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Haitians Go Back to Work
Story by Pfc. Kissta Feldner

Locals sit by their stands, filled with everything from rice, to cigarettes, to Revlon lipstick. Men carry enormous bags of fruits and vegetables on their heads, zigzagging through the maze that makes up the “orange market.” It was dubbed this by the U.S. soldiers in the area because of the massive amount of oranges that lay in piles by the side of the road, waiting to be peeled by Haitian women, stuffed into plastic bags, and sold to locals as they walk the streets.

The market is a bustling place, as are the areas of Port-au-Prince where vendors fill the streets, selling second-hand clothing, beautiful paintings and hand-carved wooden sculptures. Seven weeks after the earthquake that devastated Haiti’s capital, and life is ever so slowly returning to normal.

Many citizens have spent these few weeks cleaning and restoring their places of business, just wanting to get back to work and restore some normalcy to their daily routine after the traumatic events following the disaster.

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Medics from the Colombian army and air force are working side by side with U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy doctors at an intermediate aftercare facility in Port-au-Prince. They are in here to assist with the ongoing humanitarian aid their country is providing to the people of Haiti Feb. 27. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Richard Andrade)

Wave of Colombian Medics Arrive in Haiti

Medics from the Colombian army and the air force are working side by side with U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy doctors at an intermediate aftercare facility in Port-au-Prince.

The fact that the IAF is so close to the port makes it easy for the medics to transport patients to and from the USNS Comfort.

Columbian army Col. Pedro Segura arrived to assist with the ongoing humanitarian aid their country is providing to the people of Haiti Feb. 27. He is in charge of the Columbian contingency that is in Port-au-Prince working with U.S. forces.

“We will be in Haiti as long as it takes,” said Segura.

“We will do our best to collaborate with the U.S. forces to help the people of Haiti,” he said.

The Colombian Red Cross is also in Haiti, handing out water, first aid kits and hand crank radios at many food distribution points. The newly arrived medics are eager to be part of the Haitian mission.

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Red Cross vaccination program

As the vaccination posts are installed, the Red Cross gently reminds people that by vaccinating themselves and their children, they are fighting back against the extreme vulnerability into which the earthquake threw them.

“We have done everything we can to support our community,” says Noel Ylmond, leader of Villambetta’s displaced.

“Our priority has been to put children first from the very beginning. But it’s difficult for people to accept that when other priorities seem more pressing.

“These children are our hope, our future”.

Five vaccination teams have been operational since 8 February, vaccinating as many as 10,000 in a single day.

The vaccination consists of five different components: measles, diptheria, pertussis and tetanus, as well as albendezol – a deworming agent – and vitamin A.

“We still have 50,000 more people to vaccinate,” says Dr. Guilbert, a former professor at the university medical faculty and the nurses school, both destroyed in the earthquake.

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Floods come to Haiti two months early

Thirteen dead. Submerged houses. Fields and banana plantations waterlogged. Drowned livestock. Impassable roads. Fresh trauma for quake-displaced thousands. This is the plight of Les Cayes, a city on Haiti’s south coast, after an unseasonal deluge. And hurricane season is not far off.

Trucks loaded with 4,030 meals left Port-au-Prince on 2 March for emergency distribution in and around Les Cayes. Food has also been sent to Nippes region, north of Les Cayes, which has experienced bad flooding.

The UN World Food Programme, with local authorities and NGOs, plans to supply 10-day rations to affected populations, including some 3,000 people evacuated from their homes.

“The poor state of the sewers caused flooding in every [district] of the city,” said the regional president of the Haitian National Red Cross Society, Jean-Yves Placide.

“In some places the waters rose to ceiling level in people’s houses,” he said. “The situation will be really worrying if it continues to rain. The sun is out now, but the storm clouds come and go.”

“People are used to dealing with floods, just not this early,” one aid worker in Les Cayes told IRIN.

