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| January 15, 2010 |
30 countries have responded with the US taking the lead, deploying warships, a fully equipped floating hospital, 5,500 soldiers and marines. But the port is damaged and closed to large ships. The single runway airport is clogged and not nearly big enough. Planes filled with supplies circle for hours but eventually they are able to land. Piles of life-sustaining supplies are accumulating on the tarmac but distribution is another matter. Centers must be set up with guards to protect desperate people from stampeding. The Haitian Government is completely overwhelmed and barely existent. Reporters say Haitian police are not visible in the streets. The UN team was a peace keeping team, now it must regroup with experts in to ensure the aid is distributed in an orderly manner as quickly as possible. Haiti's people have been left to fend on their own, still digging for loved ones with their hands and hammers. Some are using car tires as funeral pyres to burn the bodies of relatives, but countless unclaimed bodies are piled in the streets, outside the morgues and at the graveyerds. Reportedly 8000 bodies have been deposited in a mass grave. There are not nearly enough doctors or nurses, there is little medical care to be found anywhere. The wounded suffer outside the crumpled hospital and flattened medical clinics.
Tomorrow will be day 4. The people watch the helicopters circling and the planes landing, but so far there is little relief for the hungry and thirsty. Too many of Haiti’s children were already malnourished. How long can they survive?