Son fears for Haitian mum | Fraser Coast News | Local News in Fraser Coast

Sunshine Coast resident Jonas Ramone fears for his mother and siblings following Haiti’s earthquake.

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Earthquake in Haiti, January 2010

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After a 20-year search, Wurtulla-based Jonas finally found his Haitian birth mother three years ago.

Now, however, he fears she, along with his siblings, could be dead, killed in the horrific 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit the island nation of Haiti on Wednesday Australian time.

“She lives just outside the capital Port-au-Prince, which bore the brunt of the quake,” Jonas said.

“I have been trying to call, but all the phone lines are down and I can’t get through.

“If I have to, I’m ready to jump on a plane and go over there. What happens is out of my control though.”

Jonas, who is 28, came to Australia from Haiti as a six-year-old.

In 2007, he returned to his poverty-ravaged homeland for the first time to reunite with his mother, brother and sister.

“It was absolutely amazing – that moment of communication I hadn’t experienced in 20 years,” Jonas said.

“I just lost it. I wasn’t prepared for it. I gave her a huge hug. There was chaos all around us. It was a really weird experience.

“She was exactly as I remembered her, if a little older.”

Jonas said now all he could do was wait and hope his family had survived the devastation.

He also prays his homeland will recover from the earthquake, the worst in a series of natural disasters to rock the country.

“The people are so poor and have nothing and disease is already rife,” Jonas said.

“I feel it’s my duty to try and help the people of Haiti and I hope to raise some money to send over to ease the burden.”

An international relief operation is under way to search for survivors of the quake, provide aid for the injured and help the Haitian government deal with a massive homelessness problem.

Yesterday, Haitian prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive said “well over 100,000” of the island’s residents could be dead.