Wichita State University junior Naomi Streck survived the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti Tuesday, Jan. 12.

Streck was in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti with 21 others representing Haiti Lifeline Ministries, whose mission is to work with children and on projects at the Centre for Children International Lifeline Orphanage.

The orphanage also functions as a clinic, pharmacy, school and water source for the surrounding community.

“I went to Haiti because I love the kids,” Streck said. “They are so incredibly cute and so needing of someone to love them.”

She took care of babies in the nursery and worked at the orphanage. She and her team also toured the surrounding villages and mountains. The earthquake was a “huge surprise” that changed the last days of her trip.

When the earthquake hit, Streck was lying on a couch. She was holding an orphaned baby named Kenny.

“At first, I didn’t know what was happening,” she said. “When I felt the ground start to rumble, I quickly got off the couch and just stood in the room for a second.”

When she realized an earthquake was occurring, Streck said she didn’t know what to do.

Some managed to escape, but two others were left in the building with her and Kenny: Julie McElroy and her son, Connor.

“Julie yelled that we needed to get out of the building,” Streck said. “I was stumbling all over the place because everything was shaking so badly.”

Streck, clutching the baby to her chest, heard crashing and breaking coming from the kitchen and things falling off the walls. She said the noise from the ground was indescribable.

“Others have described it as if a freight train came right through,” she said.

Because of the earthquake, the door to the exit was stuck shut.

“It took Connor a few seconds before he was able to open it,” she said. “To me, it felt like eternity.”

In the few seconds she stood trapped inside a crumbling building, Streck thought about death.

“I honestly didn’t know if I was going to make it out of the building alive,” she said.

When the door opened, the shaking had died down. Streck scooped up another child on her way to a small soccer field where everyone had come together. Children were sitting in groups and team members were trying to comfort them.

No one in the orphanage or on Streck’s team was injured, but two of the compound walls were damaged badly and would need to be rebuilt.

“We were spared the worst of it,” she said. “It wasn’t until the next day that we knew its magnitude or the surrounding damage.”

The sky was filled with dust and smoke and an “eerie silence” after the earthquake.

“Then I could hear the wailing and mourning from the city,” Streck said, “a sound I hope to someday forget.”

The next day, the team went to Croix-des-Bouquets, which is just outside Port-au-Prince and 12 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake, to get supplies and assess the damage.

Many walls had collapsed and buildings were destroyed.

“The worst part was seeing the crypts in the cemetery all torn up and in shambles,” Streck said.

Her heart went out to the people carrying their belongings to the airport or out of Port-au-Prince and away from the destruction.

“I knew that they had lost what little they had to begin with,” she said.

Her journey back to the United States didn’t begin until the next Friday. Her team spent two nights at the orphanage, sleeping outside for the first night and experiencing the aftershocks of the earthquake.

The team was able to communicate with people in the United States via text messaging.

“We were advised that we needed to leave the country,” Streck said.

The U.S. Embassy in Haiti gave the volunteers emergency evacuation paperwork, and then they headed to the airport. Six team members were able to board planes and leave Thursday, but the remaining 15 spent another night in Haiti at the Embassy.

Only six more members, including Streck, left Friday morning. They were flown out on an Air Force plane because commercial airliners were not available. The rest of the team stayed behind with seven orphans waiting on adoption paperwork from the embassy. The last of the team, with the adopted children, left Saturday.

“I felt sad to leave the orphans because I know how scared they are,” Streck said. “They are probably still sleeping outside.”

Because of her experience in Haiti, she said she learned just how fortunate and privileged she is to be an American and live in the United States.

Back at WSU, Streck began her classes on time, eager to get back to a normal routine.

She is an elementary education major and wants to teach first or fourth grade after graduating in May. She is now a student teacher at Cloud Elementary until May 7.