(This story was originally published November 10, 2008.)

PETIONVILLE, Haiti -- The school bell had just sounded, officially putting an end to the game of hide-and-seek, when 8-year-old Murielle Esta noticed the blocks of cement falling from the sky.

"Rocks, rocks, rocks are falling, " she told the school's director.

Instead of sending Murielle and her classmates to safety, however, School Director Jimmy Antoine ordered them back to class. Before she could make it up the stairs, her archaically built three-story school building collapsed.

Murielle would remain trapped for 12 hours beneath piles of cement from a collapsed wall near the staircase -- and two dead classmates -- before a Good Samaritan eventually pulled her out of the rubble amid her desperate pleas for God to "please save me, please save me."

As Murielle recalled the horrifying tragedy Sunday from her hospital bed, both of her legs were wrapped in bandages and her right arm was also taped up. She moaned and cried "Papi! Papi!" from the excruciating pain.

Leonard Esta, an unemployed construction worker, tried desperately to console his daughter, all the while mourning the loss of his other child, 6-year-old son Ostevé.

The boy, who also attended the school, made it out alive but eventually died at a local hospital. Esta has yet to tell Murielle, saying he wants to spare her any more grief. Adding to his fears, he said, is that doctors have told him that despite an operation to save Murielle's swollen legs, she could still lose them.

"That is a load I cannot carry, " he said, breaking into tears.

After spending all night searching for more survivors in the rubble of the collapsed College La Promesse Evangelique in this Port-au-Prince suburb and then chasing false rumors Sunday of trapped victims calling relatives on their cellphones, emergency workers moved into recovery mode.

LITTLE HOPE

The decision was a recognition that after nearly 72 hours there was little hope of finding any more children or teachers alive in the tragedy that had already claimed 89 lives and injured 150 teachers and children, including 8-year-old Murielle.

"We don't want to risk the life of the population or the rescue workers, " said Haitian President René Préval as he was being briefed by rescue workers from the United States and Martinique. "But the more time that passes, the less time we have of finding anyone alive."

The decision to begin the recovery came amid growing frustrations from angry residents who tried to push past United Nations peacekeepers in riot gear.

Residents in the area complained that the effort was taking too long, and they should be allowed in to find their children -- dead or alive.

At one point, the residents hung a sign saying, "These are our children, " and later another, saying, "Give Haitians a chance. The task is tremendous. It's a catastrophe. Please."

There are likely to be more victims, but excavating deeper into the collapsed school has proven tricky.

MAIN OBSTACLE

Disaster experts on the scene say the main obstacle to reaching deep into the rubble is a large, collapsed beam in the rear of the school.

And on Sunday, winds from Tropical Storm Paloma in the Caribbean were causing vibrations and increasing fears that there could be a secondary collapse of the building and that the chances of finding anyone alive would diminish.

"The biggest issue is the large slab. We need to figure out a way to save it or take parts of it away, " a member of the Fairfax County, Va., rescue team told the president. "It's going to be quite difficult and dangerous."

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