Haiti Blog
Peter Ivermee is a volunteer for Samaritan's Purse UK. Below he shares some of his thoughts and experiences as part of the team on the ground in Haiti ...
WEDNESDAY MARCH 3rd
Just some random thoughts as I come to a close...
One of the best things about this job is the camaraderie amongst the volunteers, they really are a great bunch of guys. In the 3½ weeks I've been here, I haven't heard anybody say a negative thing about anybody else. We're all in this together and all pulling towards the goal of helping the people. I guess it's the only time I'll part from friends and say "It'll be a disaster when I see you again".
So, what do you get if you have the resources of Samaritan's Purse and its supporters and a team of 80 people who will do whatever it takes to help hurting people in Jesus name? You get local churches strengthened and encouraged, souls won for the Lord and 340,000 people fed and watered and given good temporary shelters. Those people now know that someone cares for them and that Jesus loves them. You get the Samaritan's Purse DART to Haiti.
The work will carry on here for two more years, so please pray for the people of Haiti and our staff here. But, for now, this is Peter Ivermee - out.
MONDAY MARCH 1st
We're staying at a compound owned by Global Outreach. Asked the site manager what they do; apparently they drill wells for water, help repair local homes, run a burns clinic and feed 60 elderly people in the next village. He says that the burns clinic is busy as some voodoo practices include holding a child's hand in the fire. They also have situations where a husband is displeased with his wife, often suspecting adultery; he pours petrol over her and sets her on fire. The husband is never prosecuted. Women have a bit of a rough time here.
FRIDAY FEB 26th
One guy who came in to the clinic today was close to death. They saved him and he then said “Jesus saved me”. He then asked if he could pray for the medics. He prayed a beautiful prayer asking for wisdom and strength and protection for them as they served the people of Haiti. They were very moved.
THURS FEB 25th - Making friends and influencing people...
We’ve distributed over 6,000 tarpaulins, hygiene kits etc over the last 2 days. Spent the morning organising cutting of tarpaulins and then stacking them on lorries together with buckets, hygiene kits, blankets and cooking oil. One lorry load went to the police; their houses have been destroyed as well. They have police chaplains here but they have had no training. Our pastors had a meeting with them today and are going to give them pastoral training. We had heard reports of charity vehicles being stopped by police and, if they haven’t got Haiti plates, the driver being threatened with prison. I was stopped twice today by police and when they saw the sign on the side of the van they said “Oh, Samaritan”. Imagine it in a French accent with a very broad smile. They then shook my hand and let me go.
TUES FEB 23rd - Prayer works...
First, something I’ve just heard from the medics. They have a very professional system of triage as patients arrive; their nurses speak French and have experience in developing countries. They asses the patients and those who are critically ill, severely dehydrated or frail through age get seen first. The patients didn’t understand this and started complaining that those who arrived after them were being seen first. Now in England there might be a few ill advised comments under ones breath. In Haiti, they riot. Just as things were looking very nasty, in came Belshazzar - a 6’4” local Christian. He raised his hands to God (thus nearly touching the rafters) and prayed in a soft gentle voice – everything became calm again.
The clinic has been run by the church in Cite Soleil in their compound for many years and their doctor is still operating from one end of the clinic. Our World Medical Mission doctors and nurses work from the other end of the building. There was a severe aftershock this afternoon and cracks opened up in the clinic, plaster falling from the walls. The patients panicked – no, really panicked – hysterics, screaming, falling on the floor in terror panic. Again, Belshazzar prayed and the peace of God swiftly descended – on our end. At the other clinic the screaming continued for some time. Prayer makes a difference.
WEDNESDAY FEB 16th
Up early to help with a food distribution. Off at 5.30 to a squatters site at the edge of Cite Soleil just as the sun was rising. The trucks were already there waiting, filled with sacks of rice guarded by the US Marines and a force of UN soldiers from the Middle East. The women all have tokens which have been given to them the previous day, the sacks are 50kg so they have one between two. This is a complication but that’s the size the sacks are and it does mean that the sacks, being open and half full, are not so easy to sell. It’s always a risk that their husbands will make them sell the rice to buy drink.
