On January 12, 2010, at 4:53 PM (EST), a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the nation of Haiti, completely devastating the capital city of Port-au-Prince and leaving an estimated 200,000 people dead, countless injured, and an estimated 1 to 3 million people displaced or homeless. The U.S. State Department indicated that several thousand Americans are still missing, and could be trapped under the rubble. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton encourages those trying to locate missing persons to contact the U.S. State

Department. She also announced a “Person Finder” tool that can be found online at www.state.gov/haitiquake.



The U.S. Geological Survey reports a series of 33 aftershocks and climbing, some reaching magnitudes between 5.0 and 5.9. According to statistics, the 2010 Haiti earthquake will be counted amongst the most

devastating earthquakes in recorded history. Haiti, a Caribbean country that shares an island with the Dominican Republic, is home to a nation of French and Haitian-Creole- speaking people. Haiti is economically one of the poorest countries in the world, and now the most devastated. The infrastructure of the Haitian capital city, Port-au-Prince, is decimated. Many of the governmental buildings are gone; even

the presidential palace is in shambles. The hospital was destroyed. The injured were left to fend for themselves until help arrived. Dr. Nancy Snyderman, a physician on MSNBC, described the crisis as resorting to Civil War-era medicine due to the lack of medical services and supplies including painkilling

narcotics and infection-fighting antibiotics, leaving many injured people suffering from tetanus and gangrene with the grim choice to amputate or die. Even as surgeons were in desperate need, CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported an incident involving an airplane of surgeons being denied access to land,

forcing them to take a separate route through the neighboring country of the Dominican Republic and then drive themselves into the disaster areas, wasting precious time. News reports show that within the first

critical days, relief efforts have been a logistical nightmare, with bottlenecks in distribution resolved by aid workers on the fly. Reports even state that some Haitians were stacking dead bodies as barricades to protest the slow response. Other reports say the stench of death is staggering in some places. Decomposing

bodies left in the tropical heat are being piled into mass graves to fight the threat of disease. The cost of gasoline and water on the island has skyrocketed, due to overwhelming demand. Some vendors have been accused of profiteering, while other shops were subjected to looting. The danger of desperation turning

to violence is evident, demonstrated by well-intentioned helicopter aid drops accidentally instigating melees as desperate people fight amongst themselves for survival supplies. Regardless of these difficult truths, they have not discouraged 37% of American adults already sending contributions to the

effort. Reasonable people respect the enormity of the task at hand, even as the tensions, frustrations, and desperation peak. To ensure security, the United States Military has sent nearly 15,000 troops to Haiti,

originally 3,500 troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, and 2,200 Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Force, including Cpl. Christopher Saldivia, marine and son of local Williamsport business

owner Carlos Saldivia, who is a soldier among many others currently assigned to the Haitian relief mission. Three Navy ships capable of producing drinkable water, the USS Bataan, USS Fort McHenry, and USS

Carter, have been dispatched, as well as the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and the hospital ship USNS Comfort.



Rescue crews work around the clock to save anyone still trapped and alive, despite frustrations rising when the United Nations announced that the Haitian government was calling an end to rescue operations as of Saturday, January 23. International aid teams have saved over 132 people from the rubble, and “countless more have been rescued by Haitians working with no equipment at all,” says Dr. Jon Kim Andrus, deputy director for the Pan American Health Organization. As Haitians mourn their dead, survivors are still being found. An 18-month-old little girl named Winnie was trapped for three days before being saved; a rescuer commented, “She actually reached out to me, she saw the light, and she went out for it.”

French officials rescued a 23-year-old man who was buried for 11 days under a fruit and vegetable shop, and onlookers cheered as rescue crews found 20-year-old Wismond Exantus also buried for 11 days under a collapsed hotel grocery store. Haiti’s Roman Catholic archbishop, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, tragically died in the quake. Ena Zizi, a 69-year-old woman who had been meeting with him at the time, survived for a week under the rubble before being freed by Mexican rescue workers. Pope Benedict XVI issued a call to action, saying, “I appeal to the generosity of everyone, so that our brothers and sisters receive our concrete solidarity and the effective support of the international community in this moment of need and suffering.”



The United Nations reinforced MINUSTAH, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, to help respond to the crisis. The Associated Press reports that nations around the world have pledged nearly $1

billion in international aid to Haiti. For exact figures, search “A look at foreign quake aid for Haiti” online.

U.S. Presidents Obama, Clinton, and Bush announced their cooperative dedication by establishing the Clinton Bush Haiti Relief fund. PA Governor Ed Rendell, responding to online pleas from Pittsburgh sisters and BRESMA workers Jamie and Ali McMurtrie in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh

Medical Center, made a 22-hour round trip to Haiti to help bring 53 Haitian orphans back to Pennsylvania; the count rose to 54 after one little girl was left on a bus, and orphanage directors stayed behind to find her.

Actor George Clooney and fellow celebrities organized the “Hope For Haiti Now” telethon, which aired on Jan. 22 on ABC, NBC, HBO, and CNN. They raised $150 million for the relief efforts. Wyclef Jean, a

well known Haitian-American musician, is also raising money through his non-government organization, Yele Haiti. Locally, Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg and the Penn State Hershey Medical

Center have sent registered nurses, physicians, and surgeons to Haiti, while the Susquehanna Health System has offered to send medicine and Geisinger Medical Center has donated $30,000 to the American Red Cross.



President Obama reinforced the U.S. commitment to Haiti, stating, “America stands with you. The world stands with you. Help is arriving. Much, much more help is on the way.”



Now it’s up to all of us to keep this promise true.





DONATIONS



The Red Cross

Donate $10 by texting HAITI to 90999

www.redcross.org



Partners In Health

MSF Medecins Sans Frontieres, Doctors

Without Borders, www.msf.org



United Nations Central Emergency

Response Fund, www.un.org



Pan American Health Organization

www.paho.org



Americare, www.americare.org



UNICEF, www.unicef.org



Oxfam International, www.oxfam.org



The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund

www.clintonbushhaitifund.org



Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Earthquake

Relief fund

Donate $5 by texting Yele to 501501, or

www.yele.org



ADOPTIONS



U.S. State Department Office of Children’s

Issues: www.adoptions.state.gov/

country/haiti.html.



BRESMA www.answeredprayers2.org/

adoptions.html



“God’s Littlest Angels”

www.glahaiti.org