Hi everyone,

Katie Hadley from our Ottawa office travelled to Haiti yesterday and landed about 1 hour before a massive earthquake hit Port-Au-Prince. She went there to do a Phase 1 for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAIT). She stayed in a hotel (Hotel Montana) near the UN Headquarters. The hotel is on top of a hill, and consists of a 3-storey building.

Katie emailed us at 4:04 pm yesterday that she arrived safely, got picked up by a DFAIT contact who provided her with a cell phone and that he delivered her to the hotel. She sent the email once she settled in. The earthquake struck at 4:53 pm.

We have very little information about the hotel (the internet news is that the hotel was badly damaged), and have not heard from Katie since. However, we have no first hand news of the actual damage, since phone lines are down and there is no or very limited internet access.

On our end, Chris Ludwig is coordinating whatever efforts we can exert to locate Katie. He has been on twitter, we have posted a picture. The project manager from DFAIT got Katie listed on the DFAIT Emergency Operations Centre. DFAIT connected with the Canadian Embassy in Haiti this afternoon after a blackout for 24 hours, and they have a picture of her, and someone from DFAIT will fly to Haiti tomorrow. He will be going to the hotel and will be looking for Katie. We sent a picture to DFAIT to help this effort.

Chris, Steve Livingstone, and I have been in contact with PWGSC and DFAIT and also representatives of DND. No real news yet.

I also spoke with Katie's mother. She is hopeful, and so am I.

We basically have very little news beyond what I wrote at this point. We will send news as we get it.

Sincerely,
Thomas Franz, M.Sc., P.Geo.
President
Franz Environmental Inc.