It helps to have a strong military presence but the distribution was very orderly; they know they can only get rice with tokens and only enough tokens are distributed to match the stock in the trucks. The ladies are welcomed in, their tokens checked, then they are funnelled down aisles formed with razor wire, which helped produce order but was a nuisance to a few who caught their skirts on it. It felt really worthwhile to supply the immediate food needs of 3,112 mothers, probably 18,000 people.
I think what stays with me isn’t the big numbers of thousands fed but little human touches. Yesterday after church we were talking to the pastor’s wife about booming Sunday school numbers and some kids gathered round. One tiny little thing reached up and held my hand giving me a lovely smile, she then pointed to my almost empty water bottle. I went and got a full one for from the car. Again today I was just checking on the division of bags and a young lad asked for water, again a bottle produced a lovely smile. In the afternoon to the airport to drop off one group of volunteers on the way home and collect some more joining us. One of the young men going home had only been married 5 months and he’s been here the last 3 weeks; quite a sacrifice but he’s been the one organising food distributions and, whilst he’s been here, he’s fed 240,000 people. He said that it had been a hard decision as to whether to come but that, if anything, his wife had been for it before he was. Another guy who departed a few days ago was due to arrive home on valentine’s day when he planned to ask his girlfriend to marry him. We’ve now heard that she accepted. I’m not surprised, absence certainly does make the heart grow fonder.
THURSDAY FEB 17th
Went with a lorry load of timber, and a forklift to the sub base. It’s 50 miles but, through Port Au Prince it takes 3 hours each way. I’ve been to the back streets of Cairo and Nairobi and seen the slums of Bombay but nothing as bad as Port au Prince. The earthquake made things worse but it must have been terrible before. The deprivation and poverty are absolute, it must be so tough trying to raise a family on what is really a rubbish dump with no clean water or food and very few jobs. Crime so bad that 10 people are murdered every single night. Life must be a struggle just to exist every day and without hope.
Drove past the clinic where SP have a doctor and nurses. They saw 120 people today and also gave 93 immunisations. One lady was at our food distribution and fainted, her family took her home but then took her to the clinic; she was dead on arrival, and she’s the aunt of one of our local workers. They had a hard day today. Please pray for them.
SUNDAY FEB 14th
Base camp is on the side of a hill covered in dry scrub. Driving back to camp I’d noticed a brush fire a couple of miles away advancing on a half mile front. As I was preparing for bed I noticed that it had got an awful lot closer with quite high flames. The wind was blowing it our way. I was a bit concerned as if it reached our lumber store, which is in a lower field on that side of the camp, thousands of pounds worth of timber would go up in smoke and the people would have to wait even longer than they are for shelter. It also wouldn’t be much fun if it reached the bunk houses. Wasn’t sure whether to organise anything.
As I was pondering this, Dave rushed in and said: “Does anybody want to fight a fire?”. The guy in charge of the site needed 5 men, shovels and buckets. I dashed out and, because I’d been counting them that morning I knew where to get shovels (long handled – 156) and buckets (plastic – 500) even in the dark. I grabbed an armful of each and threw them in the back of the pick-up truck. As we drove back down past the bunkhouse a guy came out and I asked him if he wanted to help fight a fire, he said “I might as well, I did it for a job for 30 years”. He had been a fireman all his working life. When you have a job to do the Lord provides.
We drove down the track next to the camp and walked in towards the fire, it looked too big to tackle but, when it reaches short grass you can beat it. When it’s in long grass it beats you. Heard a donkey braying in terror, someone said they’d seen one tied to a tree. We worked along extinguishing sections at a time, then having to dash over to other pockets that had lit up. After an hour we seemed to have got it all out and walked back through the brush to the track. We met the site manager who had a water filled bowser hooked up to his tractor. We spotted another outbreak so filled up 5gal buckets and walked in again to extinguish it. At last, all done, except that we weren’t - another patch broke out. Once we had that out we were finished, in more ways than one. And so to bed.
