ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block.
In Haiti, the window is closing to find victims in the rubble alive. Three days after the earthquake, international search and rescue teams are working with heavy equipment and search dogs, while Haitians dig with their hands in hopes of findings survivors. Meanwhile, Haitian government workers are burying thousands of dead in mass graves.
SIEGEL: We'll be hearing about different aspects of the disaster in Haiti throughout this program. First this hour, one effort to find survivors. The Hotel Montana used to be one of the nicest places to stay in the capital, Port-au-Prince. It is now flattened.
NPR's Jason Beaubien was there overnight and this morning as elite rescue teams from France, Spain and the U.S. pulled seven people out of the hotel.
(Soundbite of vehicle)
Unidentified Man: (unintelligible) clear, everybody off.
JASON BEAUBIEN: More than two and a half days after the quake struck, members of a search and rescue team from Fairfax County, Virginia, carried American Dan Wooley out of the wreckage of the Montana Hotel. Earlier in the morning, they'd plucked Haitian Lucson Mondesir from the massive pile of concrete. Wooley and Mondesir were trapped side by side in adjacent elevator cars. In the darkness, they talked and encouraged each other until the rescue teams arrived. When Wooley emerged, Mondesir - in his dust-covered bell hop uniform - was standing outside to greet him. And for the first time, they could see each other.
Mr. DAN WOOLEY: Hey, it's so good to meet you, man. Give your address to someone for me, okay?
Mr. LUCSON MONDESIR: Okay, okay. All right.
Mr. WOOLEY: Okay, I want to stay in touch with you. So good to meet you.
Mr. MONDESIR: Yeah.
BEAUBIEN: Wooley and Mondesir were deep in the wreckage at the bottom of two elevator shafts that had flipped on their sides.
Mr. MONDESIR: (Foreign language spoken)
BEAUBIEN: Mondesir said the darkness was terrifying and he started to hallucinate. He said he and Wooley encouraged each other throughout the ordeal.
Mr. MONDESIR: (Foreign language spoken)
BEAUBIEN: Wooley, who had injured his leg, was whisked away to a clinic.
BEAUBIEN: Mondesir was walking around, posing for photos with the rescue workers and talking to the press. He said he and Wooley always believed they would be saved.
(Soundbite of beep)
BEAUBIEN: The rescue crews worked throughout the night to try to reach at least eight people believed to be alive in the remains of the hotel.
Mr. REINHARD RIEDL: My name is Reinhard Riedl and I am married to Nadine Cardozo-Reidl, the co-owner of the Montana.
BEAUBIEN: His wife, Nadine, he said, was one of the ones trapped. Riedl stood in front of a huge, jutting slab of concrete that used to be the hotel roof. And he was waiting.
Mr. RIEDL: My wife is still alive, which was very uncertain this morning. And yesterday, all day long, they didn't know where she is, actually. So, right now I feel relieved, and everything else is secondary.
(Soundbite of laughter)
BEAUBIEN: The search and rescue crews had to prop up parts of the wreckage to reach the pockets where people were still alive. Under klieg lights, the team members burrowed in and out of the pile of concrete chunks.
BEAUBIEN: Sam Gray, who is a firefighter from Fairfax County, Virginia, was one of them.
Mr. SAM GRAY (Firefighter, Virginia): It was quite a shock to go in through the dark and actually see somebody's hand poke out all of a sudden, which is normally the first thing you see. That's always a strange sight to see.
BEAUBIEN: Gray says they had been working for three days straight, and his team managed to pull three people out alive. But he said it's hard to savor these victories because there is so much destruction and death around them - even inside the wreckage.
Mr. GRAY: There'd be bodies right next to the people that are alive - right next to, laying on top of - you know, one alive, one not alive. And of course, that has a pretty big impact.
BEAUBIEN: All across the Haitian capital, buildings have collapsed - some completely, others partially. Search and rescue crews are trying to extract a group of people from inside a supermarket. After the quake, they had made calls from their cell phones for help. With so many buildings collapsed and so many people missing, it's possible that thousands survived the quake but are trapped somewhere in the debris. Today, Reinhard Riedl gave up his vigil for his wife. He had gotten word that despite his initial optimism, she had apparently died in the collapse and her body was still inside the hotel.
Mr. RIEDL: It might as well take three or four days to take her out because they have to take all the rubble away.
BEAUBIEN: He is worried now that his wife might get dumped somewhere in a mass grave. Riedl has joined the thousands and thousands of Haitians in mourning for the loss of their loved ones. He was walking back to the hotel to try to make sure his wife's body is properly taken care of.
Jason Beaubien, NPR News, Port-au-Prince.