SITUATION REPORT
Haiti Earthquake - 15 January 2010
BACKGROUND
The situation in Haiti is growing more desperate. Food, water, and fuel supplies are almost completely depleted. People are roaming the streets looking for assistance. The security situation is tense as conditions become more chaotic. Thousands of U.S. military personnel have been committed to assist with both security and humanitarian aid. Many roads are impassible. There is a desperate need for medicine and medical personnel.
HOW SAMARITAN'S PURSE IS RESPONDING
Samaritan's Purse immediately mobilized the Incident Management Team (IMT). Our efforts-to-date include:
Nineteen DART members arrived in Port-Au-Prince today. This includes our team leader, two water engineers, and eight medical personnel to join our medical advisor already on the ground.
The three planes that landed today also carried emergency supplies. Some of these are being stored at the airport while we transport items to the local partner's compound. There are no forklifts available at the airport, so our team is unloading supplies by hand.
We have been offered the use of another compound 10 miles outside of Port-Au-Prince. This facility has 200 beds and nine wells producing clean water. Our team leader has visited the compound and confirmed that it is safe and secure. We plan on using it as a logistical hub, office, and long-term staging area. We will still use the Baptist Haiti Mission as our medical compound.
We have purchased three vehicles in Florida. These, as well as a pallet of medical supplies and shelter plastic, are scheduled to be flown into Haiti on a C-130 cargo plane tomorrow.
Two trucks loaded with medical supplies and other emergency items were dispatched from our N. Wilkesboro and arrived in Florida today. This makes a total of three trucks of supplies from N. Wilkesboro.
A DART member will be flying to Florida tonight to establish a logistical hub there. Additional staff will be joining him in the coming days.
We are ramping up our water and medical responses. At this point we are planning to send as many as 20 community water filters and dozens more doctors.
In addition to managing the emergency phase, the IMT is working on plans for the transition-to-recovery phase that may include clean-up and rebuilding.
We are purchasing two emergency health kits with enough medicine and supplies for 60,000 people.
\The emergency supplies that have been committed to the disaster to date are:
868 rolls of plastic for temporary shelter
2,592 hygiene kits
1,152 jerry cans
2,200 flashlights
113,520 water purification sachets
784 water purification kits
9,900 blankets
2 community water filters
These supplies are either on the ground or en route.