Nancy Young
PilotOnline.com
©
Esther Pierre called her mother in Connecticut. The clip they had seen on CNN, the one that contained a glimpse of a man that looked like her brother, Parnell, was on again.
The man in a yellow tank top was slumped and exhausted on the floor of a clinic in Port-au-Prince. Next to him was a dead child covered in cloth.
Pierre's mother screamed into the phone in Haitian Creole.
"I don't think that's Malcolm, Mom," Esther said. Malcolm is her brother's 5 -year-old son, who was always with him.
The dead child looked too small to be Malcolm.
Her mother kept screaming: That's my Papoush! That's my Papoush! Papoush was the nickname she had for 48-year-old Parnell since he was a kid.
It could be Parnell, but they're not sure. The TV clip is too quick. Esther, who lives in Virginia Beach, said she has told her mom, "Everyone is going to look like him now."
So, until they know for sure, like thousands of others they wait. They call and listen to their loved ones' phones in Haiti, the phones ringing endlessly or not at all.
Sometimes the answer comes and dashes hope.
Natasha Fortune knows that at least seven of her relatives in Port-au-Prince are dead. She has heard that the grandfather of a family friend also has died.
"They couldn't get medical supplies to him in time," Fortune said. "He lost a lot of blood."
Some relatives in Fortune's family are OK, even though they've lost their homes. They have gathered at an aunt's house that is damaged but standing.
But they just don't know about many in her large family in Haiti. That's why her uncle flew from Norfolk to Port-au-Prince on Thursday to find them.
Sometimes the answer comes - and brings joy.
Mary Lou Coren got the call. It was from her niece, Sharon Foster, mother to Andrew Foster, an eighth-grader at St. Gregory the Great School in Virginia Beach. On his first trip out of the country, Andrew was traveling with his great-uncle and Mary Lou's husband, Michael Coren.
They had last heard from Andrew and Michael shortly after the earthquake struck Tuesday. The travelers were driving from the airport in a rental car, heading for the Plaza Hotel in Port-au-Prince, when the quake hit.
They described the chaos around them, buildings falling, people running. The last Foster heard Tuesday, before the phone went dead, was when Michael Coren said, "Oh, my God, I have to get out of here."
Mary Lou Coren and her husband have spent more than 30 years traveling to Haiti. A dentist and registered nurse, they performed humanitarian work at a clinic, fell in love with the people and bought a beach home.
Her husband is a scuba diver, and Foster asked young Andrew if he wanted to take scuba lessons like Uncle Mike so he could dive in Haiti. They started to talk about what an experience it would be for Andrew.
"And Andrew really got into it," Mary Lou Coren said.
From Tuesday to Thursday afternoon, the family waited with no word. Then Foster heard from her son.
Mary Lou Coren cried as she listened to Foster tell her she'd just heard from Michael and Andrew. They called from a hotel near the airport - and they were OK.
Coren said Foster told her the first word she heard from her son was: "Mom?"
Esther Pierre knows some of that joy.
Earlier Thursday, she was still waiting to hear the fate of her father, sister and brother in Haiti. Since Tuesday, she had seen her sister's number come up. The line was dead when she answered, but she had hope that it was a good sign.
It was. Thursday afternoon, her sister got a text message through. She and her husband were fine. They were going to look for their dad.
A little later, another text. Dad was fine too.
But where is Parnell? He's the one that Esther's family has been most worried about. He lives in Carrefour, which was at the center of the earthquake.
"We've seen pictures in Carrefour," Pierre said. "If that thing can do that to buildings, what can it do to human beings?"
Pierre remains glued to CNN. On the TV, an 11-year-old girl is trapped under concrete. Those with her fear that the only way to get her out is to amputate her legs. Pierre wonders aloud how they can possibly prevent a fatal infection if they do that, if they could get her to a hospital in time.
The girl, her hair white with dust, is being given a drink of water from a bottle. When they start to take the bottle away, she says, "dlo, dlo."
"Dlo, dlo," Pierre repeats. "She wants water. Dlo, dlo."
As she watches, Pierre says, "God has to have a reason he allowed this to happen. There's got to be a reason."
Later, thinking about the outpouring of support from the world for her home country, she says maybe she knows why.
"Haiti has been reduced to rubble, but it's going to be a new Haiti," Pierre says. "Maybe this is what it took. They're going to help rebuild Haiti and rebuild it right."
