Desperate pleas for help reaching N.B. residents with family, friends in Haiti

New Brunswickers with connections to Haiti are relaying wrenching accounts from the aftermath of Saturday's earthquake.

The death toll from the 7.2-magnitude quake has climbed to more than 1,900, with another 9,900 reported injured.

Moncton resident Amanda Edmond, who was born in Haiti and moved to New Brunswickin 2006 to attend the University of Moncton, has had distressing updates from family members a brother, as well as cousins, uncles and aunts in Haiti.

"They are scared," said Edmond. "They are feeling helpless. They are feeling frustrated with the situation. They are feeling hopeless."

Edmond'sfamily lives in the southwestern area of Les Cayes, also known as Aux Cayes, which was the worst-hit by the quake.

They were injured when part of their house collapsed.

Edmond said her cousin's head was injuredwhile she was fleeing her house, and that she has had a headache since Saturday.

One of her aunts fell several times and a wall collapsed on her. She's unable to openone of her eyes and has bruises on her face and head.

Edmond said it has been hard to get updates because it takes 20 to 40 attempts to get one phone call through. But when she spoke to them on Tuesday, she said, they had injuries that were still unchecked.

They have had no access to medical treatment.

With so many people hurt and so few resources, only those with lost or broken limbs are getting attention, and there's not enough medicine, clean water, food or people to help, Edmond said.

"They can only wait and pray."

Many houses in the area have collapsed, and Edmond's relatives told her on Tuesday that help had yet to arrive.

An apartment building that housed medical interns in her cousin's neighbourhoodhad collapsed, and people were trapped inside.

"They are still hearing some of them screaming under the rubble," Edmond said, "but people only have their bare hands to help them get out of there."

Even those whose houses were still standing were in the streets, because their walls were cracked and tremors kept hitting every couple of hours.

People started building a temporary shelter on a soccer field, Edmond said, but it was destroyed by tropical depressionGrace, which hit on Monday.

"My cousin has a one-year-old and she spent the whole night holding her" to protect her from the rain, she said.

"That's the only thing she could do. Just standing there and shielding her girl with her own body. Because there's nothing. She was just standing in the street."

Edmond said her family is feeling "really low" right now.

"They feel broken," she said.

"We're talking about people they spend years building a house. It's not like here where you have access to just go get a mortgage. In Haiti, when someone has a home built, sometimes it will take 20 to 30 years for them to build those houses."

And in a matter of seconds, she said, "it's all gone."

"They are asking themselves, what are they going to do, how are they going to live?"

'Total chaos,' Moncton photographer says

Moncton photographer Maurice Henri has also been getting messages from Haiti.

The situation is "total chaos," Henri said.

Henri has worked in Haiti on a regular basis since 2013, teaching photography as an emotional outlet for some of the thousands of teens who lost limbs during the 2010 quake.

Henri is home in Moncton now, but has been getting disturbing updates fromhis good friend and colleague, who lives near the quake's epicentre.

"We are in a horrible situation," said Henri, quoting a message he received Monday night. "We are hungry. Many people are sleeping in the middle of the street with just a little blanket on the ground, no food, no water. And of course many people are dying."

The Les Cayes area was previously devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, he said.

Henri was involved in helping to rebuild a school and a hospital wing there.

Effects of quake will be long-lasting

A Saint John man with family in Haiti said the entire country will be feeling the effects of Saturday's earthquake for a long time to come.

Guy Vernasaid the worst-hit area provides food to other parts of Haiti, and roads are blocked with rocks that fell from the mountains.

The only way to get there now is by plane, helicopter or ship.

Verna hopes U.S. and Chilean Coast Guard escorts will help get relief items to where they are needed.

Even in the capital of Port-au-Prince, where the quake wasn't as strong, he said, it was terrifying for survivors of the 2010 quake.

Many things in Haiti had still not returned to normal when the latest disaster struck, Verna said.

He described the situation as "heartbreaking."

How to help

Edmond, Henry and Verna all urged people who want to help to make sure they are donating through a legitimate charity, such as the Canadian Red Cross.

A Fredericton man is promoting another option.

Eugene Lewis has gone to Haiti several times to work on various charity projects.

WATCH | What suppliesdo earthquake survivors need?

Shelter boxes headed to Haiti

3 years ago

Duration 1:58

New Brunswicker Eugene Lewis is raising money to send supplies to Haitians reeling from Saturdays earthquake.

The first time, he said, he was recruited for his engineering experience to help build an orphanage. Lewis is a retired chair of the electrical engineering department at the University of New Brunswick.

He also provided technical advice for the construction of the Mark Gallagher Vocational School, named for a police officer from New Brunswick who died in the 2010 quake while serving on a United Nations mission.

"As a youngster, I lived in an impoverished situation," said Lewis, "and I did well because people helped me get through school and so forth.

"Now, I'm in a position to pay back. So that's what I'm doing."

Lewis has been promoting a registered charity called ShelterBox since he found out about it through the Rotary Club several years ago.

"What these people provide are these large green boxes which contain everything a family needs to survive. There's a tent, mosquito nets, water purification, there's cooking tools, a stove the whole works."

Each box costs $1,200, but people can donate any amount, he said.

ShelterBox had a team on the ground in Dominican Republic as of Wednesday and was working on the logistics of getting crates where they're needed.