Lucia Anglade had just gotten home from work Tuesday afternoon when her telephone rang. It was a friend, telling Anglade that a terrible earthquake had rocked her native country.

"When I put on the TV, I saw what happened," said Anglade, 46, of West Babylon. "I've been trying to call my family down there ever since. ... I have just not been able to get through."

>> PHOTOS: Frantic rescue effort in Haiti | Deadliest recent earthquakes

Anglade, who came to the United States in 1991 and is a U.S. citizen, has two brothers and a sister in Port-au-Prince, the country's capital city.

Her sister, Claudette Charles, is a nun who runs a homeless shelter near the presidential palace, which was damaged by the quake. Her brothers also live in Port-au-Prince.

She was able to get good news on an aunt who lives in Haiti. One of her cousins called to say her aunt was OK, she said.

Anglade also runs a school for Haitian children in Milot, a rural town not far from Cap Haitien. That area, which is about a 30-minute airplane ride from the Port-au-Prince, was not hit by the earthquake, she said. "The school is OK," Anglade said.

Like Anglade, other Long Islanders with ties to the poor Caribbean country are having difficulty contacting family and friends.

Haitian native Nicole Jean of Rosedale is trying to get in touch with Port-au-Prince resident Marie Telismond, the mother of Jdimytai Damour, who was trampled to death at the Valley Stream Walmart on Black Friday in 2008.

"I haven't been in touch with anybody," said Jean, who is friends with Telismond and Damour's family. Calls placed to Telismond's phone number have not gotten through, she said, and neither did calls to her cousins in the Carrefour neighborhood.

Jean said Telismond lived in a two-story concrete apartment building close to the Petionville neighborhood, which was reportedly heavily damaged by Tuesday's earthquake. Telismond moved from Haiti to New York in 1970, and returned to Port-au-Prince when she retired.

"I'll be glad to get in touch with her," Jean said.

The Rev. Ronel Charelus, a native of Haiti who works at St. Brigid Roman Catholic Church in Westbury, said he has been trying without success to call Haiti to see if relatives and friends survived.

"I have no words to express my feelings, my sorrow, my grief, because we, as a poor country - that is too much for us," he said, referring to Haiti's worst earthquake in 200 years.

He also noted that the country suffered four devastating hurricanes last year. He said the Haitian community on Long Island is "very, very, very shocked" by the latest tragedy.

With Sophia Chang and Bart Jones

>> PHOTOS: Frantic rescue effort in Haiti | Deadliest recent earthquakes

>> VIDEOS: Latest videos from Haiti and on LI

>> MORE: Read more about LIers grieving and LI's efforts to help | Latest news from Haiti


HOW TO HELP

* You can help immediately by texting "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be charged to your cell phone bill and given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts.

* Wyclef Jean, a rapper and hip-hop artist from Haiti, urged people to text "Yele" to 501501 to donate $5 toward earthquake relief. Yéle Haiti is a grassroots movement inspiring change in Haiti through programs in education, sports, the arts and environment, according to its Web site.

* The State Department Operations Center has set up the following number for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti: 1-888-407-4747.

* You can also go online to organizations such as the Red Cross and MercyCorps to make a contribution to the disaster relief efforts.

Other Web sites accepting donations include:

-Haitian Health Foundation
-Hope for Haiti
-UNICEF
-International Medical Corps
-Beyond Borders
-AmeriCares

Rock climbing? Indoor beach volleyball? Water parks? Arts and crafts? NewsdayTV's Elisa DiStefano and Newsday deputy lifestyle editor Meghan Giannotta have your look at ways to spend your winter break. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp, Kendall Rodriguez; Gary Licker

Things to do now on LI Rock climbing? Indoor beach volleyball? Water parks? Arts and crafts? NewsdayTV's Elisa DiStefano and Newsday deputy lifestyle editor Meghan Giannotta have your look at ways to spend your winter break.

Rock climbing? Indoor beach volleyball? Water parks? Arts and crafts? NewsdayTV's Elisa DiStefano and Newsday deputy lifestyle editor Meghan Giannotta have your look at ways to spend your winter break. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp, Kendall Rodriguez; Gary Licker

Things to do now on LI Rock climbing? Indoor beach volleyball? Water parks? Arts and crafts? NewsdayTV's Elisa DiStefano and Newsday deputy lifestyle editor Meghan Giannotta have your look at ways to spend your winter break.

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