Safety Louis Delmas
Donate to the Haiti Relief EffortThe devastating damage done in Haiti by an earthquake that registered at a 7.0-magnitude hits way too close to home for
Avril was born in Jacksonville, Florida, but both of his parents are from Haiti and moved to Florida before he was born. He says his family is incredibly emotional right now considering he has five cousins still there with no way to contact them.
“We don’t know what’s going on – we can’t get in contact with them,” he said. “So they are basically out on their own.”Avril says he heard about the earthquake an hour or so after it happened from people sending him text messages.
“I turned it to CNN and I saw all the crazy stuff going on,” he said. “I’ve been to Haiti quite a few times, but I don’t know the areas that well. I was listening to my mom and my aunt – they were talking about later on in the day – and they starting hearing things and they started telling me that it was near their house is at.”
Avril’s aunt, who is currently staying at his mom Marie’s house, is visiting from Haiti. She is a schoolteacher in Port-au-Prince where the earthquake occurred, and has heard that the school she teaches at has collapsed.
“She is supposed to leave Thursday,” Avril said, “but she’s actually not going to go back for awhile now, until she figures out what’s going on.”
Though the earthquake lasted just 10-15 seconds, the damage is unfathomable. Countless buildings have collapsed, injuring, killing or trapping civilians.
Even the National Palace was destroyed.
“It’s weird to see the Palace collapse,” said Avril, who has visited Haiti seven or eight times throughout his life. “That’s the prettiest part of Haiti.
“It’s just crazy to see that and to see the main hospital in Haiti – that collapsed also. If the main hospital collapsed and these people are all hurt, where are they going to go?”
Because most of the homes in Haiti are made from brick, they haven’t been able to withstand the earthquake. There were even reports of houses continuing to go down into the early hours Wednesday morning.
Despite the difficult circumstances, Avril and his family have their hands tied.
“A lot of people are either stuck inside a building or it collapsed on top of them. We’re just hoping maybe my cousins weren’t inside a building during the earthquake,” he said.
“There is a help line, but it’s still going to be hard to get in contact with five people. I don’t even know how they would tell us where people are.”
Avril is also planning to help in some capacity, but says it’s hard to know what to do right now since they haven’t been able to communicate with anyone in the country.
Cherilus, whose grandmother still lives in Haiti, is trying to orchestrate something with his foundation to help.
“I definitely want to help out in some way,” said Avril. “But we don’t know what steps to take just yet.”
By Chrissie Wywrot
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Defensive End Cliff Avril
