Ahira's Hangar

I only eyed this story briefly last night before going to bed, so I didn't realize the magnitude of the quake.
Reading it more today...holy crap...
UN headquarters destroyed, 100 UN workers missing, maybe 3 million people affected in one way or another...
Apparently the biggest quake to hit that area in 200 years.

Once again, Haitians get kicked when they're already down.
To be already so impoverished, and then have something like this hit them.
What a rough start to the year.

Canada has strong ties to Haiti, as that country is the largest recipient of Canadian long-term development assistance in the Americas.
Also, our current Governor General, Michaelle Jean, was born in Haiti.

This calamity makes me wonder again when it will be our turn (in North America) to be hit by the Big One.

I had briefly heard about this before I went to bed last night, and did not realize the scope of this terrible tragedy until turning on CNN today. The lowest estimate I have heard for deaths is in the 30-50,000 range - with most estimates coming in at least 100,000+. No power, no water, no food, no communication in a country that did not even have fire departments or first responders. Millions of people living in the roads and streets and parks because the few buildings left standing are unsafe. Hospitals ruined, no medicine, no medical supplies. Little to no help for the tens of thousands of wounded. All this in the poorest country in the hemisphere, grossly overcrowded, with severe environmental degradation. Dead bodies piling up on sidewalks and on the sides of streets.

I believe this came from the same faultline that destroyed Kingston Jamaica back in colonial days when it was pirate central. Old Kingston is underwater, with the current day Kingston built on dry land nearby the underwater ruins of the old city. So tensions on that fault (if it is the same one) have been building up for centuries since that former huge quake.

Another very sad thing is that scientists have been issuing warnings that a huge quake was due at any time - but Haiti is so enmeshed in poverty and government corruption they could do nothing about it to make the housing or structures or infrastructure any safer. How many lives could have been saved with a strict building code and the addition of rebar to concrete buildings?

Hell, people do not listen to such warnings anyway. Look at how many people live in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay areas, when it is a sure thing that they will be destroyed sooner or later - and look at how the government and private citizens work towards rebuilding New Orleans when it is obvious that that city is doomed to periodic destruction.

Terrible event. More people are dying because of lack of care/medical supplies etc than were probably killed outright.

Hopefully, as (Lorin?) suggested on the Watch, the aid they get will help them improve things in the country. but for now, the devastation is horrific.

--A

Given that millions of people are homeless and that they weaken by the hour due to not having food and water, and that the sewers are down along with everything else, I fear that the suffering has only begun. These people have nowhere to relieve themselves but the ground - in subtropical heat the human waste and dead bodies piling up everywhere might well start epidemics, which will spread like wildfire among the weak, injured, and traumatized.

Hopefully the shipments of aid and emergency personnel will include public health experts and civil engineers who can try to get sewer/water/sanitation back as a top priority.

But it's all the Haitians fault for consorting with the devil:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 0011304487

Pat Robertson, eh? That's all I need to know. Although, in fairness, his "Operation Blessing" group is apparently involved in the massive relief effort.

I have nothing but praise for the American response to the disaster. These are the times when the resources of the US forces shine brightest. Canada, England, France, Spain and other countries are sending help, too, of course, but the sheer hardware and manpower the US possesses is greatly valued. For instance, I heard that the USNS Comfort, which is basically a floating hospital, is on its way to Haiti. That will be a much-needed aid, since many hospitals in the country were destroyed in the quake. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is also on its way, as well as half a dozen ships - I heard they will be there to keep the waters off Port-au-Prince safe and navigable. And I read that the US military has secured the damaged airport in Port-au-Prince so that it can receive round-the-clock heavy equipment and emergency supplies.

Like the 2004 tsunami, though, the potential death toll is so great that it just numbs the mind. I heard that the first 72 hours after a disaster are the most critical for finding and treating the injured. After that, dehydration and infection overwhelm the human body. But with so much wreckage lying around and blocking roads, the search-and-rescue efforts there must be painfully slow and difficult.

The Vinson has actually been there for about a day now - it was immediately sent from Virginia after the quake, and got there the next day. A coast guard ship is actually handling all the air traffic control duties for the airport, as the tower was too damaged to be used. They are rushing in some US Marine engineering and road building units to try to get some of the roads clear. There is a huge problem that the harbor is too messed up to use (wharfs are underwater, cranes and other equipment to offload ships have been destroyed, and the roads leading from the harbor to the city are too messed up to use). They have actually had to turn away cargo ships which have arrived carrying food and emergency medical supplies because there is no place for the ships to tie up and no way to unload them.

The airport is another huge issue. It is a small airport, and simply cannot handle the current load of cargo jets carrying in equipment and personnel - and again, not enough equipment or space to offload and store the desperately needed goods - and the roads are too messed up going from the airport to the city for large truck convoys. So all of these charity groups have jetloads of goods and people ready to go - and they are grounded here in the US because the airport in Haiti is overwhelmed.

So frustrating - how many people are going to die because those ships cannot offload their food and water and because the jets carrying medical supplies are sitting on the tarmac in the US?

