By JARED ORZOLEK

orzolek@crescent-news.com

BRYAN -- A retired Bryan doctor and his wife have returned to the United States after experiencing the Jan. 12 earthquake that rocked Haiti.

Dr. John and Joanne Moats were serving at a Catholic mission in rural Haiti when the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck. The pair traveled to the mission, located in the town of Kobonal, while representing the Bryan Lions Club through a joint effort with Volunteer Optometric Services for Humanity (VOSH).

The mission was located in a mountainous region in the east central part of Haiti, only a few miles from the Dominican Republic. They were outdoors when the tremor struck just before 5 p.m.

"It was the strangest feeling," Joanne said, explaining that there was no damage from the earthquake in that area, which was more than 75 miles from the heavily damaged Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

John is the brother of Mark Moats of Defiance and left Bryan with Joanne for Haiti on Jan. 7, accompanied by persons from Napoleon, Lima, Delphos and Bluffton. The couple previously attended mission trips to Haiti and New Orleans, but have never experienced anything like the aftermath of the earthquake.

Within hours after the earthquake struck, the couple informed family members in the United States that they were unharmed. The group was advised by the U.S. Embassy to leave Haiti and soon began making plans to return to America.

"The embassy advised that we get out as soon as possible. We were discussing different ways. We could have gone across the boarder to the Dominican Republic, but they advised that if we got to the airport in Port-au-Prince they would get us out," John said.

The couple traveled by van with 14 other people from Kobonal to Port-au-Prince starting at 10:30 a.m. Friday.

"The luggage was piled up on top of the van. We had to leave a lot of equipment behind," John said.

By 1:30 p.m., the van arrived in Port-au-Prince and traveled down narrow streets lined with people toward the airport.

"The people in the street speak Creole and we speak English so it was kind of hard to know what they were saying," John said, explaining that the group was able to see some of the earthquake-damaged homes on the way to the airport. "A lot of the walls were down and a lot of roofs were caved in."

When the group arrived at the airport, they were greeted by personnel from the U. S. Air Force. By 10:30 p.m., the Moats boarded an Air Force C-17 transport plane bound for the United States. After a refueling stop in South Carolina, the plane landed in New Jersey at 6 a.m. Saturday. By Sunday, the Moats were back in Bryan after more than 36 hours of travel.

"We were tired and glad to be home," Joanne said.

Even though the trip was cut short by the earthquake, the couple was able to perform humanitarian work while in Haiti. They helped provide eye exams and eye glass fittings to the more than 2,500 Haitian men, women and children.

The recent trip marked the second time this decade that the Moats had traveled to Haiti to perform mission work. In 2002, the couple performed mission work through Wesley United Methodist Church of Bryan at Grace Children's Hospital in Port-au-Prince.

"We were going to try and visit that place on our way back home, but with the earthquake we were not able to," Joanne said. "Port-au-Prince is just teaming with people. It's hard to describe it in words. The roads were not great even before the earthquake."

John retired from his Bryan family medical practice in 2003. Joanne works as a nurse at Community Hospitals and Wellness Centers, Bryan.