DAY four of Haiti's disaster brought further harrowing scenes of devastation, but there were also flashes of joy as survivors were extracted from the rubble. French and Spanish rescue workers freed Sarla Chand after she spent 50 hours trapped beneath the wreckage of the Montana hotel. “Thank you all for saving my life,” said the 65-year-old.

Shaken but smiling, the India-born New Jersey resident munched on a biscuit as medics checked to see if she had more serious injuries besides cuts and bruises. Asked how bad her ordeal was she replied “It was very bad.”

Chand, a medical doctor and vice-president of the Maryland-based IMA World Health Organisation's international programmes, was in a meeting when the magnitude 7.0 quake struck on Tuesday. The hotel was flattened. Chand was among 14 people pulled out alive but dozens were feared dead beneath the rubble. “We estimate 70 more inside. This is devastating,” said Rodrigo Vazquez, a Chilean army major who was directing the rescue.

Another survivor from the Montana was the brother of Marla Gulley, who under the name Bella Baita tweeted anxious requests for news. “Looking for info for Hotel Montana survivors, as my brother was there Tues for a meeting and missing. Waiting and praying?”

Friends responded with messages of solidarity and then delight when Gulley gave an update “My brother, with minor injuries and 4 more pulled from the rubble of Hotel Montana after 55 hours, a miracle. Joy for our family.”

When Eliana Nicolini, a Brazilian employee of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), felt the earthquake rattle through Port-au-Prince on Tuesday her first thought was to run. She sprinted out of the UNDP building moments before it came crashing down.

Then her thoughts turned to her two sons, Joao Carlos and Paulo Victor, who had arrived in Haiti the previous day to visit her. According to reports in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, Nicolini trekked 25km back to her home in one of the city's hotels to look for them. When she arrived night had fallen and the hotel had been transformed into a tangle of concrete and metal.

“I started to cry and to pray and ask God to save my children,” she said.

Finally, after hours scouring the wreckage, her prayers were answered. When the earthquake hit, her sons had jumped from a window and were safe. “I chose this mission and I will carry on here,” she said. “The important thing is that my kids are well.”

— The Guardian, London