Haitian relief effort

[susanne]

Is this driving anyone else crazy?

I realize they've had a monumental log jam with the airport being damaged, but I am SO frustrated hearing that aid is only just beginning to reach those who need it.

Why can't they use helicopters and boats? Range and speed are factors, but when drug runners can get in and out of the thickest jungles, it seems that they at least could have gotten people in sooner to search for survivors. This wouldn't help with buildings that are a danger to those helping, but I have to think that many have died who might have made it.

I don't know if there is an answer...I'm just frustrated beyond words over the situation and saddened beyond words.

 

[Minimor]

I think I read that the docks were badly damaged, so it's impossible for ships to dock & unload cargo. Helicopters--I think fuel might be the issue there but am not sure about them. The news last night did show supplies being dropped from a chopper, but there are just so many people needing those supplies.

Some paratroopers are there, with more coming--perhaps by now they have all arrived there? The destruction is so widespread, and to get to so many people in time they need so many rescuers--more rescuers mean more planes coming in & more fuel required to get those planes back in the air to make room for the next ones--a couple days ago they said there were planes landing one right after another, and there wasn't room to park them all for unloading...fuel supply is limited...I just know that I'm sure glad that I don't have to try and organize the whole operation.

My heart broke for the injured children shown on the news last night--such severe injuries for some, and no medication, not even painkillers, to ease the suffering.

On a happy note, there was a family pulled, alive, from their collapsed home yesterday--their rescue was due to a text message they sent--that message was routed around the world until it got back to a search crew in Haiti, and that crew went and dug them out of the rubble. One woman was rescued just in time to give birth to her baby...every life saved now is a miracle to be thankful for.

One missing Canadian woman was located after her daughter in Canada sent a message to CTV's Tom Clark who is in Haiti. He and his crew went into Port-au-Prince and showed the woman's photo around. People said they had seen her--and took Tom to where she was. When he met her and mentioned Canada she was crying and saying that's where she's from--so now her daughter will know that she is alive and okay, because surely she will have seen this newscast.

How wonderful that modern technology allows for these text messages that have saved a number of lives and helped to locate those that are missing.

 

[Katiean]

They are also saying it took 6 hours to unload 1 plain with supplies because all of the fuel and equipment was being used to help dig people out. I am sure they are doing what they can to save as many people as they can. I felt so bad for one mother that had to hold her son (about 8-10 yrs old) down while they stitched his lower leg up. He was screaming and asking "WHY". After they finished she had tears running down her face as she comforted him. Also, your are asking why it is taking so long to get the help. We do not have plains packed ready to go in a disaster. This does take time. I know time is not what a lot of them have. It is sad and something like that could happen anywhere.

They also have a ship there now that is making fresh water for them out of sea water.

 

[susanne]

I know...thinking rationally, I know that all that can be done is being done...but thinking emotionally, it is just so frustrating.

I don't want to sound critical of anyone's efforts -- I am just so moved by what these people are going through that I want more and I want it now.

 

[Littleum]

There are also security concerns.

The press has been kind of limited in what it covers with this, but if you read between the lines, you've got to wonder just how dangerous the situation on the ground is. There have been a few mentions from the overseas press about gangs/looters/bandits that sort of thing. Also, desperate people in large groups do desperate things without bad intent, they just do desperate things. Two words: mob rule.

A single helicopter landing without the area being secured might result in a swarm of people overwhelming the helicopter in their desperation. I'm sure no one wants to make things worse by having to be in a position where they have to use deadly force.

As for dropping supplies, possibility yes, but again, think swarms of people and the capacity of injury, and the capacity for a frenzy on the ground.

Haiti's infrastructure was bad before this happened. There's only so much heavy equipment, only such much fuel, only so much skilled manpower and only so many roads/ports/landing strips.

 

[muffntuf]

Don't forget Haiti's government is in shambles as well. The president himself is living at the Airport right now. Obama has called Bush and Clinton back to service to help manage the relief efforts, so I think you will start seeing things move faster. One of their first initiatives is to get an air traffic control tower functioning again.

I know I haven't been alive a super long time, just shy of 50 years, but I have never seen a sitting President call back to service previous presidents. I thought this was interesting.

 

[sfmini]

There is a plane load of supplies and a team that has been ready for a while here in Columbus, Ohio, so far they have been told not to come yet.

Don't know why, but sad, you know?

 

[Bassett]

Just saw pallet after pallet of water sitting there undistributed. No organization as of yet, I guess. Same as Fema in Hurricane Katrina. People needing homes and all those Fema homes not being used. Sad. Which by the way muffntuf, President Bush called both Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush back to lead the relief effort after Katrina. So it has been done in severe circumstances. Not the first time it has happened by a sitting President. Bush did it.

 

[luv2ridesaddleseat]

What a mess. And a horrible way to slowly die. I just can't imagine.....

 

[bevann]

From what I saw on Tv part of the problem is that there is no good place to land large planes due to the damage.Helicopters can't land due to mountains in areas not affected by the quake..It is a real problem.

 

[CharlesFamily]

We are receiving a lot of communication from friends and missionaries who are in Haiti. Everything already mentioned are major concerns and roadblocks to the rescue missions.

The roads and infrastructure of Haiti were horrible in the first place. There is no public sewage system. There is no public trash/waste disposal. Most of the roads are unpaved, even just outside of the city. Combine all of that with the major earthquake, and the transportation problems are almost insurmountable.

Security is a HUGE concern. Crime and corruption run rampant and armed escorts are being needed to safely get the supplies distributed. We have been working with OMS, which is our missionary organization and sending money through them mainly because they already have a compound in Port-au-Prince that, thank God, was largely undamaged. They already have distribution plans in place. They were able to quickly and effectively begin to help the Haitian people.

The TV images are just so sad and horrifying. It's unbelievable.

Barbara