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Local Students Locked Down In Haiti

Roads Closed After Violence Erupts In Country

POSTED: 1:52 pm EDT April 10, 2008
UPDATED: 6:44 pm EDT April 10, 2008

Students and staff from a New Bedford school are under lockdown in Haiti after violence erupted in the country's capital city.

NewsCenter 5's Sean Kelly reported that the group from the Nazarene Christian Academy arrived in Haiti for missionary work on April 5. The group is now under lockdown in a small village 25 miles southwest of Port au Prince.

VIDEO: Principal Concerned About Students, Husband

School Principal Susan Helm said that she received a call from her husband, John, who is with the group that was scheduled to return home Saturday night. He said that the roads to the airport remained closed as of Thursday.

"He told me about the increase that rice had tripled in price and that the people were up in arms because there was a lot of starvation," she said. "No one was allowed out of the compound. They were told no Americans out of the compound. He sounded pretty calm."

The compound is about 20 miles from the worst of the violence, and the group said that they are concerned about running out of food.

"My husband told me hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of children are starving," Helm said. "He told me that some of the children hadn't eaten for three to five days and that it was very concerning."

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