Mitch Albom Haiti rescue: Author 'sickened' to leave orphans behind

TAMPA, Fla. - Best-selling author Mitch Albom was one of 10 Americans rescued from the turmoil in Haiti in an overnight mission organized by Florida Congressman Cory Mills.

Albom, who is known for books such as ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ and ‘The Five People you meet in Heaven’, makes frequent trips to the Caribbean nation said he, his wife, and eight volunteers had just arrived in Haiti at the beginning of March when chaos broke out. 

"As soon as we got down there, the gangs started breaking into prisons and releasing all the prisoners, and next thing you know, the airports were shut, the ports were shut, the roads were shut, the borders were shut, and there was no way out," Albom recounted on the Brian Kilmeade Show. 

RELATED: Unrest in Haiti forces Venice-based mission group to suspend flights

Albom says several earlier rescue attempts had already fallen through. 

Mitch Albom was one of ten Americans rescued from Haiti. 

"We raced into this helicopter in the dead of night because the gangs will shoot at helicopters," Albom explained."You have to go at night because someone will film a helicopter and say, oh, that helicopter has Ariel Henry, the Prime Minister's trying to get into the country. And next thing you know, it's all over the internet in Haiti, and people are rushing to that site and gangs and angry citizens So it has to be done when nobody can see, when you can get out fast. The ten of us were shoved into this helicopter that had four seats in it. And so we were basically just a ball of people. It was right out of one of those movies."

READ: Governor Ron DeSantis deploys hundreds of officers to stave off potential influx of Haitian refugees

It’s unclear how long the turmoil in Haiti will last. On Tuesday, a plan to bring in Kenyan police officers to try to restore order was put on pause after Henry resigned. The Kenyan government says it will re-evaluate the plan once a new Haitian government is in place. 

Mitch Albom and his wife run an orphanage in Haiti. 

Albom says many Americans, Canadians, and other international aid workers are still trapped in the country. He also says he feels sickened to have left behind the nearly 100 local orphans and workers at his facility. 

"We went through what it was like to have our freedom taken away for eight or nine days, and it’s an awful feeling, but that’s what the Haitian people go through on a daily basis. Someone needs to do something about that," Albom said during a Fox News interview on Thursday. "If we had filled that helicopter with our kids somehow, they would have been turned away if we tried to land someplace else so our heart is with them and I call out on our leaders to try to do something in Haiti."

SIGN UP: Click here to sign up for the FOX 13 daily newsletter