Roman Catholic Cathedral collapsed - major religious building.
The Presidential Palace collapsed - major symbol of government.
The UN Mission had major damage - major international relief support
A 7.0 earthquake and 52 after shocks rattled the Port-au-Prince area for twelve days
Many homes were destroyed
Devastation was everywhere
Schools were destroyed
Business districts were destroyed
Miraculously all nine chapels were functional, a few cracks and fallen ceiling tiles, but safe to use
Over 4,000 people gathered at the chapels for safety
There are many people in the streets, with a large number of dead and injured. Medical resources are limited. The most urgent items needed are medical supplies, US dollars, fuel, water purification, blankets, and tents as many are homeless, reported President Kerving Joseph.
It is very unsafe and difficult to move about the streets. “You can’t do anything,” according to President Francillon, 1/13/2010, day 2.
"The next day me and the mission president we took a motorcycle because we don't have any way to travel with a vehicle. We rented a motorcycle. It was really difficult for us to travel, even with the motorcycle it was difficult to travel. You can't imagine. Everywhere you go you find bodies... a lot of them."
The mission president, stake president and a driver, all three rode through the rubble to find missionaries and members that first night.
“We make contact with the leaders. All of the leaders we have on the field, all of them were already in action to help the people without our instruction. We find many branch presidents many bishops, many elders quorum, they organize the home teaching guys to visit the people, to collect the information. It was a very hard day, but it was also an opportunity to see how the priesthood works.”
The Emergency Committee met the next night and every night for a month to counsel together, make assignments and report on the activities of the day.
“When this thing happened I was with my wife and children. I was afraid a lot… I need to be strong for them. You can give Bishops encouragement, but when you meet with them, they give you power. All the Bishops are very strong. We feel strong, we feel [God] protects. We create a committee. We need to be together, to work together.”
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Food in the area is becoming more scarce. However, through the day, cash from fast offerings has been used to purchase food at a premium on the local street market, which is now the only source of the little food available. It has been distributed to members.
Bennie Lilly, update 1/15/2010, day 3
Medical teams arrived by day 3 and 4. They did a marvelous work with limited resources and difficult conditions.
LDS Emergency Response group sent in several other teams that arrived in subsequent weeks. They sent in the LDS Family Services teams for counseling victims, engineers to evaluate homes, schools, hospitals and train local persons how to inspect and build for earthquakes. Employment teams established networking connections with large NGOs and other local businesses and introduced local priesthood leaders to them to open channels of work opportunities. Job skills surveys were taken early on so member talents were identified and job placement could progress quickly.
On day 4 a truckload of food arrived from the DR. Three days later airlifted food and supplies arrived.
“One of the sacrifices is to distribute food. They work all the night to load and distribute food. After two weeks, they never collapse even though it was something very hard. All the people who live in Haiti now is a miracle. All the priesthood we can consider heroes because they do the best they can do.”
“Security is a major issue. We have to work at night to avoid riots for food. We load the trucks from 10-11 pm and deliver from 3-4 in the morning.”
President Francillon
The dietary staples were; beans, rice, spaghetti, tomato sause, sardines/tuna and water.
Several weeks after the quake a warehouse was established and stocked with food. Deliveries continue to come to this warehouse. Much of the food now comes from Haiti to strengthen the local economy, provide jobs and return things back to "normal" as soon as possible.
Shortly after the earthquake President Vinas, the area president, went to Haiti, met with priesthood leaders, attended church with the saints and lifted their hopes.
There is much to do to fully recover, but with their faith and hope in Jesus Christ they will be strengthened and recover to fulfill the Lord's purposes.
Slide 27
“Our members feel like they have hope. They know they have leaders. They are different. We have a prophet. All the things we have now are already in the books. Right now we see better what happened in the Book of Mormon. It is a hard time but sometimes it is a privilege for us when we are in that situation because we need to use our capacity to respond regarding the Lord.” President Francillon
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