KIRO-TV reporter Angela Russell outside Port-Au-Prince's main grocery story hours after a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti. (KIRO-TV, Bill Skok)

KIRO-TV NEWS CREW REPORTS ON DEVASTATION IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

Reporter's Response To Haiti Devastation: "When I think about it, it brings me to a dark place"

By Pascale Vallee
AFTRA Northwest Communications Intern

With two hours notice, KIRO-7 news anchor and AFTRA member Angela Russell was deployed to Port-au-Prince, Haiti hours after the devastating 7.0 earthquake demolished the city and surrounding area. Despite threats of disease and civil unrest, Russell and her crew reported on what the United Nations called the worst humanitarian disaster in modern history.

Russell, with her producer Tonya Estes and photographer Bill Skok, waited at the airport along side rescue teams for the Port au Prince airport to reopen. After catching a flight to the Dominican Republic, Russell and her team finally found a taxi driver who would take them past the border and into the Haitian capital.

During the five-hour cab ride, Russell saw earthquake refugees, many injured, walking across the border into the Dominican Republic, hoping to find friends, shelter and safety. Once the KIRO team reached the city, the effects of the earthquake were overwhelming.

“I saw people cooking food to sell, but all the banks were closed so even if people had money there was no way to get to it,” Russell said. “All people had was what was with them when the earthquake hit. There were even those who lost their passports in the rubble.”

Among these sights, there is one that stays with her. The earthquake hit at the busiest time of the day for shoppers. At the nicest grocery store in Haiti, Russell saw mobs of people being held back by ropes, waiting in hopes of seeing loved ones being pulled out alive.

“People waited to see if their wife or daughter would be pulled out of the rubble,” said Russell. “I remember one seven-year-old girl who was trapped in a pocket of the debris and who survived for days on Fruit Roll-Ups and cookies.”

Russell said that now that she is back home, she is having a hard time emotionally dealing with what she saw in Haiti. When Russell and her team were in Port au Prince, it was easier to cope with what she saw because she was so focused on her mission as a journalist. She took comfort in helping in all the small ways she could, such as giving refugees money or water purifying tablets, although she regrets not being able to do more.

“I dream about it a lot. I’m having a hard time writing about it. When I think about it, it brings me to a dark place,” said Russell.  “We always know that there is suffering in the world but seeing it and smelling it is so different from watching it on television.”

Despite the emotional toll and the challenges of reporting this kind of story in a country of a different tongue, Russell feels that the experience has better equipped her to do her job.  She says that the only way journalists can address this is to talk about what is happening and raise awareness. She hopes that her coverage of the disaster will help to bring viewers a new perspective.

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