The last I heard they were thinking about sending in US Army Paratroopers! That is how bad things are down there. Paratroopers are true badasses who are extensively trained to operate on their own fairly independently behind enemy lines. This, of course, would include living off the land in really bad conditions and performing basic first aid. So they are not there to fight in any way - they would be there because they are tough as titanium nails and might be able to help people under impossible conditions in very difficult to reach areas of the country. A lot more than just the capital city got wiped out, and it is nearly impossible to get to some of the other areas, and the people there also need help.

It sounds like they might be sending down everyone they can. The government has put tens of thousands of reservists on notice that they could be called up at any moment. A friend at work was telling me that a friend's son just got through army basic training as a medic a couple of weeks ago - he was expecting to be sent with his unit to one of the war zones. They are being sent to Haiti instead.

I think I'd rather go to Haiti than to a war zone. Less chance of being shot. Altho the devastation would be *very* hard to take, don't get me wrong.

I wonder whether the paratroopers could be used to airdrop supplies -- or rather, whether they could drop in first, and then be on site to coordinate distribution of airdropped supplies. That would be an elegant solution to the infrastructure problem.

Always does me good to see global co-operation on this level.

--A

The earlier reports of the Vinson getting there a day or so ago were proven false (imagine - Canadian news getting it right and American news getting it wrong ) when that ship arrived today. The Airborne has also arrived - apparently the paratroopers will probably be used to escort the food/water shipments from the Vinson etc. to prevent riots amongst the desperate.

American medical teams from Florida are on the ground to help. They are finding the sort of primitive conditions probably not seen by American doctors and nurses since the American Civil War. They are having to amputate limbs and do other surgery without the benefit of a sterile OR or general anesthesia - and are frightened that their patients will go on to develop sepsis and other life threatening infections from lack of antibiotics.

I am hoping that the Vincent - with its fully equipped hospital and team of surgeons and surgical nurses - can perhaps start evacuating some patients soon via helicopter. Take the supplies in, bring patients out.

In addition, they have brought along water purification systems.

Last thing I heard about the Navy's hospital ship Comfort is that they are still loading up tons of supplies in Virginia. They have to take plenty of food and water for their own personnel and for hundreds/thousands of patients along with tons of medical/surgical supplies. That ship is a wonder - think of a major trauma one level teaching hospital associated with a university with all state of the art equipment and personnel. They can do cutting edge neurosurgery and cardiac surgery on that thing. But it won't do anyone any good until it bloody gets there, and I hope they get underway very soon.

The Comfort is, in fact, a cool ship. It used to be homeported in Portsmouth, VA, right across the Elizabeth River from the downtown Norfolk waterfront. I used to see it on my way to work when I lived in Norfolk.

Remembering to the history of Haiti, as a sovereign nation. The nation is part of the island called Hispaniola, the first landfall of Christopher Columbus, some time in the 1690s the island became a French colony. From the time of its independence in 1790s under the leader L'Overtoure around the time of the time of French monarchy's downfall, the island had one centralized government. In the 1860s or so, after some decades of insurrection against the centralized government, including some time being considered an overseas province of the Spanish realm, the Spanish speaking criollos, the dominant group in that area, the eastern part of the island gained independence of their own and is now known as Dominican REpublic. Ironically the eastern part of the island is the most potentially agriculturally productive, and today that part of the island is home to huge sugar plantations. The western part of the island is very mountainous and lacks arable land of much consequence. The political machinations described have suffered from much meddling by the United States, around 1870 one the Dominican leaders petitioned the U.S. for annexation. More recently in the 1910s the U.S. Marines occupied Haiti, the reasons given at the time were to ensure the correct collection of tariffs on imports which were pledged to pay off Haitian debt to the U.S. These Marines were occupiers until the early 1930s. Additionally, the late 1960s U.S. Marines were sent to the Dominican Republic as the result of a contested Domincan election, one of their first election after the political assassination of the Dictator Trujillo.

Thanks, taras. Guess I shouldn't be surprised that such a troubled history should result in a fractured nation like Haiti.

I find the scenes and stories coming out of this Haitian disaster to be even more heartbreaking than those from the 2004 tsunami that hit Indonesia. The destruction wrought by that tsunami was so complete that there were few survivors left to tell stories. Eerily few people left for aid workers to treat. That's what I remembered of it.

But in Haiti, the evidence wasn't swept away by nature. It's all there: the dead lying in the streets, wandering looters, people digging through rubble for loved ones who may or may not be alive, etc.

CBC News told the story of a Haitian man who lives alone in Calgary. He fled Haiti after witnessing the murder of relatives and friends, and became a refugee in Canada, leaving behind his wife and two children. When the quake hit on Tuesday, the news didn't reach him until Friday that his wife had been killed when the church she and others had been in collapsed. All he has left are his two children who are somewhere in Port-Au-Prince. He's hoping the government can somehow bring them to Canada. While this is only one story among many, it is hearing the particulars of one person's story that makes it more moving, more real. I hope Calgarians will see the story of this man and help him.