Zebulon's Jay Estes made it back from volunteering in Haiti in good health and on time.
His wife, Sharon, picked him up from RDU Friday afternoon at 6:30.
He was able to catch a flight out of Port-au-Prince that morning. He reported UPS planes, and military and commercial planes at the airport, and said it was all luck as to which plane you got on in your departure.
Lucky for Estes, he managed the commercial version — appropriately an American Airlines flight to Miami from where he hopped a connecting flight to Raleigh.
Estes got straight to business when he made his way aboard the plane. FOOD. Despite having wheat allergies he refused to turn down the turkey clubs being given out on the flight.
Must have been a comforting return to normalcy from the rice, beans, goat meat and sugar cane diet he acquired in Haiti.
A first hand-description of his experience is set to run in this coming Wednesday's edition of the Eastern Wake News.

Jay Estes, the Zebulon man volunteering in Haiti, called his wife, Sharon, yesterday and said he heard the military has quit flying people back to the United States.

At that he’s not sure what to expect when he and his helphaitinow.org group of six other volunteers get to the airport in Port-au-Prince today, when they expected to catch a lift home.

Sharon said if they have to go back to Santo Domingo it could mean an extra day or two before they can get home, but Jay's hoping that's not the case.

Jay also told Sharon he's heard "some disturbing numbers on infant mortality."

Of the 1,000 new-borns each year, he said around 630 don’t live one year. I take that to be the case regardless of the recent tragedy that struck the area.

Jay had to have been put off by this because he said this with a mind that a year from now that many of the children his group helped won’t be alive.

He told Sharon "Malaria is rampant and continues to claim lives and with the horrible conditions since the earthquake it’s a breeding ground." He told her the rivers are "so contaminated with garbage," and that the group is really glad it took water purification pills with them.

Sharon hopes the next time she hears from Jay it will be when he's back on home turf.

I know this is long-winded, but it's not easy cutting info out of a need-to-know report.

Jay Estes, the Zebulon man who is volunteering with the relief effort in Haiti, was able to pay a Haitian man to use his cell phone and call his wife, Sharon, yesterday evening.

Jay told his wife his helphaitinow.org relief group is now manning a refugee camp of some 500 people. There's no Red Cross help of any kind and the place they are using for a hospital is simply a concrete floor with a roof overhead.

On a lighter note, Jay came come in contact with U.S. Army Special Forces earlier in the week and told them of the group's cause. Special Forces followed the relief group to the camps — which no one previously knew existed — and tagged the location in their GPS device to mark the area for supply drop-offs.

He met up with Special Forces when the relief group realized they were staying in the same hotel and he followed Special Forces to the airport in Port-au-Prince on Sunday to stock up on supplies.

Jay told Sharon he had to follow the Special Forces Jeep at high speeds to keep people from jumping in their vehicles, but they were able to secure 1,200 meals for the Haitians in the camp.

He reported on the hunger and illness spreading in an area full of chaos. He told Sharon a little boy sat in his lap, held tight and wouldn’t let go as the group transported the orphaned children to a school in Montrouis.

The members of the relief group plan to leave all clothes they took to Haiti except those they are wearing when they leave for the United States on a military flight out of Port-au-Prince Friday.

I'm in contact with Sharon Estes, of Zebulon, whose husband Jay boarded a plane to Santo Domingo this morning to volunteer in the disaster relief in Haiti.

Since cell phone reception is anticipated to be spotty and other forms of communication limited, I'm hoping to get as many live updates as I possibly can from Jay, documenting his time with the effort.

As of this morning Jay and the group he traveled with were unsure what their method of communication will be until they actually reach Haiti. One woman in the group has an iPhone and at least hopes to be able to send text message updates in the event cell phones don't work.

Still, as of this morning, the group was said to have made the flight together, and all involved were said to be "standing tall". To this point, everything has gone to plan.

More updates on Estes' trip will come, pending technology allows.

Hope for Haiti (8pm) - This is airing on pretty much every network in the world. Read more about the program and those scheduled to perform.

Caprica (9pm, SyFy) - The premiere of a new show which serves as a prequel to Syfy's acclaimed hit, "Battlestar Galactica." "Caprica" is set more than 50 years prior to BSG and tonight's episode focuses on a tragedy that impacts the Graystone and Adama families. Eric Stoltz and Esai Morales (left) star. Our review of "Caprica."

Spartacus: Blood and Sand (10pm, Starz) - Lucy Lawless is one of the stars of this new action drama about a rebellious Roman slave played by Andy Whitfield. Tonight, Spartacus and his fellow fighters align themselves with Rome to protect their homeland, but become disenchanted with Rome when their village is invaded by barbarians.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien (11:35pm, NBC) - It's Conan O'Brien's final night hosting "The Tonight Show" for those bozos at NBC, and considering some of his other antics this week, there's no telling what he'll do. It'll be worth checking out. His final guests are scheduled to be Tom Hanks (who gave O'Brien his much-despised nickname "Coco"), Will Ferrell (who was his first guest on the show), and Neil Young.

George Clooney, Anderson Cooper, and Wyclef Jean host tonight's telethon benefit for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

Expect musical performances by Bono, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Shakira, Sting, Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews, Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson, Keith Urban, Kid Rock, Christina Aguilera, and others.

Clooney hosts from Los Angeles, Jean from New York City, Cooper from Haiti, and "Twilight" actor Robert Pattinson will host from London.

Some of the stars scheduled to man the phones include Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep, Leonard DiCaprio, Jake Gyllenhaal, Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, Bradley Cooper, Renée Zellweger, Courteney Cox, Colin Farrell, Gabby Sidibe and Emily Blunt.