A United Nations official last night described clambering down a rickety ladder from his third-floor office to escape the collapsed UN headquarters in Haiti, where up to 100 people remain buried in the rubble.
David Wimhurst, the UN spokesman in Haiti, said by video link from Port-au-Prince that he was one of about 15 people who escaped the ruined headquarters in the old Christopher Hotel down the ladder.
“I was in my office and the event happened. It accelerated with extreme violence. The entire building was shaking violently and I was hanging on to furniture just to stop myself being thrown around the room and praying that the big concrete pillar in the middle of my office would not break and bring the whole building down on me,” he said.
“When it subsided the hotel had collapsed and had blocked off access to the outside from my office. So all of the people in my office had to get out of my window and go down three storeys on a rather rickety ladder.
“It was being propped up on a wall. We were being guided by staff down below. I think we got about 15 staff out on that ladder.” Hedi Annabi, the top UN official in Haiti, and his deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa, were buried in the rubble along with up to 100 UN staff.
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Another 38 UN staff are still missing after the collapse of an adjacent building used by the UN Development Programme.
An Estonian UN peacekeeper was pulled unharmed from the rubble yesterday after being buried for more than a day. Tarmo Joveer, a close protection officer, or bodyguard, for the UN force, was located by a specialised search-and-rescue team.
“He walked out of there unscathed. He has been medically inspected and evacuated. He doesn’t have any serious injuries,” Mr Wimhurst said. “Obviously he was dehydrated and covered in dust. He is walking and he’s talking,” he said. “He is very, very grateful to be alive.”
Kim Bolduc, a Vietnamese-born Canadian, was named acting head of the UN mission in the aftermath to replace Mr Annabi. “I was in my office, sitting on the second floor of the UNDP main building. I didn’t have time to seek cover. I was sitting on my chair and holding on to the table,” Ms Bolduc said by video link from the Haitian capital.
“Everything collapsed around me. I saw the wall in front of me opening up with a very large crack. I was just hoping it would stop. It lasted a long time.
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“The moment it stopped, I came out of the room and saw my staff all around and got out. The UNDP main building is still standing, although no longer operational and extremely damaged. Then I saw across the street the other UNDP building. It had gone down completely. We spent the night sitting in a parking lot, as there were many aftershocks.”
Ms Bolduc and Mr Wimhurst and other UN staff eventually travelled through the capital to set up a new headquarters in the UN logistics base near the airport.
“It’s almost a ghost town, many bodies lying injured along the streets,” Ms Bolduc said.