A year ago today, Bermuda-based broker Wesly Guiteau and his wife, Danielle, received a phone call that would change their lives forever.It was Mrs Guiteau's mother calling, strongly urging her daughter to turn on CNN.Seconds later, the couple watched in horror as the television news reported that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake had struck a place dear to their heart, Port-au-Prince.Mr Guiteau, originally from the Caribbean nation, said his heart stopped beating for a second or two and then his thoughts went to his fellow countrymen.“I immediately thought ‘God, why? Why Haiti? Why Port-au-Prince of all places?'” he told The Royal Gazette.He is just one of the Island's residents who remember vividly the day the earthquake hit, leaving 220,000 dead and more than 300,000 injured.More than one million were left homeless and 60 percent of government infrastructure is believed to have been destroyed.The father-of-two recalled being unable to reach his brother as communication lines had been cut off and said he felt a sense of desperation, agony and fear.“I could not eat; I was no good to my family or to my job,” he said.“For two days I pondered, wondered aimlessly and finally, I told my wife I would go to Haiti by all means necessary, to help find my family and help the people in need.”The Pembroke resident flew to the Dominican Republic and drove across the border to take aid to disaster victims.In addition to locating his family, and taking medical supplies and food to thousands of people in need, he helped rescue a stranger buried under rubble and debris for six hours.“What started as a one-man journey to save my family and help my countrymen from a natural disaster became a small independent movement,” he said.With help from friends and colleagues at Willis, he was able to raise $40,000, which he used to fund four trips and feed thousands of displaced people.A remaining $10,000 was donated to Haiti Village Health, a charity run by physician Tiffany Keenan.Read Currelly, whose family moved to Haiti three decades ago, also recalls the moment he found out about the natural disaster and decided to help.He said he was working on his boat in Bermuda a year ago today, when a cousin called to tell him about the quake.The cousin assured Mr Currelly his close family were all accounted for and safe, but the HSBC employee soon learnt some close friends had not been so lucky.“During the days following the earthquake we were consumed with fear and sadness as the stories unfolded of the deaths of close friends,” he said.“It was agonising to be so far from them and to be unable to help when so many needed it. The aftershocks were strong and my family lived, as did most of Haiti, in constant terror of another large quake.“Our every waking moment was spent communicating with Haiti, co-ordinating evacuation efforts, relaying messages in and out of the country for friends and family and waiting for news and updates as the tragedies and even miracles were reported.”Mr Currelly went back to Haiti in February and hoped his background in electrical engineering and information technology could be used by aid organisations working to rebuild the country.He helped a school in Lillavois, just outside Port-au-Prince, rebuild its electrical outlet and spent a week assisting charity ‘Save the Children' with improving their computer network.But during his visit he couldn't help but see and smell the destruction and devastation that surrounded him.He recalled seeing walls and homes collapsed in Port-A-Prince, and when driving through La Plaine, where he grew up, he noticed his childhood home had crumbled.He added: “For me, the smell of decomposing bodies in the city was deeply disturbing. I believed that what I would see in Haiti would trouble me, but ultimately it was the smell and the scale of the emotional suffering I witnessed that impacted me the most.“I love Haitians, and I love Haiti, and to see it like this was devastating. Everyone lost friends or family, or both, and most lost their homes and their livelihoods at the same time.“It was heartbreaking to an extent that is hard to describe,” he said.