At the time that I’m writing this.. I have not had the opportunity to hear what is being reported on the news. You may have more information about this disaster than we do. Our cell phones are not working, so we cannot communicate with many people we are wondering about here in Port-au-Prince. Here is our version of the story…
I had a long hard day of work at the airport, having flown a lot, and I had carpooled with my coworkers to my house. I took the Christmas tree down, and we were doing a little bit more cleanup in the house, expecting to meet our landlord for a discussion this evening. Patricia and I were in the living room talking, and watching Nathan as he was crawling around. With almost no warning the room began to shake violently, and continued for what seemed like a long time. I picked up Nathan, and the 3 of us were close together. All kinds of things in the house shook and slid and came tumbling to the floor. Bookcases and their contents, broken dishes and all sorts of things are strewn throughout the house.. but our house stood. All of the perimeter walls around our house stood, with only minor damage. We were shaken…literally… and now we are shaken emotionally.
There have been many aftershocks and tremors. They seem to be weakening.. but I doubt if it is over yet. Although our house did stand, we don’t know if it is compromised.. we are camping out in our driveway right now. Nathan is in his pac’n’play with a mosquito net over it next to our car. Our big perimeter gate, 18 feet wide by 10 feet tall, rattles and shakes ever time there is a tremor giving us warning to be on the alert. I’m not sure if we’ll get much sleep.
In the property next to us, the perimeter wall collapsed. In the next lot the entire 2nd story completely collapsed. The large supermarket we were in at this time yesterday, we heard that it has completely collapsed. Electric poles are down everywhere, and there will be no city power for some time I’m sure. We have some battery power, but are conserving all we can. We will be able to run our make-shift generator, but have little fuel. We don’t know how we will get food in the coming days.
There are 3 MAF missionaries living on our street, and 2 other American missionary families. On our street everyone is okay as far as we know. One other MAF family is a couple of blocks away, and we learned their large rear perimeter wall fell down. Our other 2 MAF families are separated geographically from us, and we can’t call them, but heard by email from 1 family that they are okay, though they sustained wall damage. We have another MAF volunteer couple that just arrived today and is staying at the other location.
Given the few facts we have, it seems probable that there has been extensive damage and loss of life. In spite of all the sorrow, this evening we heard a group from the nearby ravine singing songs of thanksgiving. Especially in these times, we recognize our need to turn to God. He is powerful, and the only sure One we can turn to. He is our Rock.
At this point we do not know what damage the airport and our airplanes may have sustained. We plan to have a meeting tomorrow morning at my bosses house down the street to gather information and plan our next steps. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. We have much to be thankful for.
Blessings- David, Patricia & Nathan
Port-au-Prince Haiti
Mission Aviation Fellowship
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