January 2010  1/13/2010


The quake struck shortly before 5 p.m on January 12, 2010 and was centered about 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. Many of Reiser Relief projects are so close to this epicenter.

A 7.0 earthquake has hit the poorest country in the western hemisphere taking a toll on a country that is just recovering from the four hurricanes that devastated the western coast of Haiti in September 2009.

1/14/2010 - Jeff Gacek director of our Haiti programs has been able to talk with Kevin McClellan (coordinator of the fresh water project) shortly after the earthquake and who was en route from Grace Village in Titanyen to Port au Prince and stated there were many collapsed houses along the road.  He had heard of one house it collapsing killing the occupant.

Kevin stated  "I was OK and unhurt".  He told us there was a lot of houses completely destroyed in Titanyen and cracks in the new highway being built on the west cost of Haiti.   I don't think Kevin understood the extent of destruction in Port au Prince and became concerned about getting back to his house to check on his daughter. We have been unable to reach him since then.  We were unable to make contact with any of our other staff through the night of the quake.

This morning, director Jean Fils-Aime said his house had collapsed, but his family are alright. Jean had talked to Guilluame at our orphanage in Cite Soleil and was told that the 30 children were "OK"... he said one child was injured and taken to the hospital but will be "OK".

We have not been able to get a hold of Yvon at our orphanage in Titanyen and have no information at this time on the 23 orphaned children there. We also have not heard from Fanfan or Elder Morland and thus we have no information on Terre Promise Primary School in Cite Soleil, which is a very densely populated shanty town located in Port-au-Prince. 

We have not been able to get a hold of the director from our orphanage in Titanyen so we have no word on the 23 children there. We also have been unable to contact our Elder-Care director or the directors of the school in Cite Soleil or Lespinasse so we have no word. I have tried multiple ways and have called hundreds of times today but with no success.

Jeff Gacek  - This is so much worse that we could have ever imagined and the information we continue to receive is not getting any better. This is truly an unbelievable event that we still cannot comprehend.

Before the quake, only 30% of the people in Haiti had access to clean drinking water and now there is even less water available. We are also working with Feed My Starving Children to ship an emergency container of food to Haiti.

We were able to talk with Joyce at Mother Teresa's Orphanage and she said they had damage, but the babies were all moved outside and spent the night outside. She said the guest house is still standing, but is severely damaged. She said Father Tom's house collapsed and he was injured but will be "OK".

We have one fresh water truck staffed and will be running again when the roads are passable and we have second water truck that was shipped down last year that we want to put into service and are in need of funds to bring this truck out of "moth balls".  We are also deploying our dump-truck and Bobcat to help with all the devastation.

We hope to hear more from our Reiser Relief staff in Haiti, but as you can imagine, so many buildings, roads and communications are down.

We are asking all our friends, families and supporters to please pray for Haiti. Pray for strength, pray for healing, pray for mercy, pray for relief. Pray that God uses this horrible situation to shine His light on the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Pray that through their suffering, God will provide hope and a future for the people of Haiti.

We are in desperate need for additional support and ask that you will consider a sacrificial gift for the least of these. All donations are tax deductible and can be made online or by mail at Reiser Relief Inc 1800-111th Ave NW APT 320 Coon Rapids, MN 55433 - mail-in-donation-form

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