Heart911 News

After numerous attempts to secure assistance from local and national political and military sources, Immacula’s children reached out for help from a friend in Newark N.J. who is a board member of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11. He knew that H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 was boots on the ground in Haiti and he provided them with Bill Keegan’s contact information. H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 had already established lines of communication with US AID, U.S. Customs, T.S.A., U.S. Embassy personnel, the US Marine Corps and the US Air Force.

A “needle in a haystack” search began at the Haiti airport area by H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 members who had driven into Haiti; another H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 group who had flown into the American Embassy area searched for her from there. Despite their focused searches, Immacula was not located and the worst was feared. On Wednesday, January 27, 2010, the members of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Team Haiti returned home without any word about Immacula.

On Friday, January 29, 2010, Bill Keegan received a phone call from a very excited friend of the Brunette family, Jordan Schneider, who had received word that Jim Brunette, Immacula’s son, had heard from his mom. She was near the Haiti Airport, but confused, frustrated and alone. Bill Keegan notified his H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 contacts in the Dominican Republic who then provided the U.S Marine Corps personnel detached to U.S. Embassy in Haiti with Immacula’s last known location and a lifeline cell phone number. Here come the Marines. Within hours Immacula was located and brought to the U.S. Embassy in Haiti where her emotional journey morphed from fear and confusion to smiles and order. Within hours of her rescue, Immacula was on her way to the safety of a HEART 9/11 friend’s home in the Dominican Republic There she received some good old American TLC. A warm shower and a hot meal were accompanied by the smiling faces of Americans serving citizens in a foreign land.

If not for the intervention and efforts of the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Team leading the way, Immacula might still be wandering the streets of Haiti. They had deployed to Haiti to provide aid to that devastated country in whatever way they could. This was just one of the positive achievements that were accomplished. The professionalism with which the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Team members conducted themselves while interacting with the established resources in the Dominican Republic and Haiti set them apart from other volunteer responders. Our credibility was immediately recognized and expertise and competence in the area of disaster response quickly utilized.

A JOB WELL DONE!!!

The Staff at H.E.A.R.T. 9/11

Although retired, his experience is invaluable during emergencies, and early Wednesday the Malta resident left for the Dominican Republic, en route to Haiti, bringing hope to the countless victims of last week’s killer earthquake.

“It’s something you harden yourself for,” Viola said. “These people need help. This is going to be a long, long process. We’ll probably be going there several more times during the next year.”

Viola belongs to the organization H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 (Healing, Emergency and ResponseTeam), composed of retired New York firefighters and police officers who survived the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The team going to Haiti was accompanied by several New York City construction workers.

The 20-member group flew from Newark to Santo Domingo, where they awaited transport to Haiti by a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter.

“The roads going into Haiti are backed up for hours,” Viola said. Just getting onto the island has been a problem.

“I’ve heard some flights have circled for five hours,” said Viola’s wife, Sally. “That’s what we’ve read.”

H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 ’s priority is to set up a base camp, help with search and rescue,provide first aid and establish contacts for future visits. Viola will be in Haiti for about a week, return home and then head back with a much larger group of 50 to 100 volunteers including doctors and more construction workers.

Previously,Viola was part of a H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 team that helped with recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina that ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The group’s stated purpose is to provide relief anywhere in the world where disaster response is required.

“We’ve traveled all over,” he said. “We’ve helped wounded veterans. A lot of people have been involved with this.”

In Florence, N.J., they built a home for a paralyzed U.S. Marine in three days. At St. Bernard’s Parish, New Orleans, they constructed five homes and renovated nine others in a week. Before leaving that devastated area, they heard one of the city’s fire chiefs was still living in a trailer, so they built a new home in less than 24 hours.

Viola was a New York fireman from 1982 to 2002. The couple first started living seasonally in Malta in the late 1980s and became full-time residents several years ago.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Viola had just gone off duty and returned home when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. By the time he got back to the city, both towers were down. Ladder Co. 15, in Lower Manhattan, is about 10 blocks from Ground Zero so he understands the grief, pain and heartache that Haitian survivors are dealing with. “I lost my whole firehouse,” Viola said. Afterward,he began looking for a way to help others, and H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 was the
perfect opportunity for channeling his talents and training.

“I felt compelled to somehow pay back the people from all over the U.S. who had supported us during our time of need,” Viola said.

For information or to support H.E.A.R.T. 9/11’s efforts financially, see the Web site: www.heart911.org.