they want others to see them and acknowledge them. Something about how poor it is and how much they don't have, that some things like laying their dead to rest and an acknowledgment of those people from their neighbors is really important.
My five year old is distressed at all she took in today at school. I met an entire family today devastated because of all their family being there instead of here with them.
I learned how even when there is not a disaster, it takes a very very long time for mail to get there. After I thought about it, all the dealings I ever had with Haiti in terms of correspondence, letters were always sent to an address in Port Au Prince. I remember someone telling me one time their loved one did not live there, and it would take three days to get there, (after a couple weeks waiting for it to arrive) but that's the only way to receive mail there. And this was years ago.
I can't imagine the loss out there and my heart aches.
Its so nice to see how my community has mobilized for our Haitian neighbors here.
Dear Mommy...I see you smile down there below...are those tears of joy you show? I'm glad you're happy, although you lied...I'd love to be right by your side...but by your choice, I view from above...tell my Grandparents I send my love...it's Beautiful here, is all I can say...your life will go on... without me in your way. Love Caylee XOXO......
NO JUSTICE FOR CAYLEE - copyright that!
Rockin I was in grocery store earlier tonight (as is normal for me to live there).A woman about 24 maybe was in front of me with 1 yr old,2 yr old and shes due again now.She couldnt bend and get something from the bottom and I helped her,the baby tossed car keys a couple times to get my attention,and I picked them up and handed them back.And she started talking about her family back there .Shes been trying to get in touch with her family and her hubbys and cant reach anyone.She broke down,then I started and the cashier was a messy scene. I am tired today and when Im tired Im emotional and a pampers commercial can set me off like Niagra fallsBut I got her in touch with Frank from here and hes got guys there with some kinda fossil radios that seem to be working a bit to get in touch with people but its hit and miss.His orphanage is still missing 2 girls and another priest from here is missing .
"Rescuing one animal may not change the world, but for that animal their world is changed forever!" - Unknown
For every murdered child
We fly with all prevailing winds of change,
For any quirk of fate we may arrange.
We are not "meek" or "mild";
Don't turn your back when twilight dims the sky -
We'll haunt the perpetrators till they Die
A small picture of what's going on in my town.
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/carou...atives-friendsNorwich, Conn. — Minutes into Wednesday night’s service at the First Haitian Baptist Church of Norwich, members knelt by their seats, prayed and wept for Haiti.
Throughout the day, Haitians in schools, churches, the casinos and homes across the region suffered the silence of not hearing whether their loved ones survived a massive earthquake that struck their native land Tuesday, possibly killing tens of thousands of people.
Haitians here nervously passed time making repeated unsuccessful phone calls to family in Haiti, watching the news, talking with fellow Haitians and waiting to learn the fate of their loved ones.
Rita Chery, whose husband is the pastor of the Family Church of God, a Haitian church on Church Street, was one of the thousands of Haitians in the area who agonized over the suspense.
Her mother left for Haiti in November, despite Chery’s pleadings not to go. Chery’s mother suffers arthritis and wanted to spend the winter in warm weather even though Chery reminded her that the last time her mother visited Haiti a major hurricane hit the nation.
“I said to her, ‘Why do you have to go? Just stay home.’ But she said, ‘I want to go for the last time,’ ” Chery recalled, while waiting for a prayer meeting for Haiti to start at her church.
Her husband, Jean, still awaited word Wednesday night about the fate of a church that serves 150 people and a school that supports 325 students in Ti Goave. Both are missions supported by his American church. Jean Chery already has decided he will return to Haiti soon to deliver money personally that was raised for the missions.
Dawn Davis, a bilingual and English as a Second Language teacher for Norwich Public Schools, received a call Wednesday night from photographer Marc Yves Regis. The two became acquainted when Davis invited Regis to display his photos of a Haitian school for handicapped children at a gallery she coordinated at Norwich ArtSpace.
Davis served at the school from 1977-79. On Wednesday, Regis told Davis the school collapsed in the earthquake, likely killing hundreds of children who lived there. Davis broke down in tears at the news.
By evening, Lindsay Celestin, a 17-year-old student at NFA, still hadn’t heard from her grandfather or the eight uncles who raised her after her father moved to the United States.
Bernadette Sinvil, 53, an English as a Second Language Student at Norwich Adult Education, where there are 81 Haitian ESL students, feared the worst for her mother, brother, mother-in-law, cousins and other relatives.
“If I can talk to someone who says, ‘I am alive,’ that can help me,” Sinvil said. “From what I see (on TV), everybody I know in Haiti is gone.”
A cousin in Miami told Sinvil that Sinvil’s old home in Port-au-Prince, where her mother-in-law lives now, was destroyed. There’s been no word on what happened to her mother-in-law.
