Mitch Albom is among a group of American volunteers rescued from Haiti

A mission led by a United States congressman rescued author Mitch Albom and several other Americans from Haiti early Tuesday as the Caribbean country faces violent unrest.

Mr. Albom, who wrote “Tuesdays With Morrie” and “The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” said in a statement that he and a group from Have Faith Haiti, an orphanage he runs in Port-au-Prince, have been evacuated after taking shelter there since a state of emergency was declared in the country this month.

Representative Cory Mills, a Florida Republican and U.S. Army veteran, led the mission in coordination with Representative Lisa McClain, a Michigan Republican. Mr. Albom lives in the Detroit area.

The rescue came as a humanitarian crisis rapidly unfolded in Haiti, amid the worst political upheavals in years.

Mr. Albom has been involved with the Haitian orphanage for more than a decade, visiting once a month for a week, Ms. McClain said in an interview. In his statement, Mr Albom said saying goodbye to the children “was terribly difficult”.

“I had the responsibility of bringing home eight wonderful volunteers who worked with us,” he wrote. “But my wife and my heart hurt because our children are still here.”

The US State Department has been under a no-travel advisory since March 2020, but violence has escalated in recent weeks as gangs have banded together and terrorized the country, kidnapping and killing civilians and closing the airport. Neighboring countries are now rushing to form a transitional government to replace Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has agreed to step down.

On March 3, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti issued a security alert warning U.S. citizens to leave the country as soon as possible. The US military also strengthened security at the US Embassy and airlifted non-essential personnel out of the country.

Ms. McClain said she first became aware of Mr. Albom’s situation on Saturday, when one of her constituents reached out. Ms. McClain, who like Mr. Mills has accused the Biden administration of abandoning Americans during the crisis, said Mr. Albom had made repeated requests to the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Haiti to help them to help get her out of the country.

“It became very clear to me that our government and our State Department had no plan and would not be helpful at all,” she said after making her own attempt to contact the U.S. Embassy in Haiti.

She turned to Mr. Mills for help. According to his conference websiteMr. Mills helped rescue Americans from Afghanistan in 2021 and from Israel after the October 7 attacks.

While Mr. Mills arranged for a helicopter, Ms. McClain began “working on the back end,” she said, and obtained permission from the Dominican Republic government to fly the helicopter in and out of the Dominican Republic. Mr Mills and a pilot were initially expected to arrive in the early hours of Monday, but the helicopter’s generator was not working, Ms McClain said. They found a second helicopter and arrived in Haiti in the early, dark hours of Tuesday.

Ms McClain did not say how Mr Mills was able to secure the helicopter, nor did she provide details of the helicopter’s location. Mr. Mills did not immediately return a request for comment.

“He runs in a little different circles than we do,” Ms. McClain said, referring to his military service, which included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, “because I don’t know how to get one helicopter. let alone two.”

Mr. Albom insisted on an after-dark rescue, she said, because he didn’t want to draw attention to the orphanage. Ms. McClain said the helicopter was on the ground for about a minute and a half and was loaded with eight Americans, a Canadian and a French volunteer. They landed safely in the Dominican Republic before being flown back to the United States.

“We are always relieved to hear that American citizens are safe,” the State Department said in a statement Thursday. “That said, the security situation in Haiti is very uncertain and initiatives like this are risky and could put people at risk.”

Ms. McClain said she now worried about the “many other Americans who were left there with no plans to get them out.” She said she did not know how many Americans were left in the country, but noted that her office had received calls, including from a couple in her district who were waiting to adopt a child in Haiti.

“It’s not a leader, it’s lawless there,” she said. “They don’t want to come back until they can bring the child.”