SATURDAY FEB 13th
Rubbish and rubble are everywhere in Haiti, and it’s not just a hygiene problem, it stops the aid getting through. Samaritan’s Purse brought in heavy equipment on our first barge and we are the only organisation clearing rubble. No one else can manage it. Without the rubble being cleared you can’t access many communities and you can’t make a fresh start so it’s really vital work.
One of our team today met a lady whose church now meets under Samaritan’s Purse blue tarpaulin – 1,000 people under our blue plastic - it must be some sort of record. We have 7,000 more rolls coming in when the customs open. The production line today cut enough rolls to fill a lorry. We’re planning to set up production lines in parallel so we can send out 3 lorries a day. 7,000 rolls equals 35,000 shelters, and we can distribute it as fast as we can cut it.
It’s not long until the heavy rains come, so the tarpaulins will be more than welcome.
FRIDAY FEB 12th
The earthquke took place a month ago today so it's a day of mourning and no business could be done. Unfortunately, it also means that all the goods unloaded from the barge the other day can't be brought out through customs. We needed to take timber from the main base up to the sub base; the lorry's were loaded with timber at the dockside but couldn't be brought out loaded. We went down there and unloaded the timber, drove the empty lorries back to base and loaded them with timber here. Stacks of 6' X 2' two and three metres long in bundles of 64 at a time - good job we had a forklift. Then the truck could take the lumber up to the other base where they are making bases for tents (much better then mud when it rains).
Having all those tons of good wood was such a contrast to a scene I saw driving back from town. People are scared to live inside and so they are making temporary shelters with what they can lay their hands on. I saw a man with a few sticks, still bearing greenery, which he had just picked. He was cycling home with his wife walking by his side. I dread to think what sort of shelter they could make with such flimsy twigs. To see all our lumber a few minutes later was such a contrast. So some people will get great tents with a strong wooden base, and others will shelter under sheets supported by twigs.
FRIDAY FEB 12th
There’s still no aviation fuel available in Haiti so flights call at the Turks & Caicos islands to fill up in case they have to circle waiting to land. One of the guys on board our flight had called in there years before and said that, as everything has to be shipped in, and as they cater to wealthy tourists, prices are exorbitant – a hamburger costs $20.
We were all really touched to see a sign in the little terminal building on a table loaded with sandwiches, crisps, drinks and fruit to say that “All refreshments are free to aid workers and their pilots, with the compliments of the people and businesses of the Turks & Caicos” They told us that they couldn’t go, we were, they wanted to do what they could to help. It is so heart warming the way that, in a disaster, fellow human feeling is so strong. As we were leaving they pressed us to take more food with us, and some sacks of rice, for the people of Haiti. We’re all human, it takes something like this to make everyone just want to show they care so much.
And now we’re in Haiti and the phones still work. That’s about all that does. Everywhere people are living in makeshift tents amidst piles of rubble.
The SP staff here are obviously giving 110% they worked through the night last night unloading the barge, Alan will be happy, but much more to come off. Tomorrow is one month ince the quake and so customs are shut until Monday. It may be that the stock will have to wait at the dock – we’re all desperate to get it to where it’s needed.
SP have two bases here and I’ll be moving to Grand Goave tomorrow. In addition there’s the Baptist Haiti Mission hospital and Ralph is transferrint there tomorrow as their cook. The doctors are desperate for someone to cook for them as their cook has gone home and the repalcement been delayed by 10 days. Must keep them happy and working, they need all the care they can get.
Don Norrington, the leader here, was delighted to brief us, it meant he could sit down for the first time today. He said that he had worked in many disater zones but this was by far the worst. It’s clear that physical exhaustion isn’t the only risk here, the emotional trauma of what the staff are seeing must take a toll on them.
Well I’ll finish now, which is as shame as I’m sat next to a really powerful fan in the computer room – what luxury.
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Alan Wood, Regional Manager for Wales, is part of the global Samaritan's Purse team on the ground in Haiti. Below he shares some of his thoughts and experiences...
