16 Jan 2010

NZ earthquake survivors reach Miami

8:00 pm on 16 January 2010

The New Zealand woman who lost her husband and two of her daughters in the Haiti earthquake has arrived in Miami with her surviving daughter to be with her family.

On a Facebook page dedicated to the family, Mrs Sanson-Rejouis's sister Rachael confirms that her sister and two-year-old niece Alyahna are now in Miami with relatives, after recovering from the earthquake at a hospital in the Dominican Republic.

Mrs Sanson-Rejouis' French-Haitian husband, Emmanuel Rejouis, and two eldest daughters, five-year-old Kofie-Jade and four-year-old Zenzie, died when a hotel collapsed in Port-au-Prince when the quake struck.

The family had been living in an apartment at the hotel.

Mrs Sanson-Rejouis, who is originally from Nelson, managed to rescue her youngest daughter, who was lying underneath her father, according to stepsister Caroline Larnach. Alyahna has injuries that include a broken leg.

The bodies of Mr Rejouis, Kofie-Jade and Zenzie have since been pulled from the collapsed building.

Mrs Sanson-Rejouis and her husband were working for the UN in Haiti.