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Haitian refugee camp moved from swamp

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) yesterday “decongested” an improvised settlement on the outskirts of Leogane where 635 families who lost their homes in the 12 January earthquake had taken refuge.

It’s believed to be the first exercise of its kind in the international humanitarian response to the quake.

The Danish Red Cross relief Emergency Response Unit (ERU) has resettled 126 families in a new tented encampment on privately donated land alongside the old site.

The other 509 families were given a choice of a family-size tent or emergency shelter materials – timber, tarpaulins and toolkits – and are returning to the general areas from which they came.

It was all done on an entirely voluntary basis.

The number of sites identified by the UN as priorities for decongestion in Port-au-Prince has now risen to 21, but an acute shortage of land is making this difficult.

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The Military Sealift Command crane ship SS Cornhusker State docks peirside at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Cornhusker State is providing logistical support for Haiti as part of Operation Unified Response. (Photo by: Petty Officer 2nd Class Marie A. Montez)

More at the links

Port repairs

The main port of Haiti suffered severe damage during the earthquake. The largest North pier was destroyed, and the piles under the South pier crumbled leaving only part of it fit for use. With the assistance of the US Coast Guard, Navy and Army, who took over management of the port in support of the Autorite Portuaire Nationale, two crane ships were deployed which can load and unload cargo without facilities and then transport to shore on smaller landing crafts or lighters. The US Military has now completed the installation of two barges and placed them against the old wharf to serve as floating docks. These will be critical to operations following the redeployment of US assets. Interim repairs to the South pier are ahead of schedule and are expected to be finished as of the second week of April, after which full repairs will begin.

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RAF pilot aids U.S. Air Force Special Ops in Haiti

“I sat at home, on alert, hearing that aircraft one, two, three, then four, departed in front of me.

“By the time aircraft number four had departed, Haitian airspace was becoming dangerously congested with the vast number of aircraft trying to get to Port-au-Prince to provide assistance.

“The team of ten combat control team operators, using a picnic table as their air traffic control desk, were landing and departing aircraft as quickly as they could clear space on the ground; however, with a multitude of aircraft arriving unannounced, this was taking longer and longer.”

Whilst all of this was going on in Haiti the first aircraft returned to base to be swiftly turned around and reloaded so that it could make another return trip. Flt Lt Bailey continued:

“Finally, just prior to 1000 Central Standard Time, I alerted my crew and we headed into work. It took us about an hour from arriving in work to being sat in the aircraft with 18,000lbs [8,000kg] of medical supplies and equipment, the 20 personnel from the 1st Special Operations Wing’s specialist medical teams, and now I was ready to start the engines.

“The airspace was surprisingly quiet, the chaos during the day having abated, but most of the arrivals hadn’t informed the combat control team of their arrival, and in the dark of the night, amongst the mountains, the aircraft jostled and duelled for airspace whilst the controllers tried to ascertain where exactly each asset was, using only their observations and the charts they had with them. We sequenced in easily, allowing the fuel-critical arrivals in front of us.

“As we taxied in, the congestion was hard to believe. Each aircraft was parked with minimal wing-tip clearance, and in front of the parking line there was a throng of journalists, rescue teams and potential evacuees.

“Special Operations aircrew travel light and all the crew get involved in ground operations, assisting the offloading of the passengers and freight, reconfiguring of the airframe and the loading of the outbound freight.

“Typically, what we expected to extract had changed, and the whole crew found themselves assisting the loadmaster to set up the casualty evacuation stanchions at the rear of the aircraft so that we could take some injured people to hospitals back in the USA.

“Missions of this kind can be emotional; whilst my crew worked to adjust the aircraft configuration, I spoke with the surgeons about the passengers they hoped for us to move.

“Whilst there, my attention was drawn to one young boy who was almost inconsolable. The medics briefed me that he had lost one of his parents in the earthquake and asked if we could take him to Fort Lauderdale where arrangements would be made for him to be reunited with his father.