TUESDAY FEB 9
I do not exist – it is official. My final day with the logistics team here in Haiti has come. I have briefed my successors (a task made a little more complicated by one of them going down with suspected malaria but he is doing fine now). I have handed over my local cellphone and my compound radio. But it all becomes so much more brutally definite as I hand over my UN network radio (used by non-governmental organisations like Samaritan’s Purse). My name label is peeled off its side and I watch over the shoulder of our administrator as she hits the delete button on her computer and my name is expunged form the spreadsheet list. I am no longer Papa X-ray 94. It is a strange sensation, having worked full tilt for three weeks not to be responsible for anything all of a sudden. And when it wasn’t needed I used to hang my SP baseball cap on the antenna of my compound radio. Where can I put my cap now? Oh, of course, I don’t need to wear that cap on duty anymore…..
I was a member of a team – we were asked at debriefing this morning before we fly out of Haiti to Florida about achievements. It is difficult to talk about anything individual when I have been part of a chain, or rather part of a group at a particular point within that chain. But I know from all the reports coming back that those on the sharp end of distribution and assistance work have been able to do what they need to do. That is, in part, the achievement so far of us all at the SP-base compound and I hope, a cause for thanksgiving prayers by all who are supporting SP at this time of dire need. Even if my own name no longer comes up on the computer there are others to replace me as Haiti’s continuing pain needs to be eased. Signing off is not the same as walking away and forgetting…….
FRIDAY FEB 5th
What do you do when your boat doesn’t come in? I’ve been working on getting a second supply vessel to Haiti with around 900 tonnes of vehicles and essentials such as lumber and plastic sheeting for strong shelters. But the pressure of demand on the limited wharf facilities here in Haiti means that the ship will not be able to dock for a couple of days.
Well, it is not exactly a question of filling in free time – there is still planning to do for when the ship can be unloaded: organise fork lifts for the lumber pallets both at the dock and at the storage compound with operators and labourers to assist; bring in flatbed trucks and lowloaders; liaise with the 82nd Airborne for a security detail to watch over everything; brief the stockpile manager and prepare all the sets of papers required.
Then there are new areas of work to support: Samaritan’s Purse is starting up a clinic in Cite Soleil to complement its food distribution work with World Food Programme and development opportunities with local churches. Some of the new medical staff called in to our logistics office to collect medical supplies and basic office equipment. We have to issue and list so that supplies can be replaced. And this is in addition to support for Baptist Haiti Mission medical partners, and forwarding supplies of all kinds to a base we have established to serve the towns west of Port-au-Prince. The head sometimes spins with all the tasks required, even with the assistance of computers and inventories. But it is great to see the figures as distributions and other forms of help reflect the assistance reaching into hard-pressed communities.
So what do I do when my boat doesn’t come in – lots of other things instead!
WEDNESDAY FEB 3rd - Of kits and rolls and so many other things….
We have been despatching distribution stocks of all kinds at a tremendous pace. I’m seeing grass again – or at least a local dust bowl - where pallet loads once stood tall, silently challenging us to get their stock into the hands of people who really needed help right now.
The giant burrito is no more, already consumed in large bites by many demands. So many plastic rolls have left the base compound – one of our team is convinced that Haiti can be seen from space as just one big blue patch. Hygiene kits are depleted because they are out there being shared among people who are struggling to maintain both health and dignity.
Blanket bale mountain has disappeared off the face of Haiti – the early morning can be relatively cold even on the coast and worse up in the hills of the Massif de la Selle behind Port-au-Prince. But supplies keep rolling in, hopefully reflecting a little progress – more buckets and water containers as drinking water becomes more available and needs to be stored; timber and zinc sheeting for latrines and rebuilding; more spares for vehicles and machinery as they are used all day long in rubble clearance and transport.
It is the logistician’s version of the changing of the seasons, I guess. And there is a quiet satisfaction which makes up for all the dust and the wind and the heat and the tiredness. This is ministry.
TUESDAY FEB 2nd - A giant burrito
It was the end of another busy, dust-caked day when the radio call came for everyone to head down to the stockpile. A major food purchase had just arrived. We had already had one false alert earlier in the day but the huge lumbering truck with a dust plume only slightly smaller than Haiti itself told us that this time it was for real.
