NAMPA -- An international charity based in Nampa is sending disaster relief help to Haiti right now.
But while the group works on that, it also worries about the safety of its own personnel who have been working in Haiti for years.
Nearly 30 people from the U.S. and Canada are serving in Haiti for the Mission Aviation Fellowship.
The group is waiting to hear if all them for safe.
"It's a huge devastation. I don't think we have a clue yet of the size and scale of it," John Boyd said.
Boyd runs the Mission Aviation Fellowship.
Eight of his families have been in Haiti on Christian missions, one of them is from Nampa.
With communication systems on the island down Boyd had to wait to hear if they all survived the earthquake.
"We've heard via e-mail sporadically and it took us until 9 o'clock last evening to establish that all our families were safe and unheard. That was a huge relief as you can imagine," Boyd said.
But the homes the missionary families were all living in are ravaged.
"Our families last night slept outdoors because of the aftershocks," Boyd said.
Another seven people working for the Mission in Haiti are native Haitians.
Wednesday evening, the organization learned that one of them died in the disaster and the others are unaccounted for.
While the Mission is concerned about its personnel. It's also putting together a plan to help with disaster relief.
A Mission disaster expert is on his way to the country to assess how they can help and will report back Thursday.
The agency already has airplanes in Haiti. They’re the reason the charity exists.
The families pilot the aircraft and deliver food and medical supplies to Haitians but there's no word if the planes were damaged. It's likely the mission will send more.
They're also expecting to team up with other agencies and provide a communication system like phones and internet access, and logistical support.
"It's a difficult country to serve in anyway because they don't have the infrastructure we have here in the United States, so ultimately it's a challenging environment anyway, but right now everything must be put in to helping the Haitian people," Boyd said.
Haiti is familiar territory for the Mission Aviation Fellowship.
It sent help after Hurricanes Ike, Hanna and Gustav hit the country in 2008.
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