Haitian relief
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While many people watched news reports and read stories online following Tuesday's 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti, few had a greater interest in the aftermath than Backus volunteer Roberthe Antoine.
Being of Haitian descent, the Norwich resident and her family were glued to the television overnight in search of information after a long night of hit-and-miss phone calls.
Finally, at about 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, she was able to get through to a cousin in Port-au-Prince and learned that at least five of her relatives had been killed in the quake. With many others still unaccounted for, she feared more bad news was in store in the future.
"We just know we haven't heard the worst yet," Ms. Antoine said. "If you are from there, you probably know someone who has passed."
She found out about the disaster while checking her e-mail Tuesday evening and then watched continuing coverage on CNN, which has been a fixture in the family's living room ever since.
When she finally reached her cousin, she learned that one of her uncles and his wife had perished, as did another cousin and her two children.
"Everything is a mess," Ms. Antoine said. "The earth is still shaking there. People are out in the street. Their houses are standing, but not by much."
Instead of manning the information desk outside the Backus Emergency Department as is her normal Wednesday routine, Ms. Antoine stayed home with her husband Alix, who was still awaiting word on members of his family who live farther out in the countryside away from the Haitian capital.
"Today, everything is flat," she said.
Ms Antoine has been a Backus volunteer for nearly five months, spending her first month at the Backus Outpatient Care Center, before moving to the main campus and closer to her home. She's lived in Norwich for 11 years and has been a U.S. resident for 19. And while she doesn't visit her homeland as often as she used to now as a mother of three, she doesn't recall anything of this magnitude striking so close to home.
"It doesn't happen very often," she said of the earthquake, "but when it does, it's big."
Donations to assist Haitian relief efforts may be directed to:
Haitian Health Foundation
97 Sherman St.
Norwich, CT 06360
Phone: 860-886-4357
E-mail: hhf@HaitianHealthFoundation.org
Online: www.haitianhealthfoundation.org