Information from Mattew 25, The guest house in Port au Prince

Earthquake Update on Matthew 25 House ETC.

Dear All,

Thank you for your concern for Sr. Mary, Pat, Vivian, Domond and his family and the clinic at Petite Riviere de Nippes. I received news early last evening that Domond and his family were okay, but was not able to get any word from Matthew 25 until very early this morning. Gras a Dieu, thanks to God, everyone is safe and well. I am going to copy below some of what Sr. Mary has written. I am communicating with Dr. Gil Irwin in Manassas, VA to see if there is a way that we can mobilize medical people to go into PAP, such as through the military. I have had many calls from medical personnel offering to go to Haiti, but the first obstacle to hurdle will be how to get into the country in these next few days. Sr. Mary has indicated that they could potentially have visiting medical personnel sleep in the soccer field and the land behind Matthew 25. She said that they are in great need of medical supplies, bandages, betadine, analgesics, etc. Just as soon as I have any information, I will share it with you.

I have received a lot of inquiries also as to how one can help. As I have done on many other occasions, such as with the hurricanes in Gonaives, I directed money I received to the Bishops or sources where I thought the funds would be utilized best. For now, I feel medical needs are going to be a priority. Long-term, we will also need to make repairs to the house. As Sr. Mary has indicated in her e-mail below, the upstairs of the house has been damaged and we cannot have people stay in those rooms. A lot of reconstruction and rebuilding, particularly in Port-au-Prince, is going to be a necessity in the aftermath of the earthquake.

My word from Petite Riviere de Nippes is that the clinic essentially withstood the major quake and tremors. Our Clinic Administrator writes today that fissures or cracks have occurred in numerous places in the clinic as a result of all of the aftershocks. Otherwise, all of the employees are fine physically, but very disturbed emotionally. Most of them have families back in Port-au-Prince. The medical personnel living at our staff house spent the entire night outside for fear of the building collapsing from the aftershocks. They are prepared today to treat anyone needing medical assistance.

I will stay in touch with Sr. Mary and others in Haiti to assess where we can help most. And, I will also keep you apprised of any information worth sharing. If you know of anyone wishing to make a donation, they can direct it to Parish Twinning Program and put on the memo line for "earthquake relief" -- or if you are able to assist with medical treatment and repairs at Visitation Clinic, you would make a check out to Visitation Hospital Foundation with the same information on the memo line.

Please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers.

Blessings,

Theresa Patterson
Parish Twinning Program
Visitation Hospital Foundation

FROM SR. MARY FINNICK IN PORT-AU-PRINCE:

We are all OK physically at the house. We were home when it hit. The downstairs part of the house stood up well, does not appear to be any serious structural damage. But, there has been some considerable damage upstairs. Matthew 25 cooked up 4 big pots of soup for the people coming for treatment, and we served as a triage and treatment center. We were able to climb over the fallen bookcases and shelves and retrieve a lot of meds and supplies we had in our depot.

Sr Mary, Vivian and our 6 guests performed superbly in treating many injured. Eventually, 3 Haitian doctors showed up, I think when they heard we had supplies. Worked til about one in the morning. We were also one of the few houses to have power with our inverters and batteries, so we set up 3 or 4 lights on the soccer field to help with the treatment. The hospitals are either badly damaged or destroyed and have stopped taking patients as they are overwhelmed.

Pray for our sisters and brothers.

Pat, Viv, Sr. Mary

It is morning and I can give you a better assessment of the house. The first floor is covered with all the things that came out of the closets but there isn't any big structural problem. The divider between the depot and the store fell in as did most of the other book cases in the office and in my room. The 2nd floor is different The side facing the soccer field has more damage and the cement walls and some of the boards have been knocked around. The 3rd floor stairs are just hanging there. The cement in front of the bathroom is badly damaged. On the other side the bathroom wall on the outside is damaged but there doesn't seem to be as much structural problems. The wall between us and the neighbor has quite a large hole. I don't know yet what to tell folks about coming but I don't think we can use the rooms upstairs. I've been trying to answer and reassure folks we are ok.

We used everything I had as I triaged along with 3 MD's and our guests. Vivian and Pat had the important job of getting to our supplies as that whole area is under debris; making pots of soup etc. We finally cut up pillow cases for bandages. I think planes are flying out today but I haven't heard from the folks who are in country and supposed to return to PAP. Our electricity continues but the container holding 12 of the batteries is damaged. All the cars survived.

Domond just came over and said his house is not safe because of the damage upstairs. He did ask to have you contact any medical groups planning to come to see if they still planned to and then ask if they would stay in PAP as this the most needy place right now. We can use the soccer field and out back for sleeping area and the kitchen for cooking in the back is OK. But there is a great need for medical supplies, suturing, betadine, analgesics...everything... and personnel to bring it.