Nancy Young, (757) 222-5559, nancy.young@pilotonline.com
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Excellent!!
comments on here. The world wants to help our neighbors in Haiti. But the problem is getting supplies from point A, to point B, to point C. And with only one major air port, and most of the roads, probably wiped out. This can be a nightmare. In my opinion, i think the UN should have been the first organization to land in Haiti after the disaster. In order to direct the relief effort. The last thing Haiti needs right now is CONFUSION!!
A way to get word to relatives in the U,S.
Just a thought.
Since so many in the U.S. are frantically trying to get word on the status of loved ones in Haiti, couldn't cameras and microphones be set up in strategic locations and allow people to step up and send out brief (20 - 30 seconds) messages concerning their status?
Instead of seeing the same correspondents repeat the same news hour after hour, let those in Haiti have the cameras and microphones for a few hours.
I know ... it's too hard.
Bloggers
Some of the bloggers on other news networks and occasionally seen here since the disaster simply do not understand that earthquake disasters are especially tricky to deal with in the aftermath. This isn't the case of massive flooding, this is a case of massive ground shaking that has caused massive destruction. Earthquakes make for especially tricky recover because aftershocks can continue to roll through the destroyed area causing more damage in an already decimated area. Making sure no one is trapped beneath the rubble that is in the way of emergency aid is another issue, because if there is even a remote chance that someone is alive, the rubble must be searched. So many people are questioning why its taking so long, and blaming our government, but these same people don't seem to understand that Haiti isn't our country, we have no authority there and we are there for disaster relief. This isn't like a war. A plan is needed in cases like this and our country has plans in place for when disasters happen such as where food, water, medical supplies will go and the like, but even the best laid plans can occasionally go awry. Just my thoughts.
How could anyone in Haiti
How could anyone in Haiti even think of BLAMING our govt in not receiving aid?..we are NOT obliged/required to give anyone aid...it is done out of the kindness of our hearts...they should be thankful for anything they receive. Or is it that the world thinks we are supposed to save them all? If that's the case, then they're in for a big surprise.
Katrina type images again
We'll see it again because disasters are logistical nightmares:
1. First the aid has to be loaded in sufficient quantities for 10s of thousands if not millions of people whether is blankets, medicines, food, water, etc
2. Then we have to get it there, and most is by ship and it takes time to get to the island. By aircraft is just a trickle.
3. Then they have to distribute it across impassable roads and rivers to many communities and past lawless groups of people.
How long does all of that take? Enough time that we'll be seeing those images again. Its not a matter of who is President at the time. There are real logistical problems coming.
You are right, the gov't can
You are right, the gov't can only do so much. Between this horrible tragedy and the Katrina tragedy it should show us that we cannot rely on the government to come to our aid and provide for us whether it is a disaster or something like health care.
I've seen other message sites where people say "The US is the richest country in the world, they should be doing more!". Really? Are we the richest country in the world or do we have the largest national debt in the world? Big difference.
Finally
I get to see some people who get it!!!! Common sense still prevails in some places!
Well put Sully
I was there two days after Katrina hit and spent the next month and 1/2 working in the area. It was a nightmare of destruction. New Orleans, a major US city that 3/4 underwater. Some towns along the gulf shore in the Mississippi were almost wiped off the map. I know most Americans never expected that kind of destruction. People blamed Bush and Mayor Nagan, but in reality no one and I mean no one exepcted tha much damage when the levees broke. Mother nature can and has taken what ever we humans build. Get over whose at fault or what caused it and focus on the rescue because time is not on the side of people trapped underneath the wrecked homes and businesses.
Very Well Said Yourself Welsby!
Time is of the essence. Finger pointing, 'we did it last time, someone else do it now', and blame have no place in the aftermath of tragedy; especially one of Mother Nature. People are what matter, plain and simple. People everywhere need to work together contributing what they can, be it money, supplies, expertise, time, ect. The only way mankind is going to survive as a species is to stop bickering amongst one another about differences of uniqueness and start working together towards the well-being of all, embracing similarities. I'm so happy there are stories of joy coming from such a disaster. Each of them have something in common that should not be ignored or brushed off. All of these survival successes involve people working together for the wellbeing and care of someone else who needs help. The Haitians may lack government and be a '3rd world' society, but they are helping one another w/o direction to do so; instead of just waiting for help to arrive. There is a lesson to be learned there by the rest of the world.