Norwich especially has strong ties to the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with thousands having moved to the city over the last 20 years or so, drawn here primarily by jobs at Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun.
Haitian NFA students filtered in and out of Diversity Director Leo Butler’s office Wednesday morning, watching the news about the earthquake on CNN and trying to reach loved ones in Haiti via cell phone.
Butler was supported by a crisis intervention team, called into action in anticipation of the emotional needs of the more than 100 Haitian students at the school.
Alexandra Medena, 16, an NFA student, moved with her older sister and younger brother from Port-au-Prince to Norwich in July to live with her aunt. Medena said her mother sent her here after someone attempted to kidnap Medena on her way to school.
Medena clutched her cell phone while sitting in Butler’s classroom. She’s waited to hear about the fate of her father, a factory supervisor. Her mother is a saleswoman in Haiti, but was in Panama at the time of the earthquake buying clothes to sell at a store.
Medena said she couldn’t sleep Tuesday night, spending much of her time in tears. She talks to her parents every weekend.
“I don’t know what happened to my dad,” she said. “I wish I was there.”
Stephanie Jeanty, 18, left Haiti at age 9, but she said she has remained extremely close to her father, a businessman who lives in Ti Goave, Haiti, which apparently suffered widespread damage from the earthquake.
She last talked to him Monday, when she said she would send him money to help with his rent.
She hadn’t sent the money yet because she had been sick for the last couple of days. Jeanty noticed he tried calling three times Tuesday, but she didn’t answer because she was in bed with a headache. The earthquake struck about a half hour later.
Jeanty, who visits Haiti every summer, said her mother’s friend was on the phone with a relative in Haiti when she heard screaming and then the phone drop. Her mother’s cousin and that cousin’s children lived in a small apartment in Haiti. The last Jeanty knew, the children were sleeping when the house collapsed on them. The cousin had two children of her own and cared for other children.
Jeanty said this week she worked on an invitation to her graduation that she planned to send to her father. She was going to send him money for rent along with money for a visa and passport so he could attend the graduation.
“I was like his angel,” she said.
Dear Mommy...I see you smile down there below...are those tears of joy you show? I'm glad you're happy, although you lied...I'd love to be right by your side...but by your choice, I view from above...tell my Grandparents I send my love...it's Beautiful here, is all I can say...your life will go on... without me in your way. Love Caylee XOXO......
NO JUSTICE FOR CAYLEE - copyright that!
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/world...n-Haiti-rubbleA young American aid worker - trapped for about 10 hours under the rubble of her mission house that was destroyed in Haiti's earthquake - has been rescued by her husband.
Frank Thorp told CBS's "The Early Show" by phone from Haiti on Wednesday that he drove 100 miles to Port-au-Prince once he learned of the quake, and dug for over an hour to free his wife, Jillian, and her co-worker Charles Dietsch. The two were trapped under about a foot of concrete, he said.
"It was absolutely terrifying," Thorp said.
Thorp said he was in an area about 6 hours north of the capital when the temblor struck. He got a quick call from his wife telling him she was trapped, and that was all. So he began his long drive toward the devastation.
Arriving at the destroyed house, he said he saw his wife's hand from under the rubble and heard her tell him to keep it together and just get her out.
"We had to pull bricks and bricks and bricks a nd wood and doors and metal away for at least an hour before we were able to get her and her co-worker out," he said.
Thorp is the son of retired Rear Adm. Frank Thorp, who retired in August as the Navy's chief information officer.
Thorp's father told The Associated Press the family received a report that his son and his wife made it to the U.S. embassy. He said he doesn't know the extent of his daughter-in-law's injuries, but that his son told him in the early morning that she had leg injuries but could walk with assistance.
"He said that the country was a disaster," Thorp said. "He described thousands of people in the street; every other building had been destroyed. He also mentioned a lot of dead bodies."
The executive director of Haitian Ministries for the Diocese of Norwich, Conn., Emily Smack, told CBS a security guard at the mission house is still missing. A housecleaner had severe injuries and may lose both legs, she said.
Jillian Thorp's father, Clay Cook of Old Saybrook, Conn., describes his daughter and son-in-law as "a strong couple" who each had their own trial to endure.
"Jill was pinned in the rubble and Frank was driving through the darkness, not sure what was waiting for him at the end of the drive," he said.
Dear Mommy...I see you smile down there below...are those tears of joy you show? I'm glad you're happy, although you lied...I'd love to be right by your side...but by your choice, I view from above...tell my Grandparents I send my love...it's Beautiful here, is all I can say...your life will go on... without me in your way. Love Caylee XOXO......
NO JUSTICE FOR CAYLEE - copyright that!
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