Feb 2, 2010 / 21:05 pm
Catholic News Agency sent two members of its staff to Port-au-Prince after the January 12 earthquake that took the lives of 150,000, left 200,000 wounded and three million homeless. CNA's Spanish-language editor-in-chief, Walter Sánchez Silva Saldarriaga, recently recounted their experiences in the devastated island-nation.
Sánchez Silva, along with José Castro, director of television services, arrived at Port-au-Prince on January 15. “The residents of Port-au-Prince are in need of everything,” Sánchez Silva said. He explained that when they arrived, it was 7 p.m. and already dark. “You could see groups of people on the streets with candles, cooking the little they had, drinking whatever water was left.”
“We could see homes destroyed, hotels in ruins, and rubble impossible to identify,” he continued. “We saw desolation and extreme poverty.”
Commenting on the interview the two had with the Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Sánchez Silva said, “He met with us and gave us an extensive, long and profound interview that was full of emotion.”