“I tried to console him with small-talk about flying and aircraft. I gave him my union patch and a chocolate bar and he seemed slightly less agitated, but the episode affected me emotionally and I found myself rather teary-eyed.”

It took the team approximately 30 minutes to convert the aircraft from a cargo plane to a medical support platform with stretcher stanchions, and so before they knew it, they were preparing to leave:

“As we took off I looked down into the deep black void where there should have been a well-lit town, and wondered how my seemingly inconsequential effort would actually improve the situation and lives of the people that must have been sheltering in the darkness,” Flt Lt Bailey said.

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Half of Haiti’s GDP wiped out

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St. Damien Hospital in Port-au-Prince receives equiv of 250 bed hospital

Feb. 23, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) donated a Federal Medical Station, valued at approximately $577,000, to St. Damien Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The pediatric hospital survived the 7.0 magnitude January 12 earthquake relatively unscathed, but was quickly overwhelmed by patients of all ages and unprepared for the numbers of adults requiring urgent care.

Father Rick Frechette, who runs St. Damien Hospital, said, “This gift from USAID gives us the chance to take the first few giant strides towards organizing a medical and surgical program for adults, especially those victims of the earthquake.”

The Federal Medical Station includes the components to stand up a 250-bed, acute-care facility, with an extensive medical cache to care for both inpatient and outpatient needs. This includes resuscitation kits for both adults and children and supplies to provide temporary stabilization for patients with respiratory failure. It also contains necessary items to stock a full pharmacy along with nursing, administrative, and housekeeping stations.

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Jamaican Defence Force leads relief mission near Leogane

Residents of an isolated community on the outskirts of the town of Leogane, Haiti, on Thursday were overjoyed at receiving medical attention and supplies of food from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) contingent.

Led by the Jamaican Defence Force (JDF), the contingent carried out a medical outreach exercise in their neighbourhood as part of an on-going daily programme that began forty days ago.

The town of Leogane and its environs were earmarked by Haitian authorities for CARICOM’s health intervention following the 12 January earthquake.

The community which was targeted on Thursday was identified by the Mayor of Leogane and is about five miles from the town. Some 90 percent of Leogane itself has been devastated by the earthquake. Many persons made homeless by the earthquake have sought refuge on the outskirts of the town, fearful of the continuing tremors.

A U.S. Navy poster designed to illustrate the U.S. Navy's support for Operation Unified Response. The U.S. Department of Defense is participating in a national and international relief effort led by the U.S. Agency for International Development. (Photo illustration by: Petty Officer 1st Class Mario Hair) Click for a larger image

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HAITI EARTHQUAKE: CDEMA SIT REP #12

The Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive indicated that there were more than 200,000 people dead, 300,000 injuries treated, 250,000 destroyed houses, and 30,000 disrupted businesses as of February 3. [snip]

According to the government more than 482,000 persons have migrated out of the capital increasing the demands on infrastructure and healthcare facilities outside the city. The provision of shelter also remains a high priority area given the upcoming start of the rainy season.

The Haitian government has also established settlement sites to house the displaced. Reports indicate that these new settlements have increased demands for public environmental healthcare, water supply and sanitation.

There has also been an increase in the price of basic commodities as migration continues to the rural areas. Schools have also reopened in unaffected areas.

More than 1000 persons daily are reportedly crossing the Jimani border into the Dominican Republic and unaccompanied children are prevalent particularly at the border increasing the risk of them being taken out of the country.

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HAITI – Earthquake Fact Sheet #26, USAID

- Since the earthquake, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) and partners have provided emergency food assistance to approximately 1.7 million people in total, including approximately 950,000 people through a 16-site distribution system.

- On February 5, members of the U.S. urban search and rescue (USAR) rapid-response team delivered three large tents, tent lighting systems, more than 1,400 bottles of water, a generator, and 40 air mattresses to two orphanages in the Port-au-Prince area. The USAR team’s structural engineer also conducted building assessments at both sites and provided orphanage management with information concerning the structural integrity of the buildings. In addition, the USAR team rebuilt one orphanage’s perimeter wall, which had collapsed as a result of the earthquake.

