BANBRIDGE MAN'S FEARS FOR HAITI
A BANBRIDGE man, who visited Haiti just a few months ago, has spoken of his horror at the rising death toll following a devastating earthquake on the island's capital.
Adrian Horsman, media manager with Christian Aid, said the already poverty-stricken country will struggle to get back on its feet after last Tuesday's earthquake in Port-au-Prince, which measured a staggering seven on the Richter scale and is believed to have killed tens of thousands of people.
The local man, who has strong connections with the area after his visit there late last year and will be co-ordinating part of Ireland's relief effort, said his first reaction on hearing there had been a natural disaster was panic.
"Christian Aid do a lot of work in Port-au-Prince and had a big office there, which was destroyed in the quake," Adrian told the Leader.
"Obviously all the electricity and phone lines were down and I had panicked when I couldn't get through to any of my colleagues."
Three Christian Aid workers were trapped after the quake, and one of the men walked five miles to get medical help, ensuring all aid workers survived relatively unharmed but deeply shaken.
Describing the innate poverty of the country, Adrian said the disaster is a real blow to aid efforts there in recent years.
He said, "Port-au-Prince is a sprawling capital but even in the best of times the conditions are very difficult.
"A lot of people live in shanty towns built on to the sides of steep hills.
"The Haitian people are so resilient - they are hit regularly by flooding and hurricanes but nothing of this scale.
"The only way I can think to describe it - and comprehend it at all in my own head - is to say that it is probably equivalent to the effects of the Asian Tsunami, but in one city."
It is thought 97 per cent of the housing has now collapsed in Port-au-Prince and Adrian appealed for anyone who is able to make a donation to the relief effort to do so at www.christianaid.ie or call 028 90381204.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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