'They looked back after they felt the rumble and saw buildings collapsing'
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Her phone started ringing Tuesday afternoon with calls of concern and questions, but Nancy Ames couldn't relax until a text message arrived: Her husband Steve, doing missionary work in Haiti, was OK.
Steve Ames, a family practice doctor, was one of four missionaries from Thurston Christian Church who arrived in the now-devastated country on Monday.
"An earthquake in Haiti when my husband's there. I'm like, no way," said Nancy Ames, who learned about the earthquake on the news. "I'm like, this cannot be happening."
Steve Ames, Lonne Morse, Emily Gregory and Lloyd Love were not injured in the earthquake.
Although they had been in Port-au-Prince that day, the group had left the city before the destruction began.
"They were driving away from Port-au-Prince," said Nancy Ames, who spoke with her husband Wedneday morning. "They looked back after they felt the rumble and saw buildings collapsing everywhere."
Nancy Ames said her husband described the earthquake feeling like the van they were riding in dropped two feet.
The Thurston Christian Church group had spent the previous week in the Dominican Republic, building chicken coops and giving out medical supplies.
In Haiti, they were staying at a motel-clinic, already providing medical care. Now, the clinic is filled with earthquake victims.
"He did mention one of the people he saw was a man who fell from a five story building and had a broken pelvis," said Nancy Ames.
The missionary group plans to return to Oregon on Friday.
