Haitian taxi driver Jean Maurissette, who has lived in New York for 20 years, learned from a Radio Soleil broadcast that his hometown of Léogâne was the area hardest-hit by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that leveled the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince a week ago, on Tuesday, January 12th.

A United Nations team found that the coastal city of Léogâne "was the area that suffered the worst effects of the earthquake, with 80 to 90 percent of the buildings destroyed, including the entire governmental infrastructure." The [UN] soldiers estimated that 20,000 to 30,000 people died as a result of the earthquake in Léogâne.

"My brother, Yvene Maurissette, who is 53, and my sister Choupette Maurissette, who's 44, live in Léogâne, and ever since I heard on the radio that not only the capital but also my hometown was destroyed by the earthquake, I've had a presentiment that my brother and sister have died or are buried under the rubble," said Maurissette.

The Haitian taxi driver said that "you can be fine today and have no idea what will happen tomorrow. My brother called me in December to wish me a Happy New Year, and look what has happened," said Maurissette, who is married and has a 14-year-old daughter. Another driver who tunes in to Radio Soleil is Cesar Foreste, 63, who lives in New York with his wife and three children. "I have a big family in Haiti, but they live outside Port-au-Prince where the earthquake hit the hardest. In the capital, I have a cousin and a sister-in-law, and I know they survived, but they have to sleep in the courtyard because they're afraid to sleep under a roof on account of the aftershocks of the quake," said Foreste.

The taxi driver listens to the Haitian radio station to get the most recent news from his country. "In Haiti, there are many people living in the streets who have nothing to eat and need help," said the driver.

Mario Jeanty, one of the announcers on Radio Soleil, located at 1622 Nostrand Avenue, in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, said that ever since the tragedy occurred, hundreds of Haitians have come to the station asking for help in locating their families who have been missing since the quake.

"There have been days when as many as 500 people have come here. We take down their names and the data about their missing relatives, and we pass them on to the Signal FM station, which is in Haiti and is the only broadcaster still functioning after the earthquake, and they read the names so that any who do turn up will communicate with their relatives in the United States," said Jeanty.

On one wall at Radio Soleil, which broadcasts in Creole, French and English, people have taped photographs of their relatives missing in the Haiti quake, hoping to be able to connect with them. The photographs show children, adults, and entire families.