The sun was setting on Jan. 12 as Adam Buhler leaned over the second story balcony of his hotel in Jacmel, Haiti and snapped a few photos of the hushed provincial street below. Dust floated off the feet of men and women in the road and glowed yellow in the final rays of the setting sun. Down the road, he could see Pazapa, the school house where he and his wife worked with Haitian teachers and students. Choir music drifted out the church next door.

   He stepped back into the room and rejoined his pregnant wife, Karen.

   Then the earth shook.

   “I heard it before I felt it,” Adam said. “It sounded like a big truck was driving past. Then I felt it, and I thought the truck had hit the building. Only after it stopped did I think, ‘Oh wow. That was an earthquake.'”

   Adam Buhler, a Lawrence High graduate of 2003, had just experienced the 7.0 quake that has left Haiti in shambles and captured the attention of the world. Jacmel, positioned just a few miles south of the epicenter, crumbled.

   As Buhler peered out the window seconds later, pandemonium reigned on the street below. The charming scene from mere moments before had come tumbling down.

   People came pouring out of the buildings, flooding the street with noise. Children picked their way about the rubble-strewn lane. The rear wall of Pazapa had caved in, and the church roof had collapsed.  

   “They were having choir practice, and when I saw the roof cave in, it was really scary because I had no idea if they’d made it,” Adam said.

   Nightfall found the Buhlers in the church courtyard with community members and the church choir, which had escaped the wreckage unharmed. Kerosene lanterns illuminated the ghastly scene.

   Approximately one hour later, the first event in a chain of good fortune whisked them away.

   “A U.S. Embassy worker took us to a U.N. camp out by the airport, which was probably the safest place to be at that point,” Adam said. “It was really fortunate that he was driving around. What are the odds that he’d have seen us?”

   The odds worked in the couple’s favor, and they were one step closer to returning home.

   But that’s when the waiting began. Without cell phones or internet, the couple was completely isolated from the outside world.

   “We were hoping that this would just be a small incident and that no one back home would hear about it,” Adam said. “Then we heard that it was a 7.0 on the Richter, and we were just, ‘Oh no.’ We had no idea if and when we’d get out again.”
Aftershock

   News of the quake reached home quickly, so when the Buhlers finally managed to call their family 14 hours later, they were naturally met with relief.

   “It was comfortable knowing that they knew we were there, but we still had no time line as to when we’d get out, so that was hard,” Adam said.

   The Buhlers spent three tedious days at the camp.

   “We had no time line, no expectation,” Adam said.

   The pair passed the time with other foreign refugees and befriended a Danish film crew. The crew members had lost everything in the quake and were without passports or cash. However, on Friday, three days after the quake, the crew members managed to charter a helicopter to fly themselves to the neighboring Dominican Republic, from which they could return to the Netherlands.

   Once again, fortune was on the Buhlers’ side.

   When the helicopter arrived, the film crew gave their seats to the Buhlers because Karen was four months pregnant.

   The couple flew to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, booked the last two tickets on the last flight out and were back in the air, headed for Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Friday night.

   “It all happened really, really fast,” Adam said. “It was nothing short of a miracle that we got out when we did.”

Healing Haiti

   The quake only made a bad situation worse for the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. The European Union estimates that some 200,000 may be dead, and that number continues to rise. The quake also rendered some 1.5 million Haitians homeless. Though the quake has brought aid to Haiti, the country has much to overcome. 

   “We love that people are willing to donate to the Red Cross, but we know in 30, 60, 90 days, whenever the aid leaves, Haiti is still going to be a third world country,” Adam said.

   The town of Jacmel lies in ruin, and the couple hope to return  as soon as possible, to complete the mission they began in January. The town and country need rebuilding, and the Buhlers want to help.  

   “We always knew Haiti was going to be an integral part of our lives, and now we’re certain,” Adam said.