- On February 7, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) estimated cost for the Haiti earthquake relief effort increased to $224 million, bringing the total USAID and DoD humanitarian assistance to Haiti for the earthquake to nearly $523 million to date.

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Map of Haiti earthquake damage and population displacement information. USAID. As of 1/28/2010. click for a larger map.

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Canadian helicopters await missions at Toussaint L'Ouverture Airport in Port Au Prince Feb. 6. The aircraft and crews are part of a larger Canadian contingent in Haiti to support the relief effort. Photo by Maj. Paul Hayes

International Merchant Vessel Nicholas is moored at Haiti's main port here. Portions of the port's main pier were destroyed during the recent earthquake but 500 feet remain operational. The port is currently under Haitian control and is building capacity to down load and process cargo daily. Photo by Maj. Paul Hayes

A merchant vessel downloads cargo at Haiti's main port Feb. 6. To date, a partnership between the Navy, Army, and USAID has resulted in the off-loading of 838 containers at the port despite significant damage from a Jan. 12 earthquake. (Photo by: Master Sgt. Adam McKinney)

Haitian trucks loaded with rice from the World Food Program depart Haiti's main port facility en route to Logistics Support Area Sustainer Feb. 4. A partnership effort between the Haitian Government, USAID, and U.S. Military will distribute the food to Haitians in need of relief as a result of the Jan. 12 earthquake. Photo by Maj. Paul Hayes

A Haitian man preaches for hope while U.S. search and rescue teams search for potential victims in the city Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan 17, 2010 following a magnitude 7 earthquake that hit the city on Jan. 12, 2010. Department of Defense assets have been deployed to assist in the Haiti relief effort. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. James L. Harper Jr.)

Here is some of today’s report from the lead United States relief agency, USAID. The entire report is at the link.

SEARCH AND RESCUE

As of 1100 hours local time on January 18, the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team (USAID/DART) reported that U.S. urban search and rescue (USAR) teams had rescued approximately 40 individuals from collapsed buildings, including one girl two years of age this morning. On January 17, USAR teams rescued 12 people, including three children between the ages of three and seven. To date, international USAR teams have rescued more than 70 individuals throughout Port-au-Prince, an unprecedented tally for a five-day USAR operation.

On January 18, U.S. USAR teams continued to deploy to locations throughout Port-au-Prince, including the Caribbean Market, Carrefour, and a local school, to conduct reconnaissance missions where local residents have identified possible signs of life.

At present, 43 international USAR teams, with 1,739 rescue workers, and 161 dogs, are working in Haiti. Of the total, six teams with 506 personnel were deployed by the U.S. Government (USG) from Fairfax County, Los Angeles County, Miami, Miami-Dade, Virginia Beach, and New York fire departments.

ROAD CONDITIONS

Humanitarian organizations in Haiti report that roads remain difficult to transit, particularly as displaced populations are living on the streets, preventing trucks carrying relief and food supplies from reaching distribution sites. However, relief organizations continue to deliver an increased amount of assistance each day, in coordination with the GoH and the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), according to the USAID/DART.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo, the route from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince was reportedly passable, though bottlenecks due to relief traffic were creating delays of up to an hour at the border crossing point, and disorganized relief convoys were creating further delays. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recently reported a transit time of up to 18 hours. The U.N. Logistics Cluster has requested that the Government of the Dominican Republic (GoDR) establish a humanitarian hub in Barahona as an alternate for channeling humanitarian relief cargo from Santo Domingo to Haiti.

