Haiti: 'A whole nation traumatised'

A New Zealand missionary who spent 33 years in Haiti says the people there are resilient, but they will have to rebuild from scratch.

Robyn Couper described the situation in the stricken country as mind-boggling.

"I can't sleep, I can't get my mind around the enormity of this."

Miss Couper worked in Haiti for 33 years with the Evangelical Church before returning to Oamaru in August to be with her 85-year-old mother.

"If you had told me that I would have spent all those years there I think I would have laughed at you."

Miss Couper first heard of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake when a friend in New Zealand called her with the devastating news on Wednesday afternoon. She then frantically tried to contact her friends and colleagues in Haiti.

"Having lived there you knew the slightest earthquake, it wouldn't matter how small, there would be damage."

The gravity of the situation really sank in when she saw images of the solid and strong Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince "folded like a pack of cards".

Yesterday, on Miss Couper's 59th birthday, she finally got through to her friend in the city of Cap-Haitien.

The friend told her how people were desperately afraid and heading back to their homes outside the city.

"Not only is there a loss of life, but there is a whole nation that is psychologically traumatised." She feared hundreds of thousands could have died and that figure could rise because of food and water shortages, and sickness.

"Everything in Haiti is centralised and with the cities knocked out this will have a flow-on effect into the countryside."

She said the existing problems in Haiti will be emphasised in the wake of the disaster and is afraid it could become "every man for himself".

She urged people to spare what they could to help.

"People must give. The world is a very small place."