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Earthquake hits Haiti

The Drain said:
The figure is higher than that.

In the area of Port-au-Prince where our office building was flattened, I'm told that 97% of housing stock was destroyed. Our country manager (who was trapped in the building for a while) adds that in the area where he lives, further out of town, the destruction rate was about 45%.

Clearly there're differences between geographical areas - which is to be expected. But it's also worth saying that the two areas he's talking about are made up of well-built concrete buildings.

The majority of people live in badly built houses on steep hillsides... This is the third night for survivors since the disaster. A BBC reporter said this evening that while aid was piling up at the airport, he personally hadn't seen signs of it getting through to the people who needed it yet. It's a difficult job, I know, but I do hope the help gets through to where it's needed soon.
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The streets are blocked by rubble, and until the heavy machinery for street clearing gets there, getting supplies from the airport to the people who need is going to be the biggest problem they have. And hand removing the rubble is not only ineffective, but dangerous.
 
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i have already donated $20 to the Red Cross by texting "Haiti" to 90999.
 
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Post's Content:
I have moved several posts and infracted several people for not staying on topic after a mod box was posted. Please stay on topic. And by the way, see my signature.
Posted By: LibraryLady
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I've donated $200 to the RedCross (my financial situation really makes it difficult to do much more but I will reevaluate it in the coming weeks to see if more can be spared).

This is such a mess. The main seaport is simply unusable. The airport is completely insufficient (a check on Google maps only shows two airports in Haiti and not sure of the capacity of the second further away one - Cap Haitien Airport). Is the Dominican Republic allowing use of its airports for landing/offloading supplies (Aeropuerto Internacional del Cibao)? And time is very quickly running out for trapped survivors - without food, water, or heavy equipment to move large, heavy rubble available.

Think about the logistics of supplying water and food for a couple million people for weeks or months. This catastrophe will take many years for recovery of any degree.
 
THe Second Airport is not going to help much...it is not made for handling much above small airliners..the "Puddle Jumpers".
I am betting an US Air Force Red Horse Unit..who specialize in building emergency runways...have gotten their deployment orders.
 
dudalb said:
THe Second Airport is not going to help much...it is not made for handling much above small airliners..the "Puddle Jumpers".
I am betting an US Air Force Red Horse Unit..who specialize in building emergency runways...have gotten their deployment orders.
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Ah! That was the unit I was trying to remember earlier.
 
I was watching BBC news yesterday and they said 7000 bodies were all put into one mass grave, OMG R.I.P so sad.
 
I just saw a report that the date that the MREs were packaged is being confused for the expiration date so people are refusing the food.
 
Redtail said:
I just saw a report that the date that the MREs were packaged is being confused for the expiration date so people are refusing the food.
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Just wait. I don't think that's going to be a problem for long.
 
kuroyume0161 said:
I've donated $200 to the RedCross (my financial situation really makes it difficult to do much more but I will reevaluate it in the coming weeks to see if more can be spared).

This is such a mess. The main seaport is simply unusable. The airport is completely insufficient (a check on Google maps only shows two airports in Haiti and not sure of the capacity of the second further away one - Cap Haitien Airport). Is the Dominican Republic allowing use of its airports for landing/offloading supplies (Aeropuerto Internacional del Cibao)? And time is very quickly running out for trapped survivors - without food, water, or heavy equipment to move large, heavy rubble available.
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The UK flew rescue workers into that airport but then discovered they had no way into Haiti itself from there.
 
kuroyume0161 said:
I've donated $200 to the RedCross (my financial situation really makes it difficult to do much more but I will reevaluate it in the coming weeks to see if more can be spared).

This is such a mess. The main seaport is simply unusable. The airport is completely insufficient (a check on Google maps only shows two airports in Haiti and not sure of the capacity of the second further away one - Cap Haitien Airport). Is the Dominican Republic allowing use of its airports for landing/offloading supplies (Aeropuerto Internacional del Cibao)? And time is very quickly running out for trapped survivors - without food, water, or heavy equipment to move large, heavy rubble available.

Think about the logistics of supplying water and food for a couple million people for weeks or months. This catastrophe will take many years for recovery of any degree.
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And, unfortunately, all there will be lucky if they have a remotely useable distribution system up within a week or two. I also suspect the people trapped will be dead well before the heavy equiptment can get to them.:(:( And, if the stories today (flashback to the N. O. stadium in Katrina)of groups of young, machete wielding guys wandering the streets "surviving" turn out true I hope they will be used for target practice.:mad:
 
Pardalis said:
This is a good exercise in empathy, BTW. Since tuesday, I keep trying to imagine Ottawa's parliament destroyed, hospitals running out of supplies, no more water, and bodies piling up the streets around where I live.

Truly unimaginable. :(
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But, Canada has decent roads and potential staging support areas - a real infrastructure. If exactly the same event happened in Canada over the same amount of territory the conditions would allow for much swifter response in pretty much every way - unless a very big blizzard was involved simultaneously. Same for most of the US and most of Europe. Outside, less so.
 
fuelair said:
But, Canada has decent roads and potential staging support areas - a real infrastructure. If exactly the same event happened in Canada over the same amount of territory the conditions would allow for much swifter response in pretty much every way - unless a very big blizzard was involved simultaneously. Same for most of the US and most of Europe. Outside, less so.
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Maybe most of the US, but that obviously did not happen after hurricane Katrina.
 
fuelair said:
And, unfortunately, all there will be lucky if they have a remotely useable distribution system up within a week or two. I also suspect the people trapped will be dead well before the heavy equiptment can get to them.:(:( And, if the stories today (flashback to the N. O. stadium in Katrina)of groups of young, machete wielding guys wandering the streets "surviving" turn out true I hope they will be used for target practice.:mad:
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The 82 Airborne will oblige.

Seriosly, I think one of the major security concerns is that some of the Haitian Gang Leaders have the idea of playing "Somali WarLord" and try to seize or shake down the charity groups.
 
Pardalis said:
This is about Haïti, maybe you should leave this thread?
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And? Do you have a problem with someone disagreeing with you? Can you give me a reason why the Swedish government should send aid to Haiti when that money could go to Swedes?
 
Arcade22 said:
And? Do you have a problem with someone disagreeing with you? Can you give me a reason why the Swedish government should send aid to Haiti when that money could go to Swedes?
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Because people help each other when disaster strikes.
 
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