Patients are being treated outside in a make shift hospital at St. Michael Hospital on January 17, 2010 in Jacmel, Haiti. Jacmel is located on the other side of Haiti with a city population of 50,000. Their Hospital was destroyed by the earthquake and is treating patients outside the hospital. About 350 people have lost their lives in Jacmel due to the earthquake that hit the region on January 12, 2010 according to Emmet Murphy Chief of Party ACDIL VOCA. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Jeremy Lock)

MEDICAL CARE

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department will have all personnel and equipment on the ground in Haiti by the evening of January 19 for full activation of five Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs). The DMATs will initially provide support to eight severely damaged hospitals and health care centers.

Five U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) medical kits capable of supplying medical supplies for up to 10,000 individuals for a two-month period are scheduled to arrive January 19. The hospital ship USNS COMFORT is scheduled to arrive in Haiti on January 20 with 1,000 hospital beds and medical supplies.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has set up a field hospital at Hospital Universitaire d’Haiti in downtown Port-au-Prince, with the first surgeries scheduled for January 18. As of the evening of January 18, three Red Cross Basic Healthcare Emergency Response Units (ERUs) will be on the ground to provide care and triage in Port-au-Prince and potentially Jacmel. The Dominican Red Cross and the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo are working to set up a field hospital in Jimaní, Dominican Republic, near the Haiti–Dominican Republic border. An additional Red Cross Referral Hospital ERU is preparing for deployment. Combined, the field hospitals and Basic Healthcare ERUs will meet the needs of more than 500,000 people.

Patients are being treated outside in a make shift hospital at St. Michael Hospital on January 17, 2010 in Jacmel, Haiti. Jacmel is located on the other side of Haiti with a city population of 50,000. Their Hospital was destroyed by the earthquake and is treating patients outside the hospital. About 350 people have lost their lives in Jacmel due to the earthquake that hit the region on January 12, 2010 according to Emmet Murphy Chief of Party ACDIL VOCA. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Jeremy Lock)

Signs of development are popping up in southern Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province. The Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan and the U.S. Agency for International Development have been working hand in hand with the local government in the Khas Uruzgan District on a number of developmental projects.

“The [security forces] team has a close relationship with the villagers in Khas Uruzgan and is trying to empower the District administration, improve security by partnering with the Afghan national security forces and reduce support for the insurgents,” a USAID representative said.

The organizations have developed a series of projects that not only improve the workplace, home and spiritual quality of life for the villagers in the District but also give local men an opportunity to earn a living and support their families.

“We’ve been working on several projects in the area, including a cash-for-work bazaar ditch clean-up and road improvement in the main bazaar in Khas Uruzgan. The villagers are also working on a four kilometer irrigation canal that is a food-for-work project,” the USAID representative said.

The two projects have been especially successful because they have brought together the Pashtun and the Hazarra tribes, two tribes that have a history of conflict dating back for centuries.

“Both Pashtun and Hazarra men have joined hands to work together for the benefit of their village, which is quite an accomplishment and an extremely positive step forward for the people of Afghanistan,” the USAID representative said.

The community upgrading doesn’t stop there. Eight office buildings were recently reconstructed in Tarin Kowt, the provincial capital. They will house the provincial counsel, work and social affairs; counter narcotics information and culture and the survey department.

Haji Ghulam Nabbi, director of the information and culture department, said he is grateful for his new office building and the other projects being initiated in his District, including the repairs of Khas Uruzgan’s key mosque.

“The mosque was also in need of glass in the windows and a new loud speaker, as well as the repairs to cracks in the walls and a roof over the ablution point,” said the USAID representative.

The villagers now have a beautiful place to bask in the light of Allah, said Abdul Mohammad, a resident of a small village on the outskirts of Tarin Kowt. Soon they will also be shrouded in another kind of light within the walls of their homes, he said.

“We will soon have replacement parts for the local micro-hydro plant… when repaired, it will provide electricity to 5,000 households in Khas Uruzgan,” the USAID rep explained.

The combined efforts to improve the village have yielded results that have enhanced the lives of hundreds of families in Khas Uruzgan.

“This is a prime example the government of Afghanistan working for their people,” the USAID representative said.

DVIDS
By Spc. Anna K. Perry
Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force