Sask. man relives Haiti earthquake 10 years later

Melvin Brundage felt the world shaking beneath his feet as he hugged his baby boy on a third story balcony that could have collapsed at any second.

Brundage and his wife Melanie were in a small town just outside Port-au-Prince 10 years ago when a massive, magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the island nation.

“It kind of tears me up when I think back,” Brundage said from his Nipawin home on Sunday. “I still remember this loud roar — you could it hear coming in the distance.”

“It felt just like a semi truck going over washboard.”

The couple from Nipawin landed in Port-au-Prince hours earlier to finalize the adoption of the couple’s second Haitian child Mike, then a two-year-old toddler.

Wondering if the building around him was going to crumble, Brundage opted to stay on the top floor of the building they were in as Melanie ran to an outdoor balcony.

“The building started to shake, and then all the sudden it was shaking so hard you couldn’t stand up. We were grabbing our kids and wondering what to do.”

People began running and filling the streets to get away from buildings and to find loved ones. That’s when Brundage had the sights and sounds of Jan. 12, 2020 seared into his mind.

“The most memorable thing is after the roar I could just hear people crying from the whole countryside,” he said.

Brundage said he later found out the building was swaying back and forth up to a metre, but still stayed standing after the initial earthquake.

Aftershocks had the couple on high alert as they stayed huddled in the street, wondering what was going to happen next.

The couple had to leave their soon-to-be adopted boy behind so they could stay at the Canadian Embassy for two days before a C-130 Hercules aircraft flew them back to Canada.

“We didn’t know what was going to happen or if we could take (Mike) or not,” Brundage said. “It was pretty emotionally difficult.”

The couple’s other son Ritchie, adopted from the same orphanage in 2006, was back in Saskatchewan during the earthquake. Luckily, Mike’s adoption paperwork was fast-tracked and he soon followed the family home two weeks later.

An estimated 230,000 people died from earthquake, and another 1.5 million were left homeless.

Looking back at his experiences 10 years later, Brundage feels he was lucky to escape alive.

“We were super fortunate. So many people died in the earthquake that didn’t stand a chance,” he said.

“When I think about, it still brings up crazy emotions. Lots of times I don’t try to bring it up. I don’t think the emotions will ever go away.”

Brundage said conversations about that day are rarely talked about at home, especially to Mike, now 12-years-old, and Ritchie, not 16-years-old.

“Our younger son doesn’t want to talk about it. He was pretty young, but even the trauma from the whole thing still holds so effects I think,” he said.

Brundage hasn’t been back to Haiti since the earthquake. While he has formed lasting relationships that are now 10 years old, he and his wife will always remember the experiences they overcame and the country that’s still fighting to overcome a devastating earthquake.

“We hold a spot in our heart for Haiti. It’s amazing to see a country that has lost so much, and you see the people pulling together and fighting to help people and rebuild with whatever they can,” Brundage said.