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Hero husband travels 100 miles to save wife in Haiti earthquake
Terry Kirby13 Jan 2010
A man drove 100 miles to pull his wife from the rubble of a building destroyed by the Haiti earthquake, it was revealed this afternoon.
Frank Thorp raced to the capital Port-au-Prince after his wife Jillian rang to say she was trapped.
The massive quake is believed to have killed several thousand people on the Caribbean island. It flattened buildings ranging from shacks to the presidential palace and the HQ of the UN's peacekeeping force, where 11 staff died.
Gallery: Disaster hits Haiti's capital
Mr Thorp, an American journalist, said he was almost overcome with emotion as he helped rescue workers for an hour as they pulled away bricks, doors and twisted metal. He said he could hear his wife saying: “Just hold it together. Just get me out of here,” adding: “I was able to see her wave her hand. I couldn't see her whole body. She was just waving.”
Mrs Thorp, who works for a church group, was in the organisation's three-storey building when it was destroyed, trapping her and several others for almost 10 hours.
Mr Thorp said his wife was under a foot of rubble when he arrived. He said: "Some of the Haitian workers here had broken through the ceiling. By the time that I got here she was still trapped, but we were able to pull her out in time.”
The seven-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti yesterday evening. Among the dead were said to be at least 11 members of the UN peacekeeping staff in the city, including its head, Hedi Annabi, who were caught when their five-storey building collapsed.
As the death toll mounted, it was confirmed that the Roman Catholic archbishop of Port -au-Prince was among the dead. The body of Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, 63, was found in the ruins of his office.
The National Palace caved in, but the country's president, Rene Preval, is said to have escaped.
The epicentre of the earthquake, the worst to hit Haiti in 200 years, was 10 miles from city of one million. The International Red Cross said up to three million people may have been affected in total. The Red Cross said Haiti's disaster relief teams were “completely overwhelmed”. “There's no structured response at this point,” said spokesman Simon Schorno.
The earthquake took less than a minute to flatten large areas of the capital, and the city, with a population of one million, was covered in a choking dust cloud caused by falling masonry.
Some reports said the worst damage was among the outlying hillside shanty towns where shacks “tumbled down on one another”. Two major aftershocks added to the misery. “Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken,” said Henry Bahn, a US department of agriculture official in Port-au-Prince.
“The hospitals cannot handle all these victims,” said Louis-Gerard Gilles, a doctor and former senator, as he helped survivors. “Haiti needs to pray. We all need to pray together.”
According to the UN, whose mission head in Haiti is believed to be among the dead, a lot of the damage was confined to the capital city and surrounding areas. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said: “We are yet to establish the number of dead or injured. There is no doubt that we are facing a major humanitarian emergency and a major relief effort will be required."
Wyclef Jean, the country's most famous musician, urged his fans to donate to earthquake relief efforts: “We must think ahead, the people will need food, medicine, shelter,” he said.
Dixie Bickel, who runs an orphanage 12 miles outside the city, said: “There are people out there stuck in the rubble, they are buried underneath their houses and they can't get out and they're calling for help.”
The quake was also felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, and some residents in the capital of Santo Domingo fled from their shaking homes. But no major damage was reported there. In eastern Cuba, houses shook but there were also no reports of significant damage.
As darkness fell last night and regular aftershocks brought further panic, news agencies reported that people covered in dust were crawling from the rubble while others wandered through the streets holding hands. And thousands gathered in public squares late into the night, singing hymns.
With little or no help from emergency services, many seriously injured people still sat in the streets pleading for doctors while other frantically scrambled through the wreckage themselves searching for loved ones.
Gordon Brown said: “I am deeply saddened and worried about the reported scale of the earthquake in Haiti. We are sending a team from the Department for International Development to assess the humanitarian needs. We stand ready to provide whatever humanitarian assistance is required.”
Several countries including Britain and the United States offered immediate aid agencies geared up for their relief effort, they
Humanitarian officials said Haiti's crumbling infrastructure meant it was impossible to estimate exactly how many people might be dead or wounded.
The first airlifts to Haiti concentrated on search and rescue efforts and setting up makeshift hospitals.
However the road from the capitals airport was blocked and aid agencies were planning on using airports in the Dominican Republic.
Gallery: Disaster hits Haiti's capital
Reader views (1)
I hope mister Thorpe tried to help rescue other trapped people,these poor people need all the help they can get.
- Lindona, italy, 13/01/2010 16:03
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