The Highway to Haiti

Voila resumed cellular service this morning. I just made an international call. Haitel and Teleco have also been working. Digicel is still down. I imagine the system could easily become overwhelmed.

France is struggling to get cargo planes on the ground with relief supplies.

Price gouging has begun and gasoline has surged to over $12/gallon.

Banks are closed/damaged making it difficult to get money.

Besides Port-au-Prince; Petionville, Delmas, Carrefour, and Jacmel were devastated.

Radio Metropole Haiti Photo Gallery

The rain has finally stopped and I’m sitting in a satellite internet cafe that has had a hit-and-miss wireless signal all day.  A radio is blaring in my ear and a bunch of guys are huddled around a couple computers. Almost 200 e-mails have come in in the last 24 hours—including a couple requests from people I’ve never met to help locate missing family members, or at least pass along news.

We are working on realistic ways to help out—and so many of you have asked. The Haitian federal government and UN are, from all accounts, on life-support. Since we live so close to the Dominican Republic, we are looking into some supply chain ideas—ways to get the right supplies to Port-au-Prince fast, when they’re needed. We’ll let you know where this goes.

I have learned that a close friend of ours, Jeff Fogle, has been deployed with the US Army, and is expected to arrive in Haiti tonight. Pray for him, wife Aubrey, and daughter Aletheia, while he is here.

Most of what we know we’ve simply picked up from talking with neighbors and listening to the radio. It’s difficult to explain the eerie mood outside Port-au-Prince. Our neighbor’s teenage son is OK, but the house where he was staying collapsed on Delmas 24—no further contact. If you’re interested in the news on the ground, everyone here in the internet cafe is following Radio Tele Ginen. Warning, photos are horrific.

The news today sounds much worse than what we heard last night. On the radio they read lists of buildings that have collapsed and they don’t even comment on the loss of life. You’ve read what I’ve read. It’s bad.

We live next door to the UN’s regional administrative offices and military base. This morning I went to look for some friends that work for MINUSTAH and find out what they’re hearing. I ran into a UN official who took a few minutes to debrief me. First, they were evacuating their administrative building due to structural damage. She walked me around and showed me cracks on interior columns caused by the earthquake. After we talked, I rechecked our house for damage—we only live three houses down. As the crow flies, we’re 85 miles from Port-au-Prince.

The UN official told me that their central command in Port-au-Prince collapsed. It might be worse than the media is reporting, and their communications is wiped out. While we were talking, her administrative assistant pleaded with her to discharge him so he could go look for his family. She said UN troops were assessing the roads before anyone starts to move, and apart from that there was little that could be done—at least from 85 miles away. In Haiti, everyone usually waits for orders from Port-au-Prince; it’s very centralized. Though today isn’t much different than yesterday in the Nord’Est, we will most likely become affected in a few days once supply lines start to run dry. From an international aid standpoint, the UN as a whole in Haiti, is probably the best situated, outfitted, and connected to provide emergency assistance. I’ve asked about helping, and hope to find out more later on. I’ll pass along what I learn. In the meantime we’re all just sitting here in the rain, wondering, waiting, praying. Communication has been a nightmare.

A few minutes before 5:00 PM (EST) a 7.0 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti. We live on the north coast, quite far from the epicenter. I (Matt) was outside in the street when the tremor hit. Pam and the boys were in the house and stood in a doorway as the house wobbled around for about a minute. It felt “small” where we live, but it definitely got everyone’s attention. When we attempted to call some friends our cell phone service was down, and subsequently our mobile internet was down as well. As night set in, neighbors huddled around radios and frantically called family and friends (on the other mobile service provider—Voila works right now, Digicel does not) in the capital to find out what happened. From what I heard on the radio “a lot” of houses fell down in the super-crowded suburb of Delmas as well as Petionville. Also, according to the reports, the Caribbean Supermarket, a DGI office, Digicel central office, a hospital, the cathedral and the palace(?) were significantly damaged. I’m in a satellite internet cafe right now and the radio is saying it also knocked out the power and the city is covered in dust. This report is unconfirmed at best. We have a number of friends who are pilots with MAF and live in that immediate area (Broyles, White, and Carwell families—through a friend of a friend I just received confirmation all MAF staff and families are ok). Stand by

AP Report