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| AP PHOTO Stranded residents wait to be picked up by boat, as they got a view of Perdido Bay from both sides of their home. Residents on the island became cut off in the wake of bay flooding from Hurricane Georges yesterday
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Erma Welch of Flint had considered the Caribbean Sea, which stood just 20 feet from her hotel, the most beautiful part of her stay in Haiti.
But then came Georges and the tropical visit, made with four other area residents to start a Bible school in Haiti, was not quite the same.
"That night, the ocean turned into a monster, and he was shakin' and shakin' the hotel," Welch, told The Flint Journal for a story yesterday.
Welch returned home Saturday. She was part of the last team of theology teachers sent by Flint Faith Tech International Bible School to start a chapter in a small town about 15 miles from Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital.
In Haiti since Sept. 10, the group of five teachers witnessed Hurricane Georges on Sept. 22, most of them from the beach-side hotel. A sixth person - a minister who had left the United States on July 1 to supervise the project - was staying in the church where classes were taught.
Despite Hurricane Georges, which killed at least 147 people and left 60 others missing in Haiti, the group graduated its class of 25 students Friday before flying home. The hurricane killed at least 372 people in all.
Living through the hurricane was an unexpected part of the trip.
Because English-language news broadcasts were unavailable, the group had little idea of what was coming its way. Patricia Crews of Flint said the group watched as waves grew high enough to reach the third story of the hotel.
"They would hit the cement barrier like a giant fist," Crews said. "Four minutes later, it would do it again, over and over again."
The giant waves started about 5 p.m. About 8 p.m., Crews said, the storm reached a point "where you felt like it was going to get violent."
About 2 a.m., the electricity in the group's hotel flickered out, leaving occupants to listen to the roar of the storm.
"You couldn't see it, but you could hear it," Crews said. "It sounded like five or six freight trains coming at you."
Bill Bennett of Flint heard the full force of the storm from his small room in a church - including "the biggest boom I ever heard" about 3 a.m.
Finally, at 5:30 a.m., he opened the door to look outside. Mud covered everything in sight, he said. Not a trace remained of the 5 1/2-foot-tall, 30-foot-long concrete wall that was supposed to protect the church.
"It was just gone," Bennett said. "There was no rubble - it was just gone. Where I was sleeping was about eight feet from that wall."
Crews said she never worried about her safety. But she said her family in Flint was frantic. Having no information about her welfare, her husband contacted the American Red Cross to request a search.
The church group finally reached a working phone Thursday night to contact family members.
Crews said she plans to return to Haiti.
"Hopefully, in a calmer time," she said.
09-30-98
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