In Port-au-Prince, one overwhelming thought: escape (Feature)

By Anindita Ramaswamy Jan 20, 2010, 13:12 GMT

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Every motorable road leading out of Port-au-Prince is packed with earthquake survivors desperate to escape the tent city that their capital has become.

Having suffered the unbearable loss of family and friends, homes, jobs, and unable to feed themselves or think of rebuilding their lives, the physical movement out of a disaster zone comforts them with the promise of a fresh start.

They travel by bus, truck, the ubiquitous painted Haitian tap-taps or shared taxis, and on foot, carrying with them whatever last week's earthquake spared, to the fringes of the city and then wait for buses to Cap Haitien on the north coast.

The more privileged ones with US passports have crowded the airport, eager to take the first flight out. Anywhere but here, they say, and while many would like to return they're unsure if there will be anything to come back for. Some Haitians feel they won't see the rebuilding of their country in decades, maybe even in their lifetime.

On Route Nationale 1, one of two main national highways in Haiti, large trucks speed past, kicking up clouds of dust that cover the battered suitcases and plastic bags of hopeful migrants. Some of the trucks carry rubble - the others are filled with bodies to be dumped in massive pits off the highway.

Telusmon Henry-Claude, his wife and two children are among scores waiting along the road, for a government bus to arrive. Few have any money to pay for the trip, but hope that the kindness of strangers will buy them a ride.

'Our house is destroyed so we're going to find refuge in the north,' Henry-Claude said, of the place where he and his wife were born. But, they would like to return - 'our life is here.'

Esther Pierre, a 19-year-old student of diplomacy, said she was keen to reach the provinces because the 'ambience is not good here.'

But she wonders when she will get to safer ground - the state buses have not stopped here for a long time. 'I think they're helping their own family and friends,' she said. Some people have been waiting for a day.

A 6.1-aftershock rocked Port-au-Prince early Wednesday morning, a brutal reminder that their suffering could be compounded any day, that the worst was not yet over. A downpour late Tuesday meant that the tens of thousands of people, who have spread out their lives across exposed public spaces, would spend the night soaked and cold.

'Out of Port-au-Prince it won't be easy ... but you don't sense death - the air is cleaner,' Pierre told the German Press Agency dpa.

Her boyfriend in France sent her money but all of Port-au-Prince's banks collapsed in the quake. On Tuesday, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) had a specific mission to locate cash from the banks.

A counselor to Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said there was a plan to open banks soon, but there was no immediate time frame and a suitable location would have to found.

'I don't know exactly what I'm going to do right now, my head is full,' Pierre said. 'I don't know what I'm going to do because there's no money.'

Just before last week's 7.0-magnitude earthquake, a survey showed that 3.5 million people didn't have work, said Jean Louis Evens, a driver and tailor. 'After this, it must be five or six times more. It's going to get worse, worse, worse, worse, worse,' he said.

Some of his friends were leaving Haiti and if he could get a visa, he would go too.

'This country is dead. Everything is broken. This country is fucked up,' he said.