By JONATHAN M. KATZ
The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 19, 2010; 10:01 PM
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — When Haitians realized their National Palace was destroyed, many feared President Rene Preval was dead.
Turns out it was a very near miss.
First Lady Elisabeth Debrosse Preval recounted the first public details of the couple’s post-earthquake ordeal on Tuesday, telling reporters she and her husband left the historic Beaux-Arts palace in central Port-au-Prince about an hour before the magnitude-7 quake struck on the afternoon of Jan. 12.
The couple went to an event at the state university law school, then drove to their private hillside home, and were just walking into the house in the Canape-Vert district when everything started to shake.
“We froze, then took three or four steps back, and the residence just fell before us,” Debrosse Preval said.
Stunned, the first couple sat in their yard as government, police and church officials brought news of tragedy from across the capital.
Then Preval, the police chief, his prime minister and interior minister hired motorcycle taxis from off the street, and at 2 a.m. set out touring the damage, the first lady said. The police chief stayed with the group for about four hours, and Debrosse Preval said her husband and the rest of the group stayed out until about 8 a.m.
“While he was doing that, he had no idea where his own kids were, if they were trapped under a building,” said Debrosse Preval, an economic adviser who married the president last month.
The president’s two daughters, it turned out, were not in the house and were unharmed. The first lady said she lost two close relatives who were like parents to her.
Preval has been increasingly criticized for not taking a more prominent role in the recovery effort. The president has yet to address the nation or publicly tour disaster areas, angering many Haitians.
Speaking at the airport police station that is the government’s temporary headquarters, the first lady showed reporters the blurry iPhone pictures she took of her husband the night of the quake. She defended his performance, then called on the Haitian people to focus on rebuilding.
“The ones who are alive, they are lucky to be alive,” she said. “Stand up again and move forward.”
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COMMENT: HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG
This is simply not true. Preval delayed, for some time, before saying anything. Then he said he was happy to be alive and could not communicate with international leaders, because communications systems were down.
My goodness, why tell such a stupid lie??!!
He could have walked to the US embassy, Canadian embassy, French or any other embassy and communicated with anyone he wished to react, even his friend Chavez in Venezuela or Putin, in Russia.
I am in Haiti – at this very moment – walking amid the poor people at a street hospital. Dozens and dozens of men, women and children are scatted around me, some one makeshift beds, others lieing on the ground. Some have been untended for days as a few volunteer doctors works to save lives and limbs. Many amputations because of infections.
Yet, Preval is not here.
He isn’t anywhere and CNN had been told not to report on the Preval government. Is this some sort of protection for the cynical criminal Rene Preval and his avariciouys wife Elisabeth Delatour? They stole all of the relief supplies and money from the 2008 Hurican Disaster, and would now do the same except for the fact that too many outsiders are involved.
You will find Rene Preval drunk at Elisabeth Delatour’s home on Cris Roi.
Rene Preval is guilty of murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking, massive theft of State fund, including $197,000,000 hurricane relief dollars in 2008 – from one fund – and other crimes too numerous to mention.
He was personally involved in the murders of a French Consul, Jean Dominique, Mireille Durocher-Bertan, a key officer in Public Works, who would not certify a deal in which Preval gave used equipment instead of new in a $100,000,000 scam.
Haiti was offered 1000 temporary school rooms by Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in Florida. Some Haitians and Americans worked a deal to move them to Haiti, and erect them, at no cost. Preval took the deal over and tried to get a shipping company to kick back $3000 per unit to Elisabeth Delatour, Leslie Voltaire and Jacques Alexis. The shipping company refused and the deal died. Preval, Delatour, Voltaire, Alexis, and others stol a chance at education for many Haitian kids. They must pay for this.
Preval must not be allowed to escape into exile. He must remain with his devastated people and face justice for his crimes against them and the Nation