UND Nursing Professor Talks About Earthquake Aftermath

Yesterday a 7.0 magnitude earth quake shook the small country of Haiti toppling hundreds of buildings in the city of Port-au-Prince.

Cheryl Stauffenecker is a nursing professor at UND. She's been to the country 5 times in the past decade to help the sick .Now she fears the worse.

Cheryl Stauffenecker: "The country doesn't have infrastructure, electricity, running water sanitation and use kerosene lamps."

She works with the Faith Tabernackle mission in Haiti. She says the emergency response there is almost non existent, and the police are corrupt. With few paved roads, those injured in the quake could die for a lack of medical help.

Cheryl Stauffenecker: "Getting supplies in, clean water, medical supplies when they only make 200-dollars a year they can't even afford to buy Tylenol."

Today she talked to friends there who are ok, but the infrastructure is not. She says the buildings are flimsy, some made with mud and tin roofs, which had no chance against the quake.

Cheryl Stauffenecker: "When you think of the city being destroyed. They have no food, water and the basic necessities of life."

Stauffenecker says she does have plans to go back to Haiti this Spring after the latest quake, to help run clinics and treat the sick and injured.

Cheryl Stauffenecker: "I'm thinking about the people in in Haiti, they're still in my heart, so God has been laying it on my heart its probably time to go back."

She says there's not even a hospital near where the quake hit, which means many simply wont get the treatment they desperately need.