Prince William firefighter is witness to destruction

By JONATHAN HUNLEY

jhunley@insidenova.com

Chris Granger knew the people of Haiti needed help. That's why he was going on a trip there.

What he couldn't have known, however, was that he would be heading to the Caribbean nation just before a natural disaster.

Granger, a captain with the Prince William County fire and rescue department, had planned for some time to participate in a mission trip to Haiti through his church, Warrenton Presbyterian, and Bethlehem Ministry, a Georgia-based

nonprofit organization that helps the poor in that country.

Warrenton Presbyterian Church held a 5K race last fall to raise money for solar panels for a clinic in the Haitian hamlet of Terrier Rouge, and Granger was part of a group that would see the pan-els installed and work in the clinic for a week.

The mission workers flew into Haiti on Jan. 10, and they began seeing patients with maladies such as malaria, infections and waterborne illnesses.

Then, on Jan. 12, the ground began to shake. Some people may not have known what to make of the experience, but Granger, who was born in San Diego, knew that that meant an earth-quake.

"You heard people yelling and screaming," he said Wednesday, after an aftershock again shook Haiti.

Terrier Rouge is 75 to 80 miles from the country's capital, where most of the quake dam-age occurred.

But, Granger said, most folks in Terrier Rouge know someone in Port-au-Prince, and many spent anxious hours trying to find out if their loved ones were OK.

All cell phone and land lines were down for almost 24 hours after the quake, he said.

"Communication was, to say the least, limited," said Granger, who's based at the Gainesville fire station.

Then, as Port-au-Prince residents started making their way out of that city, Granger and the other workers at the Terrier Rouge clinic started seeing some patients who had suffered injuries from the earthquake.

Many were reeling from the after effects of shock, Granger said, and some were sleep-deprived.

"They were just super stressed out," he said.

One girl, who was probably 12 years old, came in with a severely broken leg and had to be sent to a hospital about 20 miles away.

Granger said he and three American doctors volunteering at the clinic considered traveling to Port-au-Prince, but they figured they could do more good where they were.

For instance, some locals had planned for some time to come to the clinic that week because it would be staffed from Monday to Friday instead of just on Thursday and Friday as usual.

In spite of the devastation they lived through, the Haitian people seemed fairly calm, Granger said.

There seemed to be some concern over whether scarce resources would hold out, he said, "but it wasn't like mass hysteria in the streets."

And being in Haiti showed Granger why it's hard to get emergency supplies into the coun-try. The airport in Port-au-Prince, for example, is comparable to the Manassas Regional Air-port.

"It's not like driving to Dulles and having unfettered access," he said.

Granger noted as well that Haiti will continue to face challenges even after the earthquake dam-age has been repaired.

Residents worry about what will happen two, three, six months down the line in a country that endured mostly mud roads and rampant unemployment before the recent trouble.

"It was a Third World country to begin with," Granger said.

Staff writer Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738.