PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Haitians fleeing the ruins of Port-au-Prince boarded trucks and buses Saturday, heading for other cities and the countryside.
At the bus station, drivers had raised ticket prices for the desperate crowds, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Lucien St. Cyr and his young son, Jean Edy, got places in a pickup truck. St. Cyr hoped to reach Jacmel, 50 miles away, and was told the truck would take them about halfway, where they would have to cross a ruined section on foot and look for transportation on the other side.
St. Cyr said he lost everything in Tuesday's 7-magnitude earthquake and hoped a friend in Jacmel would help him.
"We don't know what to expect there, but we have nothing here. We have to leave," he said.
At the international airport, long lines of foreigners tried to get out of Port-au-Prince. All civilian air service has been suspended.
"We were just told to get in line," said Dan Gietz, a missionary from Tonawanda, N.Y.
Gietz arrived in Haiti Monday to work at an orphanage. He hoped to send his wife and son back to the United States.
The United Nations estimated the quake left 300,000 people homeless and destroyed 10 percent of the buildings in Port-au-Prince. The Red Cross has put the death toll at 50,000 or more, and top Haitian officials have said they thought it would go much higher.
