Providence, R.I., Mar 14, 2010 / 11:53 am
Watching news reports of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday, Nicole Jean-Gilles was drawn back to that fateful day seven weeks ago when she was nearly killed during the quake that rocked Haiti.
Jean-Gilles is a nurse at Fatima Hospital, and a member of the diocese’s Black Catholic Ministry. She had returned to Haiti, her homeland, for a post-holiday visit with several family members who still reside there, when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the island nation on Jan. 12.
She was riding with family members in a car through the capital, Port-Au-Prince, when the earth began to shake violently just before 5 p.m. local time.
“I survived, thank God,” says Jean-Gilles, 49. “We had stopped. A bus in front of us broke down. That saved us.”