Amid the unimaginable destruction across a country upended by its worst earthquake in centuries were incredible tales of rescue and survival — some by travelers and transplants from the New York area.
Connecticut transplant Frank Thorp was in a town about 100 miles north of the quake’s Port-au-Prince epicenter when he felt the ground shake.
The damage wasn’t bad where he was, but when he learned that the nation’s capital had been nearly leveled, he jumped into a car and drove six hours to get home to his wife, Jillian.
The building where his wife worked had collapsed, and Jillian was still trapped inside.
“Some of the Haitian workers here had broken through the ceiling,” Thorp told CBS’s “Early Show.”
“By the time that I got here, she was still trapped, but it was in time — we were able to pull her out.”
Thorp and his wife moved several years ago to Haiti, where she works for the Haitian Ministries for the Diocese of Norwich, Conn.
Jillian was trapped in the rubble for 10 hours.
“I jumped into the hole and I was able to see her wave her hand,” her husband said. “I couldn’t see her whole body. She was just waving. And I could hear her voice. And it was — I mean, you know, I — I couldn’t hold it together, but all she was saying was, ‘Just hold it together. Hold it together. Just get me out of here.’ ”
While the Thorps were dusting themselves off in Haiti, a worried New Jersey congregation got good news about its missionary group, which was in Port-au-Prince when the quake hit.
The Rev. Frank Fowler, pastor of the Trinity United Methodist Church in Hackettstown, was able to borrow a satellite phone and tell church members that he and the group had survived.
“We’re alive and safe, and we’re all together,” Fowler said, according to a church spokesman.
Members were relieved. “I was anxious throughout the night,” said Tom Thorp, whose wife, Virginia, and daughter, Taylor, 17, had taken the trip.
“I think they both feel they were called to do something. I think they would go back. They might even feel a stronger need to go back with everything that has happened.”
Erica Pattky, 18, was also with the group, which was waiting to fly out of the country.
“It has been difficult, but we’re glad to hear that she’s OK,” said Erica’s mother, Sandy. “She was excited to go.”
One Canadian woman trapped under wreckage was rescued after texting a message from her cellphone to the Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa, Reuters reported.
Her message was relayed to Canadian diplomats back in Haiti, who rushed to her aid.