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Many survivors sat numb and silent by the remains of their homes. Others frantically dug through rubble with bare hands to rescue relatives and neighbors. Electrical power failed, and darkness fell quickly, obliging rescuers to work by flashlight and candlelight.
In the city of Jacmel, Ralphendy, 11 years of age, lay trapped under a partially collapsed building. For hours, a city rescue team worked feverishly to release him. Repeated aftershocks forced them to abandon their efforts because of fear that the fractured upper floors would crash down on them. Philippe, a missionary of Jehovah’s witnesses, refused to give up, explaining, “I could not bear to leave Ralphendy there to die.”
Philippe and three others squeezed through a narrow space under the broken building and inclined their way forward to where Ralphendy lay, his feet held fast by fallen debris. From midnight on, they cautiously chipped away. With every tremor, they heard the concrete overhead shift and crack. At 5:00 a.m., more than 12 hours after the quake, they pulled Ralphendy out to safety.
Sadly, not all such efforts ended in success. In the hard-hit city of Leogane, Roger and his older son, Clid, escaped their collapsing home. His younger son, Clarence, was killed. Roger’s wife, Clana, was alive and able to speak, but her head was pinned under the fallen ceiling. Roger and a friend labored to free her. “Hurry!” she urged from beneath the ruins. “I’m weakening! I’m losing my breath!” Three hours later, a rescue team arrived. But when they lifted her out, she was dead.
Wednesday, January 13, Day 2
The light of dawn revealed the scale of destruction. Much of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins. As news of the devastation filtered out, relief organizations and many selfless individuals around the world mobilized to help.
It has been 150 years since Haiti’s last great quake. Haiti had therefore largely left of construction buildings that resisted earthquakes in favor of those that protected the population from hurricanes and floods. Hence, most of the block walls and heavy concrete roofs were no match for the magnitude 7.0 tremor.
All around the hospitals, victims lay on the ground-bleeding and screaming. Lying among them was Maria, who had been buried under the rubble of a collapsed building for eight hours. She could not feel or move her legs. Neighbors had dug her out and taken her to a hospital.
By then, more than 24 hours had passed since the quake, and night had again fallen, steeping over the dead bodies lying outside.
PROVIDING HOMES FOR THE VICTIMS
Within a month after the quake, civil engineers began verifying which homes were safe for families to move back into. Many who lost their homes needed transitional housing to tide them over until they could find more-permanent dwellings.
“Drawing on the experience of international relief organizations, they designed an inexpensive, easy-to-assemble dwelling, similar in size to the homes many had been living in,” explain John. “It provides protection from the rain and wind, without threatening to crush the family in case of further tremors.” Only three weeks after the quake, a crew of Haitian and international volunteers began building temporary homes.
People on the streets cheered as trucks passed through carrying the pre-fabricated sections of these homes.
