Poor Haiti

[Momo]

I am bracing for big #s of fatalities. They said PORT-AU-PRINCE is the most densely populated area in the western hemisphere. On Larry King last night they said it is common for there to be up to 5 persons living in 1 room. My mom's church has a regular humanitarian/medical delegation that travels to an area away from the capital on a frequent basis. CNN said to possibly expect well over 100,000 victims. It's just heartbreaking what that country and it's citizens are enduring.

[scrub-jay]

I was just thinking about this this morning. I feel for all of the Haitian people right now - without the infrastructure, we'll see many more deaths from lack of clean water, housing, etc. This is a terrible event and I am also bracing myself for the death toll.

[migirl]

The devastation is just unimaginable.

Several members of our church were scheduled to go there next month for a mission, I was wondering how this will affect their travel plans.

[Meenah]

It is awful. DH and I went there on a medical mission right before we got married. One of the docs at our hospital went with a group on Monday, we are still waiting to hear something.

[Phoebe]

It is very sad! A friend of mine has family who runs an orphanage there as missionaries. It is devastating.

[DCJenn]

I was watching it on TV at the gym during my lunch hour today. They interviewed a doc from Doctors withour Borders who stated that their 3 hospitals are destroyed and they do not have the equipment or the clinics to treat most of the injuries they're seeing.

I read that the Navy has recalled the USS Comfort personnel and is gearing up to ship out as soon as possible.

Jenn

To aid Red Cross efforts text Haiti to 90999. $10 donation to be billed to your cell phone. I know its not much but very easy to do. It will text back and ask you to confirm.

[Chrisada]

As tears fell down my face when I heard at least 50,000 are dead I had to listen to my three idiot BIL's say that we should not send aid or money to Haiti because we have to much to fix here first. I cannot fathom what is happening there right now.

[houseelf]

Trisha,

Thanks for the texting info. This is awful. My prayers are with the people of Haiti.


Kelly

[poky]

DH just called and told me two NDMS teams have been activated to go, and an international medical surgical response team as well. NDMS teams only go for two weeks; it's entirely possible more will be deployed. This is unusual; NDMS usually only gets called to domestic disasters.

It's bad when MSF is out for the count; I hope they can get back up and running quickly, too!

[scrub-jay]

As tears fell down my face when I heard 500,000 are dead I had to listen to my three idiot BIL's say that we should not send aid or money to Haiti because we have to much to fix here first. I cannot fathom what is happening there right now.

I hadn't heard the latest number (the last was 100,000...) omg, this is so awful. I'm sorry you had to listen to your BILs - I agree we have much to fix, but we also have more resources to help and I feel we should. I think Haiti is one of the worst countries for poverty in the Western hemisphere (if not the worst). My heart goes out to all of the families who have lost loved ones in this catastrophe.

[Chrisada]

The news broadcast I was watching has it wrong. I think they meant 50,000.

[DCJenn]

They have no way to tell right now- and now that there are 8 million reporters there, not helping the situation, the reports are going to vary widely.

Since the UN can't find 100 of their people and all of the other organizations are reporting dead or missing staff, we will likely never know.

Those poor people- they were in a horrible situation already.

and i'm sorry, unless Anderson Cooper and Al Roker are there digging people out and handing out water, they have no business being there. (Al Roker??? Why was that a good idea)

jenn

[poky]

MSF just tweeted that Brangelina gave them $1 million to support their relief efforts in Haiti. They've had a presence in Haiti since 1991, so when it happened they had 800 staff there already (their staff is typically mostly locals), and are sending another 70 or so in the next days. All their international staff are safe, they're worried about some of the local staff. They've set up tent hospitals and have an inflatable surgical suite or two as well. DH seems reasonably sure more NDMS teams will be sent as well.

I also read that as of a few hours ago, ARC had raised over $800K via the texting campaign.

[DCJenn]

Wilford Hall (the Air Force hospital)is mobilizing. My husband's colleague in Child Neurology will be going along with several general pediatricians and other specialists.

They're saying that they'll be gone for a month or so.

Jenn