Hopes fall, then rise for sister after quake

While many B.C. families still anxiously await news from Haiti about their loved ones, a Vancouver woman who was told her sister had likely died in the earthquake Tuesday finally received some good.

Monique Trepanier was devastated when colleagues of her sister, Danielle, who worked for Doctors without Borders, contacted her Tuesday night to say her sister was missing in the rubble of her house in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

Two co-workers managed to get out of the house alive and called Trepanier to say they believed Danielle had been killed in the 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

"They said the house was in shambles and I'm still a bit emotional about it that she had very unlikely been able to escape," Trepanier said. "So, it was very hard dealing with that. We had a lot of time to digest and try to come to terms with that."

'The head of mission had heard a voice in the rubble.' Monique Trepanier

Trepanier heard nothing more for hours until she got a glimmer of hope by way of an early-morning phone call.

"At four in the morning, they phone me to say they had heard a voice in the rubble - that the head of mission had heard a voice in the rubble - and that they couldn't confirm it was my sister's but that it was a female voice, and it likely was," she said.

But this news led to more agonizing waiting.

"We went through the terrible agony of feeling hope she was alive but the stress of thinking she was suffering," Trepanie said.

Several anxious hours later, Trepanier finally got confirmation her sister was alive, but her colleagues in Haiti said the building was too unstable to attempt a rescue.

On Wednesday, a full day after the earthquake struck, Danielle's fellow workers risked their lives to tunnel through the rubble and pulled her out alive.

Trepanier has now spoken briefly with her sister, who is in shock but remarkably only sustained minor injuries in the quake.

RCMP officer missing

In Kelowna, Barb Chapman is waiting for word about her brother, RCMP Supt. Doug Coates, who is still missing in Port-au-Prince.

Coates was likely in the United Nations building when it collapsed, Chapman believes. But while 16 people are confirmed dead at the site, there has been no sign of Coates, who was acting UN commissioner.

"Do we grieve? Do we hope? You're not sure. What do I do?" Coates asked. "At this point, I'm spending lots of time just praying and talking to God."

Coates was in Haiti to train local police officers.

"He felt it was very worthwhile," Chapman said. "And you know, hopefully, his being there could make a difference."

Nanaimo woman awaits word of fianc

Meanwhile, a Nanaimo woman says she is trying to keep her emotions in check after getting cut off while trying to phone her fianc in Haiti.

Sherry Eisel was about to have an internet chat with her fianc, Harrington Rigault, when the earthquake hit.

'All of a sudden, the line went dead.' Sherry Eisel

Eisel said that when she phoned his office at a university in Port-au-Prince, she heard some upsetting sounds.

"Someone picked up his phone, and I could hear in the background, some children crying and people screaming in the background, and all of a sudden, the line went dead," she told CBC News.

Eisel says she has been unable to reach her fianc since and fears the worst. According to recent Red Cross estimates, 50,000 people, including at least four Canadians, are thought to have died in Tuesday's earthquake.

About 100 Canadian evacuees from Haiti are expected to arrive in Montreal on Thursday evening; another 100 Canadians are seeking refuge at the Canadian Embassy in Port-au-Prince; and 48 more are being assisted by officials in the earthquake zone.