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Haiti Earthquake Relief report # 6
 Haiti Earthquake Relief
Chief Secretary’s Report #6
Lieut-Colonel Lindsay Rowe
February 02, 2010
Nothing could have prepared me for what I would see and experience as I arrived in the crumbled city of Port au Prince. Not even the very graphic images and candid commentary brought into my living room via television and the internet proved to have a desensitizing influence. The sights, sounds, and smells of an on-the-ground experience confronted me with the magnitude of this earthquake like no other medium possibly could. The city of Port au Prince lies in ruin, a mass of rubble and debris. Many of the buildings that appear to have survived the 33 seconds when the earth trembled are in fact structurally compromised and will need to be destroyed.
Driving around the city with the Divisional Commander, Major Lucien Lamartiniere, whose quarters has been totally destroyed, I am shown the 100 year old Anglican Cathedral, the architectural pride of the city, now with only one exterior wall still standing. Here is a primary school where three hundred children participated in an after school program. No one survived and the bodies still lie under the rubble. There is the Presidential Palace, toppled and torn. Over there is the Ministry of Finance building, completely destroyed and to my left, a group of men use a sledgehammer to retrieve rebar to rebuild their shattered home. The destruction is not isolated, it is on every street and everyone is affected.
The Salvation Army compound which in the heart of one of the poorest and most dangerous areas of the city, is made up of a school for 1500 students, a children’s home for 52 orphans, a medical clinic that serves over 200 patients each day, a corps building with a seating capacity of 1000, the Divisional Headquarters for the Haiti Division with several staff apartments and a conference centre, several unattached officers’ quarters and an administration building. We have now been informed by a group of engineers from the Turks and Caicos that all but the school building have been structurally compromised and will need to be destroyed. A very preliminary and perhaps conservative estimate puts reconstruction at five million USD. We have been advised not to use these buildings and to demolish them as soon as possible for fear they may collapse. We have now rented alternate space for DHQ and have relocated to these facilities as of Friday, January 29th. Upon first glance these buildings look fine but closer examination reveals that the foundation and bearing walls have been entirely compromised. It is my proposal that a team of engineers be consulted immediately to destroy these buildings before they cause further damage and loss of life. I would also propose that detailed programme study be conducted and architects employed to facilitate the construction of a purpose built facility that will more adequately support the mission of The Salvation Army in the Port au Prince area.
Distribution Centers
To date the team has been using as their distribution center, The Salvation Army’s facilities in Delmas 2, St. Martin and focusing on the 14,000 people who are making their home in a large soccer field behind the main Salvation Army compound in this area.
But on Thursday, January 28th we began distribution in Petit Goave, 68 kilometers from Port au Prince. To our knowledge this is the first large scale distribution of food in the area since the earthquake. Reaching this area was no small challenge. The roads had been partially cleared by this time but still there were places where the pavement had been heaved by the earthquake and other areas where huge rock falls and debris had slid into the roadway making it almost impassable. When we reached the Corps compound the Corps Officers, Captains Reliere and Lynda Janvier, and twenty of the corps’ boy scouts were awaiting our arrival and a large crowd had gathered on the street with their distribution numbers in hand. The UN soldiers provided excellent security and a very orderly distribution of 500 boxes, each containing enough food for a family for a week, was distributed. The meals distributed are ready to cook fortified rice-soy casseroles. The families merely need to add hot water and the meal is ready to serve.
Assessment visits are being organized to Leogane and Jacmel to investigate the level of need and the logistics of extending relief operations to these communities.
An assessment team visit to the Le Bon Samaritan orphanage in Port-au-Prince resulted in a delivery of twenty tents and seven cases of food. A commitment to continue weekly deliveries of food to the 130 children there was made. Other orphanages in the area are also receiving visits to assess their needs.
In spite of receiving significant damage to the building, the ‘College Verena’ school located in the Salvation Army compound has developed a daily feeding program that serves 600 children per day.
Work continues with partner agencies to provide a package of comprehensive services and resources to the families sheltering in the soccer field and plaza adjacent to The Salvation Army’s PaP compound.
Classes are now held daily for 600 of the preschool and primary students.
Medical treatment continued to be provided to earthquake survivors with an average of well over 200 people being treated each day. The work being done by these dedicated doctors, nurses and support staff is truly amazing. I stood in awe and observed as they engaged in complex medical procedures with very limited medical resources at their disposal.
Fresh fruit and vegetables have now begun to arrive in Port au Prince from the countryside and the marketplace is beginning to draw customers again. This is very encouraging because these items are very difficult to import and distribute but essential to a healthy diet.
Late on Friday evening we received a call from the officer in charge of the US 82nd Airborne Division requesting that the Army conduct a distribution in the most dangerous part of the city of Port au Prince. They agreed to provide security for this event and for the next distribution planned for Delmas 2 on Monday. Both distributions proceeded without incident and we now have a very effective and valued relationship with both the UN and the 82nd Airborne Division. For the people receiving food during these distributions each event is a matter of survival. Most of them live in makeshift tents made of wooden frames and sheets or blankets as they are available. The UN is insisting that these families be moved into UN certified tents before the rainy season, late February/early March. This is a good idea but reality reminds us that there are simply not enough such tents available worldwide to meet the demand.
Port au Prince has become a city of tents. Even those whose homes are structurally sound will not sleep or cook inside choosing rather to pitch a tent and build a fire in the back yard. One dear retired officer, Major Catherine Pacquette 86, a recipient of the Order of the Founder, came to DHQ by taxi to request a tent and a sleeping mat. “My house is fine but there is no sleep inside.”
Children have a way of finding fun in the most difficult of circumstances.
“Richard Deris and Wasnel Samuel Guirand are living temporarily in a tent outside the Salvation Army Haiti Divisional Headquarters in Port-au-Prince.
It’s breezy in Port-au-Prince and it’s boring “living temporarily in a tent”. But for centuries a breeze anywhere in the world has attracted children and their kites. But, Richard and Wasnel had no kite and they have no money with which to buy one. So they made their own. Using a discarded garbage bag, strips of cloth salvaged from the near-by trash canal and striping the middle spine of a coconut palm leaf they fashioned small kites which catch the wind and provide hours of play and relief from the boredom of their present circumstances.
“Go Fly a Kite is no statement of dismissal in Haiti. It’s a call to have fun because the sun is out and the breeze is blowing.” Lieut. Colonel Danny Morrow.
To date The Salvation Army has distributed some 750,000 meals and provided medical attention to over 250 patients a day at its clinic in Delmas 2.
Please pray for our officers. They are in need of pastoral care and support, but their pastors are at best wounded healers with scars of their own that need urgent attention. We have requested assistance in providing pastoral care and counseling where needed.
The Salvation Army continues to forge partnerships with other NGOS and government agencies to more effectively manage what is an ongoing and complex emergency relief operation.
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