We had already prepared the storage area earlier in the day – laying down plastic sheeting in a long strip and repairing our precious few pallets ready for food sacks. The truck turned into the unloading 
area and we all went to work. A team of four inside the truck lifted the bags of black beans and rice to the rear edge where we lifted them one by one down onto the pallets. Some bags inevitably had holes or small tears and we deployed our resident 82nd Airborne liaison officer as ‘medic’ to tape, patch and fasten sacks so that no food would be spilt and lost. The rest of her squad added impressive muscle power to our own team’s valiant efforts.
We used our recently acquired Bobcat forklift to move the pallets of food sacks on to the sheeting, positioning them in a long, precise line down the middle of the plastic. Then followed the clever bit – pulling up first one side of the sheeting over the food sacks and then the other side so there was an overlap. Duct tape and planks held the whole thing in place. As we surveyed the final result of our labours in the reddening light of dusk it occurred to me that we probably had the biggest food wraparound in the western hemisphere – a 20 metric tonne burrito, in fact. But it still won’t last long in the present catastrophe with thousands of people to feed……
MONDAY FEB 1st - A field worker’s reflection...
2 Corinthians 1:10-11 really means something to me at the moment. The apostle Paul wrote these words while he was in what is now Turkey, with the whole Aegean Sea between him and his readers. Yet he expected their prayers to influence his safety and ministry – and that those praying would rejoice when they heard what had happened and been achieved. The pattern – the absolute need – of prayer for mission is laid out in black and white on the pages of Scripture. I’m aware that many people are praying for us here in Haiti. The Bible promises that we here in this devastated land will have the huge privilege of seeing and living through the results of those prayers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SUNDAY FEB 1st - Signs
There are some signs that Haiti – or at least the portion that I can see – is moving on a little. There are more people out using bicycle transport today than I have seen before – were they taken out from collapsed or damaged properties or brought over the border from Dominican Republic? No idea but there they are. The gaudily painted taxis are on the move in increasing numbers – perhaps there is more fuel around than before?
Commercially some banks have re-opened and there are long queues outside, mainly for cash withdrawals as funds are wired or brought in from abroad and also perhaps because prices have risen. Some shops have reopened and an amazing number of wayside stalls have sprung up, splashes of colour alternately lining the route alongside the grey-white rubble heaps. More is coming into Haiti across the land border as the less affected roads in the east have been more easily cleared. And for the last couple of days going from the SP base compound to the airport for logistics runs I have seen people moving rubble to retrieve usable bricks or blocks of concrete. Limited scheduled flights have recommenced at Port-au-Prince although the passengers are people flying out of Haiti to stay elsewhere with families or relief teams and military personnel from what I have seen.
Although any progress is welcome signs can also be misleading. Many in the towns are still living in compounds next to their damaged homes; we receive daily both requests and news of so many communities that seek basic support because so much was lost during those fateful 45 seconds a fortnight ago. We are really starting from as close to zero as you can get. But I did see one final, important sign – the aforementioned taxis often have religious slogans painted on them; one of them read, “God is here”.
FRIDAY JAN 29th - When your boat comes in…
My boat came in yesterday. It was five hours late but it still counts. SP had loaded a barge with 450 tons of heavy duty equipment, trucks and supplies of all kinds ready for major expansion of relief work. It set off from Fort Pierce (Florida) on Monday and turned up off the coast yesterday morning despite encountering bad weather. We had arranged with a local cement works to use their company wharf for docking and unloading.
It was quite a surprise to be suddenly tasked with the job of seeing everything offloaded but I leapt into a 4 x 4 with a colleague and headed the four miles up the road to the port. Our machinery operators had already flown in to Haiti a couple of days ago and inspected the docks and route back to the SP base compound but this was new to me.
