Haiti Earthquake

I was in Haiti on January 12, 2010. It felt like just a normal day in Gonaives, Haiti. I was on my way home from playing basketball just like any other day. Then at around 4:30 I started to hear the sounds of screaming and glass shattering all around me. It took me a minute to realize what was happening. I had never been in an earthquake of any size before, much less one of this magnitude. Once the ground stopped shaking I tried to call a few people, but the cell phones were down. I ran home to make sure everything was all right. Thankfully it turns out nobody was hurt. There was a lot of property damage, and the power, telephones, and Internet were out for several days, but thankfully, there were minimal injuries, and loss of life. The same could not be said for the rest of Haiti.

Just 90 miles south of me was Port-Au-Prince, the center of the earthquake. It is the capital of Haiti, and home to over 2 million people. The scene resembles a war zone. There are buildings flattened all over the place. There were hospitals full of people that completely collapsed. Just about all the schools in Haiti were in session at the time of the Earthquake, and hundreds of those were flattened with the children inside. The National Palace was destroyed. They are already saying 100,000-500,000 people are dead, and those numbers will keep growing and growing. The people that have been to Port-Au-Prince are saying there are just dead bodies everywhere. A few people I have talked to that were there during the earthquake tell me they just can't talk about it. Others try to tell about it and just start crying.
It wasn't just Port-Au-Prince either. There are several other major cities that were hit equally as bad. And a lot of small villages are completely wiped out. We have sent some people down with some medical supplies and other things, but even they will have to walk miles and miles to get to Port-Au-Prince. The authorities can't start rescuing people from the rubble because the tremors haven't stopped. And even then they don't have a fire department, or anything like that to go rescue people from the rubble. The people aren't allowed to return to their homes until the after shocks stop. People can't get to the hospitals because they are gone, or already filled up. There are thugs roaming the streets taking whatever they want. The US Military has sent some troops to clean up, but they can't control that much.

The picture is of my little buddy Peterson and me a few months ago. He was a second grade boy that spoke fluent English. I have spent many hours playing with him in the last couple years. The house he was in collapsed, and he died. There are people all around me weeping because they lost somebody. A man is crying uncontrollably because his wife and baby were killed in the earthquake. Another man is crying because his sister and brother are both gone. There is an orphanage in Port-Au-Prince with many friends of mine that are now dead. Nearly everyone in Haiti has some friends or relatives that were killed. And so many others are frantically trying to get a hold of relatives that live in Port-Au-Prince. I couldn't even begin to tell you what this country is going through right now.

I was supposed to be in Port-Au-Prince that day attending a first aid class, but the truck I was supposed to go in wouldn't start. The building I would have been staying in was the same building that fell on little Peterson. It was completely flattened. I should have died in that earthquake. But some Divine Intervention stopped me from being able to go.

This is the last place in the world you want to be right now. The situation is complete chaos. There is thievery and looting everywhere. There were prisons partially destroyed so that every single prisoner got away. They are walking the streets of Gonaives with guns. The police can't touch them because they would be severely outnumbered. This is a country that has rioting and killing every single day. The cleanup would take months if this were any other country. It will take Haiti years, and even then it may never fully recover.

I am unable to receive any donations at this time. Because all of the banks in Haiti are down, and show no signs of opening back up, there would be no way of getting the money to the missionaries or to the people.
You can however donate to various organizations, like the one below. Aid coming directly from other countries is the only way to help right now.

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