The same day I posted the happy news about Sicilia's final chemotherapy treatment - 1/12/10 - Haiti as we all know was essentially destroyed by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, the worst in more than 200 years. It's epicenter was less than ten miles from the capital of Port-au-Prince and more than a dozen aftershocks exceeding 5.0 and 6.0 have followed.
My friend Pierre Legagneur's relative, Christine Legagneur (pictured) was at work in the Unibank Bourdon when the quake struck. Pretty much any building greater than 3 stories collapsed. Christine's was one of them, but she and some of her colleagues survived the initial damage and were able to text their survival, phone numbers, the plea for rescue. Pierre and Christine's network of friends soon had her details out on Facebook and Twitter, asking us to help spread the word. There was not yet any central data bank for victims posted; the only resources available to laypeople were each other.
We posted, and tweeted, and hoped. Information has been extremely difficult to glean, and sometimes conflicting. We still do not know if Christine is alive. It is extremely likely she is not, but how can you stop looking and hoping if you don't know? Her status has literally been back-and-forth; I cannot imagine the pain of her parents, her siblings, her loved ones. The last fact they are sure of is that Christine was trapped with a group of her colleagues, initially able to text and communicate, and when the group tried to move locations to escape, a slab of concrete fell and separated Christine from the rest of the group (who, thankfully, did escape). No one knows if that concrete slab only blocked Christine or if it killed her. No one knows if she is still alive; her phone is no longer working. There are varying reports, right up until 1pm today EST, that there are people still alive in the Unibank building. Their families are at the building and confirming this, confirming contact, sending in dogs with water, but two search and rescue teams have separately arrived and departed the site; it is no longer considered either a rescue or a recovery site by professional teams. That means that if Christine or anyone else is alive inside the rubble, there is no one left with proper equipment able to help extract them. It is a horrifying possibility.
Last week we were told through Twitter contacts that Christine was extracted and sent to Debussy (a neighborhood within P-a-P) for treatment. I was able to track down the amazing Dr. Fabiola Surena there. She has one of the only homes left standing in the entire neighborhood, and has turned it into a makeshift hospital and orphanage. Dr. Surena told me that they had received word to expect Christine for treatment, but that she never arrived. This is Christine's story so I won't write more now of Dr. Surena, but she is an angel in a place where they are sorely needed now.
Christine's family was then told she was not among the rescued, that she had not arrived for medical care as anticipated. So they hoped the initial search team, still working Unibank Bourdon, would yet find her and get her out. But that search team, using dogs, was unable to sniff out further survivors and moved on.
Between this and the next on-the-ground update I received a call from Yele Haiti, who has been an amazing, resourceful, caring, and truly human organization. That first Tuesday night, after learning from Pierre that his relative was trapped, I called Yele Haiti's NYC office. I got the general voicemail and left a frantic message not sure if it would be heard and, if so, by anyone who could help. It was after hours, no idea the enormity of their other tasks at hand.
But Yele Haiti called back that night. And gave me cell phones and names to keep in touch, 24/7. And has called and searched. Contacted their associates in the UN. Passed word on to the CNN teams on the ground. Endeavored to find out what they could from fellow aid organizations. At each step Yele Haiti has managed to work on behalf of everyone and someone all at the same time. Every 24-48 hours, they are still calling back to either provide or seek update. Again, this is Christine's story so I won't go further at this time, but Yele Haiti is a good organization and a positive force. They deserve our support; please don't dismiss them on earlier mistakes. Yele Haiti and Wyclef Jean were in Haiti working to make a difference long before the earthquake and will be there long after the world loses focus on Haiti. They are honest, committed, present. The worst you can say is they were not on top of their tax returns.
Financial professionals back this opinion (
see also) and I'll write about it at another more appropriate time. This is Christine's story.
Yele Haiti had a memo from the UN stating that Christine was on a list the rescued as of 1/16, 3:23pm. But despite multiple attempts to verify this across different medical sites in Haiti, no one can confirm this. We fear it was a mistake; the same information that suggested to Dr. Surena that Christine was en route.
But we kept trolling the Internet, cross-referencing accounts and people to triangulate on what Christine's status might be. A full week after the initial earthquake, on the 19th, a news article posted stating that a second rescue team had returned to the Unibank Bourdon. "[A] large team of French, Dominican and Panamanian rescuers using high-tech detection equipment said they heard heartbeats underneath the rubble of a bank building and worked into the night to try and rescue a survivor." We had tweets from people stating that there were more than a dozen heartbeats ID'd throughout the ruins, that dogs were sent in with water and vitamins, that there was hope. Pierre heard that 11 people were rescued; one did not survive but the others did.
But no word. None were Christine.
Two days ago the second rescue team left Unibank Bourdon after losing signs of heartbeats. This photo is of the team at work on the 19th. You can see the rebar throughout; we can only hope there are some pockets of protection that remain.
Today, a Twitter friend whose aunt was also one of the people trapped in the Unibank contacted me. His family says that despite the crews leaving that people have been still located inside and alive. But they are in positions/places too difficult to reach. Dogs are being sent into the wreckage with water, presumably by the families who have stood vigil by the wreckage since no search and rescue teams remain on site. Please, I think as I type this, let it be true. Let Holden P's relatives possess accurate information. Let Christine be one of them. Let her get out.
Please imagine, just for a minute, what is going on for the Legagneurs and so many other families. They have every reason to believe their loved ones are dead, lying unrecoverable for proper grieving and burial. They have the tiniest sliver of hope that perhaps their child, their sister, is still alive, and yet that tiny hope brings horrors of its own, because it means she has survived ten days, injured, without water, without food, without medical treatment, without escape. They wait from morning to nightfall in the blazing heat, without respite, without proper sustenance, with little or no water and many themselves suffering injuries, hoping against hope that someone will find a way through the concrete and the rubble and the rebar to bring either the person they love or their body out from the wreckage. Every dusk that falls means another 12 hours lost, because of the curfew and the danger of being out at night. So they depart, terrified that during the night the person they love will think they are abandoned, die alone.
But my God, if there are still any survivors buried in there, it means knowing that a mere 50% of each day can be dedicated to help them survive. And with what tools? A hammer? A piece of steel torn from a fence or fallen structure? To move how many tonnage of debris? The odds are overwhelming; the agony beyond what many of us could endure.
If it were my child, my husband, my loved ones, I would claw the concrete until my fingernails came off, even if in my heart I knew it wouldn't help. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, across Haiti, many are doing the same thing. Tomorrow her family in the US is having a mass to celebrate Christine's life. How I wish for the Legagneurs and all the other families who lost so much that it were not so.
There are still miracles happening in Haiti. A
23 day old baby who survived a week alone in the rubble. A
5 year old boy pulled from debris. Even if we cannot save Christine, there are miracles abounding that could use some human support.
How we can help: There are numerous organizations at work on behalf of Haiti and its people. Whichever one speaks to you, just be sure it is
reputable. My personal preferences are
Doctors Without Borders/MSF and
Yele Haiti.
DWB/MSF does incredible work and - FYI - have
inflatable hospitals that setup in THREE HOURS complete with HVAC, sterilization, ICU, ER and operating theatres to provide life-saving treatments. This is an organization where I feel my money will directly aid emergency and immediate medical needs.
And Yele Haiti was there last year, there today, and will be there tomorrow, on the ground with an agenda that reflects the people of Haiti. This is an organization I feel will operate in a reflection of what the nation needs, not what others want for it.
Thank you for making the time to read this post. I know it was long but it is important.
Corrections: I erroneously combined the Surena family up in my original post:
I apologize for any confusion.
