By Johnny Jackson
jjackson@henryherald.com

This week has been tense for Stockbridge resident, Gary Hyppolite, and his family.

The Haitian-born man sat with his family Wednesday, preoccupied by the news. He sat watching and waiting for news that might give him an idea of his mother’s health and well being.

“I’m looking in relation to the type of destruction that I have seen around Haiti, and I don’t know,” said Hyppolite, 44.

Hyppolite said he has lost communication with members of his family in Haiti, namely his mother, Marie France. He said she lives in the Carrefour community, within the capital city of Port-au-Prince, which was devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake Tuesday.

Haitian-Americans across the United States told similar stories of frantically trying to reach relatives and friends to see if they survived the largest earthquake to hit Haiti in 200 years. Communications were widely disrupted, making it impossible to get a full picture of damage and casualties as powerful aftershocks shook the desperately poor country where many buildings are flimsy.

Danglass Gregoire headed to Florida for a business trip Tuesday, leaving his wife and young daughter behind in Haiti, close to the epicenter of the earthquake. When he arrived at Miami International Airport, the 41-year-old said he wasn’t sure if they were alive.

“I call. I call. I call. No one answers,” Gregoire said.

West Palm Beach, Fla., firefighter Nate Lasseur tried to reach family and the firefighters he trains in Port-au-Prince, which has largely been destroyed.

Lasseur was doing training through International Firefighters Assistance in November 2008 when a school there collapsed, killing nearly a hundred people. He described chaos then — firefighters pushing through panicked crowds, digging through the debris.

“They are not prepared as far as equipment and training goes for something of this magnitude,” Lasseur said. “Their adrenaline and pure will to save their families — that only lasts for so long.”

Hyppolite, already concerned about his mother and extended family in Port-au-Prince, said he is also worried about the school he is helping build nearby.

Hyppolite leads a Christian education outreach ministry in Haiti, through his church in McDonough. He is president of the Bethel Mission Outreach, a non-profit ministry created in 2002 through the Southside Christian Fellowship Church.

He said the church ministry has operated a free elementary school in Haiti for the past three years with the help of other church ministries. The school, known as the Love of Christ School, serves 200 impoverished Haitian students and is located in Croix Des Bouquets, Haiti, about eight miles northeast of the earthquake’s epicenter.

Hyppolite said the school, which has been operating in temporary facilities, was about 80 percent finished with the construction of a new, $90,000 building. “They were pouring the concrete for the roof on Monday, the day before the earthquake hit,” he said.

Hyppolite said he has no idea of the extent of damage to the school, if there is any, because he has had no contact with the anyone from the region since the earthquake struck.

“We’re really just kind of on pins and needles, trying to find out what’s going on,” said Eddie Mason, senior pastor at Southside Christian Fellowship.

Mason, another founding member of the outreach ministry to Haiti, said the idea behind creating the ministry was to lead the nation’s impoverished people to the Christian faith and self-sufficiency in hopes of lifting them out of poverty. He said he was disturbed by the news of the earthquake in a country already struggling.

“There was a great need before the earthquake,” he said. “Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and they need people to touch their lives.”

Mason said members of his church, and participants in the outreach ministry, are now trying to mobilize their resources in an effort to assist the Haitian community in the aftermath of the quake.

“We’ve been in a lot of prayer,” he said. “We’ve got e-mails going out, letting people know that we’re going to need cash donations, and we’re trying to gather up clothing needs and supplies.”

Hyppolite was raised in Les Cayes, Haiti, and has returned to his native country several times, annually, since he left some 28 years ago. He said he plans to go back on Jan. 21.

“I’m concerned,” said Hyppolite. “Like everybody else, we’re watching the news and reports of lots of damage in that area. There’s a lot of damage, and we have not been able to contact any one of our people down there.

“It’s just nerve-racking, but we trust the Lord,” he continued. “Everything is in God’s hands and we know that God is going to work everything out for the better.”

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On the net:

Southside Christian Fellowship: www.SouthsideChristianFellowship.net

The Associated Press contributed to this article.