Cap-Haitien Haiti News : Auguste, Lakay Okay

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 Hello Everyone,

As you know, the Mag 7.0 earthquake and  dozens of aftershocks devastated much of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

As yet, we have not heard any news from any of the students attending post secondary there.

However, Auguste emailed that the house has a few more cracks after the earthquake, but seems fine.  I will see for myself when I get there. They may be old cracks.

Digicel, our cell provider, is down. so we are able to use email only.

Starthrower, as is likely with all charities working in Haiti, has been contacted by media for information. For those of you in the Toronto area, I will be interviewed tomorrow morning -- January 14, Thursday -- on Andy Barry's morning show on CBC radio 99,1 FM at 7:13 a.m. See http://www.cbc.ca/metromorning/andy_barrie.html and the video at Waiting for Word from Haiti.

Today I saw my surgeon. who is very pleased with the way I am healing. He gave me the green light to travel to Haiti, but no heavy lifting for at least another month. I will book flights tomorrow to return to Haiti as soon as possible.

Thank you to those who shared their news from Cap-Haitien:


To Debi from Salem, Oregon:

We have a team of nine people from our church, Salem Evangelical, that flew into Cap-Haitien yesterday right before the earthquake took place in Haiti.  We received word that all are okay.

To Mark in USA  :
Here is a report we received last night from Father Henry. Their MOP compound is across the street from Starthrowers in Cap-Haitien.

Blessings!
Thank you so much for your loving concern and for your prayers. Thank God, we are all safe here, residents and Brothers alike.

Except for a minor crack on one of the side walls of the Asile building, all of our buildings are also intact.

We do not know what it is like in the city, especially up in the hills where they have a lot of those weak houses. We definitely heard shouts from outside, but we only rushed over to the residencies to check on our residents.

We will go and check it out in our neighbourhood tomorrow morning. It seems Port-au-Prince has sustained quite a bit of damage. I pray there are no casualties even if there are injuries.

Thank you each and every one of you for thinking of Starthrower,  our staff and students. Thank you for asking for donations via your Facebook and Twitter contacts, and even for contacting your friends and relatives on our behalf.

We are of course very concerned about the students in Port-au-Prince. As soon as we get any information about them we will let you know.

Blessings,

Sharon
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Update January 13, 2010 7PM

Auguste writes:

Still no word from Sen Rafayel and no public transit up and down the mountain. The country is at a standstill (bloke).

The rain which has been falling for 2 weeks in Cap is adding to the misery. The kids have started coming in because houses are damaged and the rain is coming in. As soon as possible we'll put together and send out work crews to do repairs, purchase and install new toll roofs.

Sharon