More from Zone of Death

A final count of our immediate family in Hayti? No fatalities. Last week Nadia's Maren/godmother called. Her name is Marie-Michelle. She had been reported confirmed dead immediately after the quake. Now it is revealed that she and Nadia, our 9 year old daughter, are in a displaced persons camp by the Dominican border and have been treated by Dominican doctors. Perhaps they are inside the DR, it is unclear. They don't have a cell phone number to call them back. After three weeks of failing hope this was wonderful news.

Lucienne will be flying in to Santo Domingo on the 8th of February and taking a bus overland. She is taking a tent which was donated here in New Orleans and LED flashlights, etc. Mostly money. Our friend Thor Burnham is in Port au Prince now rounding up and taking care of his wife's family who are sleeping on the street around Delmas 30. My mother in law Vanita Louis is camping in PetionVille at Place Saint Pierre, the central square of the city. Jeff, the 14 year old cousin has a Voila cell phone and is taking care of business. Luckily Vanita has her identification so she is able to get money from Western Union or Moneygram, etc.

Brother Marcel found his three children. Where were they? Dunno, but the first reports were that they were missing. Sister Beatrice has her two kids. Our very first call was from Beatrice's ex-husband who came immediately from Santo Domingo to search and reported that the whole neighborhood where they lived had fallen into the ravine and no one was to be found.

The eventuality of everyone being found alive after so many have died is amazing. Merci Bon Dieu.

My sister Pamela Lyall got a lot of interest among her friends and started a prayer circle to envision Nadia alive and well. That seems to have worked out well. Some of her people wanted to send money directly to family of people whom they know, rather than to an aid agency. That is an excellent concept as well.

Some of our friends and family who may wish to contribute to a salvation fund for my wife's family in Haiti.
Here is a facebook email which I sent to Tracy in Humboldt.

Western Union is the best way now, cause it is free. They are waiving all transfer fees to Haiti.
I just sent $200 at the corner mini mart with a WU transfer desk. I picked up the dedicated phone
at the little table and talked to a woman who answered. I just told her "$200 to Vanita Louis in Haiti".
I took the order to the clerk and paid him; he entered it into a WU terminal and gave me a receipt.
(this was the first time I had ever done this) On that receipt is a confirmation number.
That number (and her ID) is what allowed Mama (Vanita Louis) to get the money at her local WU agent in PetionVille

So, there is the method to get money to Roxannes Grandmama, who will feed about 8 children.

Merci d'avance

more on Port au Prince

Today there was a 6am earthquake in Hayti. Lucienne received a call immediately from Jeff, her nephew/brother. A police woman in Place St Pierre (the central park in Petionville) was saying that the USA immigration had new rules allowing family members to leave Haiti and go to Etats Unis. I knew this wasn't true but had to get up and search the net for immigration news. Turns out that existing adoption applications are being expedited.

The final toll there in Petionville is two brothers dead, Jean Baptiste and Patrick. Beatrice's two kids are ok. Later brother Marcel called for the first time. The Voila cell network is up. He is sleeping in the street down around Nazon. His three kids have been found. Nadia, Lucienne's eldest daughter (and Roxanne's older sister) is still missing.

The Port au Prince apocalypse

The destruction of Port au Prince has captured the imagination of the USA. For us, it is personal. Lucienne's family all live in poor districts of Port au Prince. When I first heard of an earthquake in Haiti I wasn't too concerned. There was a small earthquake when we lived in Kenscoff; I hardly noticed it. By California standards it was nothing worse than a truck driving by.

This 2010 quake was far stronger than the 1989 Santa Cruz quake (usually mistakenly called a San Francisco quake) which I rode out balancing on my bouncing house. The Haiti quake, in particular, lasted for 35 seconds, a very long time. The measure of ground movement puts it towards the strongest possible quakes. Port au Prince is one of the least prepared large cities imaginable for such destruction.

Lucienne tried to call Haiti for hours on tuesday night, to no avail. No lines available, and the cell phone networks were probably not functioning at all. Wednesday a call came in from Haiti, from Ernest Pinchinat, the ex-husband of Lulu's sister Beatrice. He came in immediately from Santo Domingo and reported that the hillside neighborhood where they lived had all collapsed into the ravine. He could not find anyone. This is a bidonville/favela on the side of a hill behind where the Hotel Kinam is at the top of Petionville. Lucienne calls it Morne Calvaire, but it is the foot of the Morne.

The next day, at 3am one of the young boys in Mama's household (a nephew/cousin or something) called Lucienne and spoke just long enough to say "call me back". Well, you cannot call back. So, word from someone, but mysteries continue. Great grief here. No word about Nadia, Roxanne's older sister, who lives with her Maren/Godmother in Tabarre (close by Aristides old palace and the new US embassy).

On Saturday a friend of Marcel, Luciennes brother, called and said that Nadia's Maren was confirmed dead and Nanou is missing. Mama and Sister Beatrice are alive but with injured feet or legs. Injured how badly? Unknown. Two brothers are dead, some of the other children are alive. The number living there fluctuates and who is family or not also varies.

I started getting active on Twitter and find it actually useful for something like this. Some folks with satellite internet and some source of electricity were able to get word out online, where telephones were not useful. People whom I know were tweeting from Jacmel and Port au Prince.

Today NPR has the first reports of Leogane. I knew it would be bad there, the center of the quake was in the mountains just above Leogane. They said that 90% of the houses are destroyed and there had been no help at all in six days.