“They definitely felt the quake and aftershocks,” said Kirk Carmichael, Kristi’s husband.

She was able to make contact by phone for about 30 seconds with her husband Tuesday night to share the word that the Northeast Nebraskans were OK.

“The communications are so poor there that for a while you just felt helpless. You didn’t know what was going on,” Carmichael said. “But we’re good now.”

The earthquake has left an estimated 3 million people in need of emergency aid. Officials said it was impossible to know yet how many might be dead or wounded. Haiti has a population of about 10 million.

Port-au-Prince has been massively impacted, a Red Cross official said, but its airport remains open although a main road leading to it is blocked.

That’s one of the big questions for the Northeast Nebraskans, Defor said. Plans were to spend two weeks in Haiti and fly home out of Port-au-Prince.

“If they end up having to spend more time there, that will work itself out,” he said.

First Christian recently finished raising $25,000 to construct a building in the Haitian community of Laplaine that will serve not only as a church, but also a clinic, community center and a school.

“This is probably the eighth or 10th time that members of First Christian have traveled there to help,” Defor said. For example, this is Mrs. Carmichael’s third trip to Haiti.

Carmichael said his wife and the others planned to do some work with children and in the area of water quality while in Haiti. But that now may change, he said.

Defor said he expects that the earthquake and its aftermath may help spur even more interest in congregation members in wanting to be of service to the Haitian people.

“I believe this will serve as a rallying point to something deeper within us — the recognition that ‘it’s not about me,’ ” he said. “I think this will really inspire us to do something more.”