A nurse takes a woman's blood pressure in a makeshift camp in front of the national palace in Port-au-Prince. (Logan Abassi/United Nations)

Many B.C. residents are still anxiously awaiting news about the fate of their loved ones three days after Haiti's devastating earthquake, but one Nanaimo woman has finally received some welcome news about her missing fiancé.

Sherry Eisel heard from a family member on Thursday night that Harrington Rigaud, a police officer in the Caribbean country, is unhurt.

"For the first five minutes, I cried. Then I was very light-headed, and then all night last night, I just couldn't sleep because I was just too excited. Before, it was, I was so stressed I couldn't sleep, and last night it was I was excited," she told CBC News on Friday morning.

'All night last night, I just couldn't sleep because I was just too excited.'—Sherry Eisel

When the 7.0-magnitude earthquake first stuck, Eisel was just about to log on for an internet chat with her husband. When that failed, she phoned his office. But when someone picked up the phone there, all she could hear was screaming in the background until the line went dead.

Eisel has yet to speak with her fiancée, but she has left a message on Facebook for him to call. She said she wants to be in Haiti, but understands the situation is unsafe.

Nelson students still trapped in Haiti

Meanwhile, United Nations' military helicopters are preparing to transport a group of B.C. high school students stranded in Haiti to airports where they can get flights back to Canada.

Provincial Solicitor General Kash Heed informed school officials Friday that help is on its way to the 17 students from Mt. Sentinel Secondary school in South Slocan, B.C., school superintendent Pat Dooley said.

There's still no word yet on when the group will actually be rescued, Dooley told a news conference Friday.

The group of Grade 12 students and their seven adult chaperones arrived at a Christian mission in the Caribbean nation 45 minutes before the earthquake struck.

One of the chaperones broke a rib during the violent tremor.

'These are kids. They are witnessing things none of us should have to witness,'—Norm Ouellet, parent of student

The group slept on a bus in the field the first night and on pieces of plywood in the open since then because the country continues to experience aftershocks and buildings are not considered safe, Dooley said.

Contact with the group has been minimal outside of several emails, which pleaded with officials to make their evacuation a priority as the situation in Haiti appears to be growing more desperate.

Norm Ouellet, whose son Blake is in the group, said they need to be brought home immediately.

"I think we have been misled to believe these kids are fine. These are kids. They are witnessing things none of us should have to witness. It's important we realize that and get these kids home as soon as we can," said Ouellet.

The group has been able to lend a helping hand while they await evacuation.

The teens chipped in $2,500 of their own money to buy 4,000 pounds of rice and distributed it in a nearby village, Dooley said.

Facebook provides vital link

For many Canadians like these families, social media websites on the internet such as Facebook and Twitter have been the key source of information during the crisis.

'I never thought ... a software application, and the internet could mean so much.'—Florence Etienne

Vancouver resident Florence Etienne is among thousands of Haitian expatriates in Canada anxious to hear from family and friends in the country who found the phone service unreliable.

But she told CBC News that Facebook has also been her lifeline for news.

Within hours of the earthquake, she had received comforting messages from close friends and relatives in Haiti who had internet access, but through sharing information, they discovered one cousin was missing.

"And then a day later — that was Wednesday — that very same cousin sent me 'I am OK,' and that made a world of difference. I never thought an application, a software application, and the internet could mean so much," said Etienne.

With files from The Canadian Press