Stephane Monpremier is safe in his Orleans neighbourhood now, but is still haunted by the memories of the days he spent in Haiti during and after the quake. He is one of a small group of Canadians who have made their way back from the devastated country, safe but worried about those they left behind.
The Ottawa-based lawyer landed in the southern country on the day of the quake, Tuesday, to help his uncle and associates with encouraging Haitians with technology and health skills to immigrate to Canada.
While inside a gated-community house for a business meeting, Monpremier felt the entire house rocking back and forth.
"We literally felt the house shake violently - it was as though, it's difficult to describe because there's no real kind of reference, but it feels like the house was all made of rubber," he recalled in an interview with CTV Ottawa.
"The back-and-forth motion was so severe and violent that we were all shocked that the house did not collapse."
Monpremier and the other people in the house rushed outside, jumped into a pickup truck and began roving the streets in the hopes of being able to help people.
"It was at that point we realized the magnitude of the devastation; it was unbelieveable," he said.
"It appeared as though 75 per cent of the infrastructure was gone. We were listening to the radio as we were driving: the courthouse has collapsed. The presidential palace is severely damaged . . . it was very disconcerting."
As the airport was also severely damaged, Monpremier only managed to escape through familial connections.
Thanks to quick work by his uncle, he made his way through the border Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic and flew back to Canada through the United States.
Only 272 Canadians have returned from Haiti since the quake, with 13 of those injured. Around 1,500 people remain missing
