Question for the mods

Is "lessons learned from Haiti" an appropriate topic here?

I don't know what lessons can be learned for Haitians. When disaster strikes an area of such abject poverty that even those who would like to be prepared have neither the means or the ability to do anything about it, it is indeed a desperate thing.
I feel sorry for the poor folks who don't and never had, a chance. I won't go into the politics of it...
I guess the one thing we can take away is if this type of disaster were to hit a large population center in the US, similar situations would ensue. It should be a wake up call to all of us that maintaining some level of foodstuffs and water would be adviseable. The whole 72 hours is way too optimistic. I would guess it would take that long to really mount an effective disaster relief effort of any magnitude. I would say 14-30 days preparations are probably more in line with reality. Additionally, I would probably bump that up a bit because I would have pity on friends and neighbors not so far-sighted and make an effort to help them if I could. But that opens up a whole new can of worms and philosophical debate as well.

just a start...

1. Design buildings with more safety features like structural cores and the ability to sway/move without breaking and collapsing during earthquakes especially priority 1 buildings like hospitals and refuge centres.
2. Reinforce the buildings with steel and properly cured concrete.
3. Equip structures with caches of supplies/equipment to assist after a disaster.

Not surprisingly, it was the foreign embassies with their higher construction standards that have stood up the best from the quake.

Hopefully when they rebuild (practically everything!) with the assistance of foreign aid that they will build more intelligently like they are doing in New Orleans.

Yes, I was considering start just such a thread.

To start it off:

Lesson 1. Even when help reaches the outskirts, it may be days before it makes it to you.

Lesson 2. Moving help is easy. Moving it to where it actually needs to be is can be very hard.

Lesson 3. Your neighbors are the most likely people to pull you from the rubble before you die, so be nice to them.

-Blast

Lesson 4. Have a working radio at hands, so you know what's really going on and what's not.

Agreed, be prepared too.

Lee

Lesson 5. Creating order from chaos is hard, even when you are trained and prepared.

- Eric

There was a memorable quote on NPR today from the US general at the airport. He said the logistical problem "was like putting a bowling ball through a soda straw."

Living in earthquake country myself, there are obvious lessons. Appropriate building codes and a reinforced infrastructure are good investments and will pay off, as will development of competent civil authority.

Pay attention to your own dwelling place - water heater strapped down, walls firmly bolted to the foundation, supplies laid by.

By the way, wood frame construction, built to code, is the most resistant earthquake type. The Northridge quake exposed some deficiencies in recent concrete construction. Stay away from unreinforced masonry structures, far,far away!

I keep *two* caches of 30-day lifeboat rations in the house, one at each side of the house. The idea is that if something knocks down the house I might be able to still retrieve one or the other. There's also a week's worth in the car / garage. The car also has a bivvy sack in the winter - emergency shelter.

In earthquake country it might be worth putting a dog house in the back yard away from the house, and putting one set of lifeboat rations in it in a sealed metal box.

(think "small shed" except that I don't think people often break into a dog house to steal things)

IMHO the first lesson is that strong building codes written with a critical eye toward the hazards of an area and firmly enforced saves lives. Immediately after a disaster undamaged buildings that can be trusted are extremely valuable resources. The difference between 10% and 90% of buildings down is tremendous.

Second, weather makes a difference. One saving grace of the Haitian location is that it is not freezing cold or burning hot. Imagine how much worse it would be if it was below freezing at night. Fortunately, so far, storms are not an issue. Imagine if a hurricane came through 24 hours after the earthquake.

Third, sturdy, well built infrastructure like water, sewers, roads, airports make a difference. Haiti doesn't have any of these and is suffering more because of it.

Fourth, extreme poverty makes everything worse. People who are living close to the edge have a short way to fall before they fall off and perish.

Individuals, other than generally lobbying for strong building codes, infrastructure and actions that help take the rough edges off poverty, cannot do much to change any of the above. But one might imagine what this disaster might have looked like if even a third of the people had even a minimal three-day kit with a couple of cans of beans for food, a few liters of water to drink, and a couple of bandannas that might be pressed into service as bandages. They would not be a total solution but they might have served to take the ragged edge off the suffering as more definitive relief was organized. A little available now can mean a lot to those who have nothing.

So take heart and prepare as best you can when and where you can. If all you can manage is a bottle of water and a can of beans then do that. If you can manage more so much the better. Just because you can't afford to spend thousands of dollars laying in huge amounts of equipment and supplies doesn't mean you can't make a real difference if and when disaster visits.

