MANHATTAN — As the estimated death toll rose to the hundreds of thousands in Haiti's devastating earthquake, New Yorkers flocked to churches and impromptu vigils to pray and flooded phone lines in desperate attempts to locate loved ones.
Dozens of New Yorkers joined local officials at a prayer vigil outside of the Midtown Haitian consulate Wednesday night, where Rev. Al Sharpton announced he will celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday with a relief mission to Haiti on Friday.
Gov. David Paterson, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and others joined Sharpton and dozens of New Yorkers at the event.
Jackson and Sharpton called on New Yorkers to stand united with all Americans in their support for the ravaged nation and the half a million Haitians believed dead. The officials asked New Yorkers to keep the victims in their thoughts and to donate money and supplies to relief agencies if possible.
Thursday morning a search and rescue team made up of 80 members of the FDNY and NYPD left the city for Haiti.
Adrien Chenet, the father of five children currently in Haiti, sat in the Haitian consulate's waiting room in Midtown East on Wednesday dialing and redialing the numbers of his children, aged 15 to 25, with no luck.
He said he felt powerless and couldn't decide whether to return home to search, saying "I want to know what's going on down there first."
There are an estimated 125,000 Haitians living in New York. Sen. Chuck Schumer called President Barack Obama on Wednesday and requested Temporary Protected Status for any Haitians illegally living here, which would suspend the threat of deportation for the time being.
"The numbers projected of those that are dead are unfathomable," Schumer said while speaking at a separate event Wednesday night. "Everyone has a relative or a friend there."
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Harold Ford Jr., who have been bitter opponents in the media this week, stood together and thanked Sharpton for his support of the ravaged country.
“I know I speak on behalf of all across of this country to thank you for your leadership, your willingness, your determination to lead a delegation to come back and deliver a message back to the Senate … and even the White House,” Ford Jr. said to Sharpton in public comments at the vigil.
Gillibrand echoed Ford's comments, saying: “All of us here,
every elected official and advocacy group and individual is here to
help those families in need and we will work together with you
Reverend Sharpton and the governor of our great state to make a
difference.”
Worried New Yorkers prayed at vigils throughout the boroughs and Haitian radio station, Radio Soleil, became a hub Wednesday for New York's worried Haitian-Americans, who flooded phone lines and the studio waiting anxiously for news of relatives.
The New York Yankees donated $500,000 to relief efforts, and New Yorkers across the city are donating money and supplies.
Haitian rap star Wyclef Jean, who arrived in Haiti on Wednesday, garnered so much reponse to his online fundraising that his Web site, YeleHaiti, crashed.
