Haiti Relief Efforts: U.S. Search and Recovery Teams Pull Survivors
Rescue teams listen for voices in the rubble and hold on to hope.
Jan. 14, 2010— -- Rescuers have spent most of the day outside what remains of the Montana Hotel, which was the most expensive hotel in Port-au-Prince.
On one side of a pile of rubble, a hotel worker named Sarah has been trapped for two days, but she's still able to communicate with search and rescue workers from Fairfax, Va., who are trying to get her out.
"We know she's extremely thirsty," one rescue worker told us. "She's calling out for water, but she sounds very strong."
Sarah is one of four people believed to be trapped inside the ocean of rubble that was once the swankiest hotel in town. In another portion of the ruins, they are trying to dig out Chris Stephenson's 7-year-old son, Iley.
Stephenson described it as the worst nightmare of his life. "I'm just waiting for him to get out," he said.
Sylvan Cordoza Rydell says her mother is under the hotel rubble as well. "I have been here for the past three days," Rydell said, waiting for any word. "I don't even know."
Across town at the collapsed United Nations headquarters, a team of rescue workers knocked on the rubble trying to communicate with people trapped inside.
"If you hear us, knock three times," they shout.
Earlier today, they pulled a U.N. security guard named Tarmo Joveer out of the building. Joveer was in remarkably good shape, able to walk on his own.
"I lost the footing...I was laying down on the floor, that was it," he told reporters.
It's a tough and emotional job for the rescue crews. Sam Grey from Fairfax County, Va., said, "The hardest part is to know how many aren't going to be able to be saved."
We came across another group of Haitians who continued to dig all night in the rubble with nothing but their hands and broken tools. It is an unfortunate reality that many of the people trapped in Haiti tonight will die in the rubble.
Even so, rescuers and Haitians are holding on to hope. Rescuers know of one woman who is trapped under five floors of rubble, but still one worker said today, "We are not giving up, I promise you that."
