DAN NEPHIN
Associated Press Writer
CORAOPOLIS, Pa. — More than 50 Haitian orphans rescued from post-earthquake squalor landed Tuesday morning at Pittsburgh International Airport, on their way to foster homes and eventually adoptive families after relatives of their caretakers used Twitter and Facebook to spread the word about their plight.
The children, some wrapped in blankets and carried off the plane and others walking by themselves and waving to onlookers, were loaded onto waiting buses. They are among the first in a wave of orphans expected to be evacuated from the shattered Caribbean nation to the U.S. and other countries.
The Air Force flight's landing shortly before 9:30 a.m. capped days of preparations and maneuvering by American caretakers, lawmakers and government officials. The orphans were cared for by two Pittsburgh-area sisters whose family and friends used social networking to let the world know they were in dire need of food, water, diapers — and a plane to ferry them out of Port-au-Prince after last week's massive earthquake.
The children were accompanied to Pittsburgh by Alison McMutrie, one of the sisters. Her older sister, Jamie McMutrie, stayed behind in Haiti when one of the orphans wasn't cleared to leave; the girl has since received clearance and the two are expected to arrive in Pittsburgh within the next day or so.
"I'm Ali to them, but when I'm there, my sister and I are their moms. We have a family. We don't just have a group of kids that get fed. We all care about each other and love each other. And to be asked to leave without one was just not an option," Alison McMutrie said at a news conference at the airport after their arrival.
The children, from infants to about age 10, were to be taken to UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh to be examined by pediatricians, hospital spokesman Marc Lukasiak said. Alison McMutrie said none of the children had been hurt in the earthquake, but some had gotten fevers or dehydrated in the days following.
The children will be placed in group homes until adoptions are finalized. About 100 other children from their orphanage are being cared for by Dutch and French agencies.
Gov. Ed Rendell, a crew of medical personnel and several congressmen flew in a plane filled with two-and-a-half tons of medical equipment to Haiti on Monday. The plane had only been cleared to stay in Haiti for a short time, and left before the children were cleared to go. Instead, the group left on a C-17 military transport plane, which took the group to Orlando, Fla. Then the group headed to Pittsburgh.
Rendell and U.S. Rep Jason Altmire, D-Pa., said Haiti's ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph, as well as the state department, department of Homeland Security and even the White House all helped get the children out.
Leslie McCombs, a senior consultant for government relations at UPMC who was also on the flight, said she'll never forget seeing the kids for the first time. The children were sitting in vans with the sisters, reaching out of the windows and waiting for help.
"We got on the van and they starting singing, they were clapping and giving us high fives. They were saying prayers," an emotional McCombs said. "It was amazing."
The children's saga played out on the Web's largest social networking sites and on blogs beginning hours after the earthquake shook the Haitian capital, destroying or damaging most buildings, killing an estimated 200,000 people and leaving 1.5 million more homeless.
Jamie McMutrie had been working in the BRESMA orphanage since 2006, and Alison followed her sister to Haiti about two years ago. They were in their car on the way to the supermarket when the earthquake struck. They were unharmed but frantic.
Through the U.S. Embassy, the McMutries quickly got word to their family in the U.S. that they were safe. Then they went to check on the children, many of whom already had adoptive families picked out in America and awaited paperwork to leave their old lives in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country for new lives in one of the world's richest.
The orphanage was so badly damaged the sisters and the children were living in the courtyard. Food and water were scarce, and the women feared violent looting would further put them in danger.
The McMutries borrowed a cell phone and sent an e-mail stressing the need for food and water and making it clear the children could only survive for a few days. They needed a plane, they said, and stressed they would go nowhere without the children.
Jamie McMutrie's husband, Doug Heckman, and their brother, Chad McMutrie, went to work. They tweeted and posted Facebook messages. They had people blog about the plight. They asked for donations and filled an office in Pittsburgh with food, clothing and baby formula, preparing for the orphans to arrive.
They also contacted Altmire, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, former U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan and anyone else who would listen.
"I'm so proud to bring these kids back to Pittsburgh," Alison McMutrie said. "I think I'm dreaming and I don't know when I'm going to wake up."
This is wonderful news!
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