I found the local customs officers – like everyone else they were standing on the quay staring at this rare and impressive sight. I had a friendly chat before seeking out the captain to obtain the import documents and US clearance papers for them. This was where my administrative French paid off in a big way. The 82nd Airborne turned up with their Humvees to make sure everything was safe and so did the US coastguard; their senior officer explained that they are working with the Port-au-Prince port authority to re-establish service and they were particularly interested to see how a private wharf near the city could be used. SP thus keeps up its reputation for innovation!
The bow opened like two massive jaws and out came the ramp. Our operators scrambled up into the various trucks and bulldozers and slowly off came the vehicles, loads, trailers and generators. I checked them against my list as they trundled off the ramp and directed them to park up in a holding area under the steady gaze of the US troops. It was hot work and the local customs officer and I shared numerous bottles of water as we worked around the machines to confirm their identity numbers. At one point I stuck my head in one of the Humvees to take advantage of the air conditioning to cool down. I got blisters from going backwards and forwards between holding area and barge continuously for two and a half hours. We had a final delay as the last trailer had a stuck brake but again our operators fixed the problem and triumphantly pulled it onto the quay. All ashore and in good order except for one broken window on a van where the corner of a trailer had hit it as the ship rode the stormy, rolling seas.
Customs cleared the ship to sail and SP to take away the vehicles with a couple of telephone calls and lots of signatures on papers – the captain, customs official and I celebrated with three cans of Coke. SP DART Haiti were now officially the proud possessors of a huge vehicle and equipment fleet. The evening was spent taking convoys of trucks and loaders the few miles back to the SP base but all was safely secured in the end. This equipment is going to do so much real and lasting good for thousands of people and it was great to play a part in getting it all into place despite the heat and the tiredness. Never did bed feel so good and I was asleep in seconds despite the heat and the ever-present mosquitoes.
TUESDAY JAN 26th - The power of prayer
Three of us were in a pick-up truck on the road back towards Port-auPrince from Leogane. Outside the towns there are small settlements at regular intervals along the edge of the road or in the fields next to it – extended family groups or larger clusters up to village size. Sometimes these dispersed groups can miss out on the help more readily available to obvious large settlements in and around the major towns.
A senior SP worker had visited one such group and left plastic sheeting for shelter a day or so previously, promising to return with more help as soon as he could. This time we pulled up, got out the pick-up and scrabbled up the low, dusty embankment. The half a dozen women and children in view suddenly became a small and friendly crowd. One of the men stepped forward. “I thought we wouldn’t see you again,” he said, putting words to the quiet fear of abandonment which is commonly felt by those who have been left with so little. We shook hands, chatted a little and then brought back two bales of Samaritan’s Purse blankets from the pick-up.
As we were getting ready to say goodbye, my colleague asked if they would like him to pray for them. I will never see a more eloquent answer as everyone – men, women and children – dropped to their knees as one and bowed their heads in a dignified silence. And in that late afternoon amber sun, under a dust-coated tree by the road, God brought His soothing peace to aching hearts and anxious minds.
MONDAY JAN 25th
We have set up bigger offices at the logistics compound as operations scale up even further – we are even thinking about a helipad here. We have now gone two days without any noticeable aftershocks. I spent yesterday on truck despatch and inventory work with a colleague, Cal. We have received four 4 x 4 Nissan Navaras and two 13 ton trucks to improve logistics from an advance team of SP logistics people in Dominican Republic. Tomorrow I start on airport receiving/despatch at Port-au-Prince at the heavily guarded airport – we have cargo planes coming in with more essentials each week from Florida. Please pray – this is a major challenge with a steep learning curve; the most experienced logistician at airport admin goes home tomorrow as well.
There are 150k confirmed dead by actual body count according to the Haitian government today and team members are still seeing occasionally partially-trapped bodies under rubble. The estimate of displaced has been raised to 1.5 million in latest news reports.
Tired and hot but hopefully being of use. Mike is working really hard up at the Baptist Mission both in logistics and supporting the team leader – pray for Mike as he really is carrying a lot to make the hospital work so well. We are in occasional e-mail contact to keep encouraging each other and his wonderful sense of humour is helping to keep them going up there.
