By Bill Dedman, msnbc.com
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Shouts split the darkness early Friday as members of the Lifechurch in Allentown, Pa., arrived at the orphanage they run here to find everyone safe – 11 children and four staff members sleeping in the garden. The hugging, conversation and serious business of inspecting damage continued until just before dawn, when the just-settled roosters wearily performed their rise-and-shine ritual once again.
The nine-hour drive from Santo Domingo, while long, tense and eerily dark, proved less fearsome than we had imagined. When we arrived at the border shortly after midnight, Dominican immigration officers let us pass after a glance at our passports and a quick conversation in a back room. The Haitian side was unguarded.
As we neared Port-au-Prince on a back road that was nearly deserted, we saw rock walls toppled over, then whole houses down.
David Friedman / msnbc.com
Kids at the Rescue Children orphanage watch a generator-powered television on Friday in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
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