Haitian-Montrealer remembers deadly 2010 earthquake that rocked her home country
Posted January 10, 2025 10:58 am.
Last Updated January 10, 2025 11:29 am.
On Jan. 12th, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti and took the lives of up to 300,000 people.
Haitian Doña Sarah Thélusma, who works at La Maison d’Haïti in Montreal’s Saint-Michel, was there that day 15 years ago in her hometown of Gonaïves, about 140 kilometres north of Port-au-Prince — nearby the epicenter of the earthquake.
“When you think you’ve forgotten it,” said Thélusma. “There’s something that brings you back to that.”
“I remember everything, I was in my bed and it all started to shake,” Thélusma recalled. “I was so scared that I rushed into my sister’s room. I thought what’s going on? It was the first time I’d ever seen an earthquake.”
“I was so scared,” she added. “And my sister gave me a hug, she told me, ‘It’s going to be okay.’ I remember crying.”
Thélusma was only 11 years old at the time – she says she heard things falling and breaking – and felt like the shaking lasted a lot longer than a few minutes.
And then the days that followed: filled with tragedy.
“I lost my aunt with her two children,” said Thélusma. “It was terrible.”
“It’s like all Haitians lost someone, whether it was a family member or a friend,” she added.
The 26-year-old said since that day, Haiti marks Jan. 12 as Remembrance Day.
“We won’t heal from it,” she said. “It will take more than 50 years, maybe.”
Thélusma now observes the anniversary in Montreal at La Maison d’Haïti — a home away from home for her.
She moved in Dec. 2023 to join her husband, as violent gangs control most of Haiti’s capital.
“After the earthquake, many people lost their homes,” said Thélusma. “They went to settle in uninhabited places, they started to build small houses. I think it is in these areas that the violence emerged.”
Although she’s free of gang violence, she says being away from her family, especially around the anniversary of the earthquake, is always difficult.
“If you have a Haitian friend, think of them on Jan. 12th,” she said. “Because it’s not easy, even 15 years later.”
