A South African woman on Saturday said her nightmare has only just begun as her husband, along with a fellow South African, race against time to free the dead and dying from the rubble of devastated Haiti, the South African Press Association reported.

With no true idea of the situation on the ground, Elna van der Merwe on Pretoria, can now only pray as she waits to hear again from her husband, Carel "CP" van der Merwe -- an emergency services worker with nearly 25 years' fire fighting experience.

Carel van der Merwe, who is based at the Caribbean island's United Nations (UN) offices as firefighter trainer, had been in Haiti for only four hours and had only just left the organization's offices to unpack when the killer earthquake struck, destroying the building and killing dozens of his colleagues and injuring scores more.

Speaking from the family's home in South Africa, Elna van der Merwe said: "When I first heard of the quake it was on the radio. When I heard it I thought I was dreaming and that it could not be true. Then seconds later my phone started ringing with friends and family calling to find out if CP was okay."

The first time Van der Merwe heard that her husband was all right was three hours after the first South African media report, when the wife of fellow South African and colleague, Neville Fouche, phoned her on Tuesday night.

Fouche is working on the island as the UN's disaster manager. "It was the worst three hours of my life. I thought this is it. I thought I was never going to see my husband again.

"I kept on thinking it was a dream, but when the phone started ringing and would not stop I knew that there was trouble," said Van der Merwe as she described her relief on hearing that her husband was alive.

Speaking to her husband this week, she said it was a miracle that anyone, including her husband and Fouche, were alive.

"CP landed in Port-au-Prince four hours before the earthquake struck and had only just arrived at his 'home' when it happened.

"If Neville had not taken him home to unpack and relax before his first day at work, both of them could have been dead," she said, adding that vast sections of the UN compound had been flattened.

She said her husband had said that things on the ground were absolutely chaotic. Van der Merwe said what had pulled her through the nightmare were all the calls of encouragement and well wishes.

"My phone has been ringing non-stop with people who we have not heard from in months asking how Carel is doing and if he is okay," she said. On a lighter note, Van der Merwe said when asked if there was anything she could send to him he had asked for mealie meal.

"He is a real boer (Afrikaans farmer) and wants his pap (maize porriddge) because he is tired of the UN ration packs," she said, laughing.

For Fouche, knowing that her husband is alive, although absolutely exhausted, is a welcome relief. "I know he is tired and that it is difficult over there, but at least I know that he is alive," she said.

She said the scenes that her husband, whose house and personal belongings were destroyed in the earthquake, had described were like something out of a horror movie.

"It is confusing. People are running around screaming, the injured are calling out for help and the bodies are piling up high on the streets among the dirt and the rubble.

"His only mission now is to focus on rescuing people and recovering bodies from the rubble," she said.

According to the men's families, all the South Africans who are on the island have been accounted for. Former colleagues of Fouche and Van der Merwe said that it was luck that the two men were there.

"You could not ask for a more experienced team," said Frans Glanville, adding that the moment disaster struck the two were in the thick of things trying to help people.

"Being first on site and with their expertise they would be in the best position to evaluate and initiate certain search-and-rescue actions which are vital to life-saving operations," he said.