Speaking from his home in Millbank Crescent, after a stroke of luck got him on a flight out of Haiti without a passport, he said: "Had I stayed longer in the office, I would be dead."

Ironically, had Mr Cameron left earlier, he may have been in his apartment, which also fell to the ground.

"There was a 40-minute window where I was in my car, which saved my life," he said.

Mr Cameron, who spent most of his time working abroad before his retirement, yesterday recalled how he thought a bomb had exploded.

"We were stopped in traffic and that is when the world changed," he said. "We were shaken about and bounced around. I couldn't figure out what was happening. I could see people running around, dropping to the ground, getting up and being jerked around. It lasted about a minute and was incredibly violent. If you weren't in the street or right by the door of a building, your chances of survival were very small."

Only when the dust settled could Mr Cameron (60) see the full scale of the devastation.

Buildings had collapsed and people were screaming. "It was chaotic," he added.

Mr Cameron, who arrived on the island just two days prior to last Tuesday's earthquake to work on a project financed by the International Finance Corporation, the non-government arm of the World Bank, recalled how he came across a crowd outside a church.

"There were several hundred people singing, wailing and crying," he said.

There were many people dead, dying or seriously injured.

Survivors pick through the rubble in the aftermath of last week's earthquake in Haiti.

"It is just so unreal," he said. "You cannot take it in. You are almost detached from it. When you did come across people lucky enough to survive, they weren't really in any condition to talk. They were just walking around aimlessly.

"At the time you shut off to the horror of it all, but later I felt quite sick. I am now going through all the emotions of the whole experience."

Mr Cameron spent the night in the open after discovering his apartment had collapsed. Unable to retrieve his passport and belongings, Mr Cameron headed to the airport, where he was met by a scene of complete chaos and was refused entry by the Haitian authorities because he was not a US citizen, nor had UN or diplomatic accreditation.

By a sheer stroke of luck, he was approached by the British Ambassador of the Dominican Republic who recognised his Scots accent and arranged for a temporary passport and $100 to be issued to him.

Mr Cameron contacted his employers, the Frankfurt School of Business, who sorted out payment for his flights, which he boarded the following day to Miami, connecting with Heathrow, then onwards from Gatwick to Inverness, arriving back home in Nairn four days after the earthquake hit.

"The coincidence of the British Ambassador being there at the airport at that time will stay with me for some time, as I would have undoubtedly spent many more days in Haiti without food, water and sleep," he said.

Mr Cameron added he was delighted to be home and reunited with his wife Rowena, who works in Inverness for Highland Council, and his two children.

It is thought up to 200,000 people may have died in the earthquake and although aid has started to reach the island, many survivors continue to fend for themselves.

h.paterson@inverness-courier.co.uk

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