Old Towner Rescues His Wife from Haitian Rubble

Photo by IFRC/Eric Quintero The IFRC estimates that up to 3 million people might have been affected by the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010. Many houses have been destroyed or seriously damaged. Donate to the American Red Cross International Response Fund: www.redcross.org

ALEXANDRIA, VA. - It’s a long way from the Union Street Pub, which Old Town resident and missionary Frank Thorp once frequented.  

Thorp had been working in Haiti on a Catholic Mission for the last several years and was a mere hundred miles from the epicenter when the quake hit Port au Prince, he told NBC's Today Show.  

His wife Jillian, however, was at ground zero.

Since cell phones were down,  Thorp had no idea of the damage to the capital city, initially, and his location had only felt a mild shock.  But when word of mouth informed him of the depths of the disaster, Thorp knew he had to get to Jillian.  He immediately made the six-hour drive to the city.  

"It's worse than a war zone," Thorp told NBC 4, where he was a former intern. "It's thousands and thousands of Haitians on the streets because their buildings and their houses have collapsed and they can't live in them."

Thorp arrived at the city’s mission house to find it in rubble, and realized that his wife and other members of the mission were trapped beneath the heap.  Thorp and Haitians from the mission worked to pull away debris—for nearly ten hours.  

Then, Thorp found Jillian—still alive: "I pulled her out," he said.

Jillian Thorp suffered major bruises, and is having difficulty walking.  Other members of the mission survived, but had even more serious injuries.

Thorp told NBC how grim the situation is: "There are dead people.  There are people dying on the streets, there are injured on the streets. There are so many people here that need help.  It's absolutely horrible."