NJ college student, church groups in Haiti safe

HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. (AP) -- A New Jersey college student was still unaccounted for in Haiti on Thursday, two days after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake ravaged the island nation.

A spokeswoman at Lynn University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said that all but one of its 12 students who were there when the earthquake hit have been accounted for. The missing student was Christine Gianacaci of Hopewell. Two faculty members also had not been located.

Another New Jersey native on the trip, 19-year-old Lindsay Doran of Rumson, has been located and sent friends a text message to say she's OK.

Members of two missions from New Jersey churches are also safe.

A group from Trinity United Methodist Church in Hackettstown caught a flight to the Bahamas and was trying to arrange travel home. It was unclear when they would get back to New Jersey.

A group from three Mercer County congregations was safe Thursday at the U.S. Embassy and was trying to get to the Dominican Republic.

Also on Thursday, Cooper University Hospital in Camden and Hackensack University Medical Center announced they were organizing medical missions to Haiti.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)