As the death toll climbs from earthquake-ravaged Haiti, many B.C. residents are anxiously waiting for word on friends and loved ones from the Caribbean nation.

And the 30 members of the Vancouver Urban Search and Rescue Task Force are anxious to learn if they'll be deployed.

Nursing student

Immacula Renaud left Haiti as a small child. But the Vancouver nursing student still keeps her homeland close to her heart.

She was among the 100,000 Haitian-Canadians watching images of the devastation Wednesday and wondering if relatives were still alive.

Two of her cousins are missing.

"I wish that I could do something. I feel powerless over this. I have no power. The only thing I can do is wait for a phone call," she told CTV News.

She's also waiting for news about the Haitian orphanage where she volunteered five years ago.

In the meantime, Renaud is throwing herself into fundraising efforts and praying for her cousins.

"I'm just praying God will do something. We need that miracle. Maybe God can provide them angels wherever they are to keep them and give them courage and strength to keep them alive until someone can find them," she said.

High school students

The parents of 17 Kootenay B.C. high school students on a humanitarian mission in Haiti were still waiting for direct contact with their children Wednesday.

They learned second hand that the students were safe and staying at a mission about 50 kilometres from the capital, Port-au-Prince.

But that didn't mean the parents weren't worried.

"To this point we haven't received any confirmation from any of our group," parent Norm Ouellet told CTV News. "We're getting everything second hand."

The students are from Mount Sentinel School in South Slocan, in the southeast corner of B.C. They are accompanied by two teachers and a parent.

They were scheduled to help a local mission with a goat farm.

School district officials met with parents to keep them informed, but information was scarce.

The families want the students back as soon as safely possible, but with no civilian flights going in or out of the country, there's little chance of an immediate return.

Search and rescue team

Meanwhile, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said Wednesday that the city's urban search and rescue team is ready to go to Haiti if called upon by the federal government.

The 30-member team includes fire, engineering, ambulance and police members with expertise in responding to urban disasters like earthquakes.

The team responded to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and 9/11.

Robertson said the team could be deployed within 24 hours of a call from the federal government.

With reports from CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson, Kent Molgat and files from The Canadian Press