SUNDAY JAN 24th - Ups and Downs
Apparently I slept through a big aftershock last night – about 1am in the morning, so I’m told by my colleagues. I missed another one when I was travelling yesterday – perhaps the movement was absorbed by the tyres and suspension of the pick-up truck. But I definitely felt the one this morning when the floor of the office shimmied sideways twice and then bounced up once. It jarred my heels but was over before I even realised that it had happened, let alone understood what it was. And life returned to normal, at least until the next judder.
We are getting several aftershocks each day at the moment, all within the 5 to 6 point range on the Richter scale so pretty consistently strong. We do have an evacuation policy for getting out of our office building fast and meeting up on the football field for roll call. The building withstood the original earthquake with only a single small crack and has since been checked for structural safety before we moved in but it certainly seems wise to be ready anyway. We have to keep our stock out on pallets on an open field so that it won’t risk getting crushed in any further ‘tremblements de terre’ as they say locally. But our concerns are far less than those who have already suffered agonising loss of family members or everything they own; each shudder ratchets up a reluctance to return to any homes still standing. This insecurity is so understandable – as a colleague said to me, “You can land after flying and feel safe but if the ground moves where can you go?”
FRIDAY JAN 21st
Driving away from Port au Prince airport, life and traffic congestion seem strangely normal – a familiar routine undisturbed by great and terrible events. However, once beyond the airport’s immediate surroundings, the picture changes. You start noticing abnormal quantities of rubble pushed into odd corners or lining the route. Then an increasing number of damaged homes becomes apparent. House walls have fallen outwards into the street, leaving rooms open to the sun and passers-by. Other houses have flattened directly downwards or sideways; cars are buried in rubble or bent into V-shapes under the weight of fallen concrete beams.
Then there are the areas of major damage and corresponding tragedy – a police station was once located where there now is found only levelled rubble; over 30 officers were based there. Or a large Baptist church with a fallen frontage. Or a large market - a complete block now pointing only occasional crumbled pillars skywards. Our driver tells us over three thousand victims were there.
And above all there is the continuing human story. All the opens paces are filled with families camped under sheeting and any other materials they can use. No-one is returning home even if the building is intact. They don’t trust the stability of the remaining buildings and only totally rebuilding homes will restore confidence. Space can be in short supply – I saw family groups clustered almost impossibly tightly together on a main road roundabout. And every so often there is hung a handwritten banner with lists of needs and a plea for help for that sidestreet’s residents. Such caution is justified since a 6.1 aftershock occurred just before we travelled today and brought down a further small number of buildings.
At the airport we witnessed two of the search and rescue teams from abroad loading their equipment and climbing up the airplane steps. It was symbolic of the new phase we are moving into – continuing medical needs and assisting the displaced and fearful. But there small signs of resilience and hope if you look carefully enough – on one road I travelled this afternoon there was the unexpected sight of a flowerseller and her colourful stock livening up the grey, powder-coated street.
People are trying to pick up their lives despite deep grief and loss of livelihoods but the new plastic-covered towns within towns testify to how much is needed. We are still only at the beginning of things…
WEDNESDAY JAN 20th
“One of the worst ever natural disasters in the western hemisphere” (Time magazine 25 Jan 2010).
That really brings home what is happening and why so much needs to be committed to this emergency. On arrival at West Palm Beach to meet up with other Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) members, Mike and I are updated: 70,000 burials and estimates of 200,000 deaths with 3 million left homeless and in need of life’s basics.
3 million. Imagine back in the UK if in one instant the whole of Wales was devastated; that the city of Swansea pancaked into rubble with very few survivors. Imagine that all water and electricity systems were lost, that there was very little fuel and shelter immediately to hand. Imagine all the ports were shut and the equipment was broken, and that for the whole country only Cardiff airport had limited capacity to handle landings.
Then think of the immense individual suffering and the practical need to provide for everyone left in Wales. Because that is the real scale of Haiti’s situation, and why an experienced relief organisation like Samaritan’s Purse is already at work there to support its longstanding local partners.
OK, Mike and I have a flight to catch….
