Nuria Pastor, a 25 year old engineer, was amongst 26 Spanish nationals to be evacuated from Haiti yesterday. Visibly tired and affected by the tragedy the party arrived back in the military base of Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, just after half past one, along with three Portuguese, a Pole and a Haiti national who is married to a Spanish man.
Nuria said that, despite being caught up in the drama of the last few days, she never feared for her life but she was overwhelmed by the devastation that had been caused. She was transported from Madrid to her home in San Gabriel de Alicante last night (Saturday).
Pastor went to Haiti last October 1with the Youth Council. She worked for the Spanish International Cooperation Agency (AECI) where she helped to provide water and sanitation in rural areas.
She had just returned from her Christmas holidays and was working with another companion from the AECI in Port au Prince, where the pair was finishing off a job that had been outstanding for some time. Nuria was there last Tuesday when the earthquake took place.
At that time, she recalls, “we were in a clothing store located in a two storey building in a residential neighbourhood of Port au Prince. Suddenly the ground began to tremble, and things began to fall to the floor”.
At that time, she was still with her AECI colleague and, as he recalls, “we went down the stairs and outside. The building did not fall. It was just the shock of the earthquake that lasted for about 40 seconds, but we thought was just an isolated tremor, it would not be repeated and that nothing serious had happened. However, shortly afterwards there were two aftershocks. We got into our car with our driver and we went home. As we drove along, we were watching the tragedy unfold. The roads were became blocked and we decide to abandon the car and continue on foot.”
Nuria Pastor explains that “at first, we didn’t see too much damage, we certainly didn’t see any collapsed houses, but people were becoming very hysterical. Then we started to see all the destruction, the houses razed to the ground, the largest shopping centre in Port au Prince completely flattened and we began to realize just how serious the situation was. We were very frightened but at the same time, we realized just how lucky we had been. ”
When they arrived home she said “we saw that everything appeared to be okay. We lived in a residential area with new buildings which had been better built, but as a precaution, the for the first two days we were sleeping in the car, accompanied by a security guard, and in the company of neighbours with whom we were sharing food and then on Thursday, a Spanish patrol of United Nations police came to pick us up because they knew the area was not very safe. By that time we had already seen a lot of food riots.”
For Nuria, “the worst memories were the images of dead people, blood, collapsed buildings, not knowing what to do and just waiting for somebody to come and get me. I didn’t fear for my life, but the uncertainty and the devastation overwhelmed me.”
Back home with her family in Alicante she says that although her contract was for nine months she doesn’t think that she will be going back.