"...if this type of disaster were to hit a large population center in the US, similar situations would ensue."

Look at the section of SoCal from the Los Angeles metro area east to the Riverside/San Bernardino area, as a possible site of a major disaster area. Sixteen million people. Add a major earthquake. This is mostly a desert area. There are a few dams, but most of the water is piped in, and both those sources could be damaged or destroyed in a major quake.

Is there anyone naive enough who thinks even water (never mind medical help or food or toilet paper) could be distributed to all of those people within a week? Yes, many.

Having been born and raised there, I can visualize a disaster of incredible size. And what if it happened in summer?

Sue, shuddering

The New Madrid fault could unleash an unimaginable horror in several states that until recently didn't take earthquakes into account when devising building codes.

One moment life is good and the mighty Mississippi is rolling along.

The next moment portions of the Mississippi could be flowing backward.

How many days should Memphis and St. Louis residents -- and those in proximity -- be prepared to go it alone?

The lovely thing about that part of the country is that the probability of a tornado is quite significant, as well.

At least in southern California, hurricanes and tornadoes are not issues (extremely rare).

There was a thread some time ago discussing if the "three day" rule for supplies that is recommended in various emergency preparedness publications was adequate. IMO, we see in Haiti clear evidence that in a regional disaster, three days is totally inadequate. This is not new information to members of this forum.

Perhaps our emergency preparedness organizations, private and government, need to re-think the "three day" recommendation and replace it with something more realistic. Maybe 30 days????

In any case, we can all re-evaluate our own plans with an eye to increasing the duration of our "go it alone" stocks.

If only we could get a significant fraction of the population to stock up for the admittedly minimal three days, which hasn't happened yet.

A three day supply in a developed area isn't too bad - it can always be stretched a day or two with only moderate discomfort. Once someone has the mindset of emergency preparedness, it is obvious that being prepared for seven, or twenty, or forty days isn't that hard to achieve - it is basically more food, water, and meds.

Although Haiti is surely a peculiar because it's an island. The aid has to be flown in, to a single point, and distributed from there. It's a bottleneck even (especially) when there is plenty of aid on hand. A region of mainland America wouldn't have the same bottleneck, I'd have thought. (Which isn't to say that 3 days is adequate, of course.)

6. The community response in Haiti shows that there is a need for Community Based Emergency Management training. It takes less time to teach someone to respond with what they have, than it does to change the economy/government.

Brangdon is correct. There is currently, epic logistical challenges in getting our people into Haiti and it looks like there is going to be a delay of several days and in fact, it may not happen at all.

For those who have been following the news, the small airport there is completely overwhelmed and is limiting flights in from all countries...both civilian and military. This website shows the air traffic in/out of Port Au Prince.

Contrary to many news reports, there is plenty of aid in country and more in transit both by air and sea but the logistics of getting this aid out where it needs to be is proving to be very difficult now and into the near future.

In the event of a catastrophic earthquake, the region affected would, for all intents and purposes, become an island. If the LA region got hit with the big one, the bridges, both car and railroad, would be damaged or destroyed. That leaves air and sea as the only viable ways of providing resupply in quantities adequate to even begin to approximate that which would be necessary to sustain the huge numbers of folks needing provisioning.
I believe that 30 day supply is probably a minimum number to look at for any area prone to earthquakes. Which pretty much means earth and all the territory encompassed therein.
Even having put the supplies back, we still have to hope, wish, pray and do the best we can that we store them in a location which will not be destroyed when the shaking starts. But it also has to be accessible and not prone to being pillaged by others. In such a situation, as I have said before, it's hard to call someone a bad guy because he is trying to provide for his family.
The Seattle area is another area easily segregated by a good sized earthquake. That's why I am doing my best to get up to that 30 day mark. We don't have a lot of roadways and railways coming in and out of the area. Who knows if the ports would be functioning if such an event occured.

It seems that there are lots of supplies stacking up at the airport. The problem is getting them out of the supply depot to the various parts of the area that need it. So I don't see the problem as being an island, but rather the destruction of the local roads and associated infrastructure. If things were working as they should, the airport should be getting emptied of supplies as fast as the planes arrive.

I just saw films of them dropping supplies from a Blackhawk, with the folks on the ground making a mad dash to grab what they can. This is not going to sustain a large population, even with lots of helicopters.

What is needed is lots of supply trucks to go to lots of different neighborhoods. That is obvious. But it is not happening and that is the bottleneck now. One that could last a while. Until such an effort is up and running, your on your own.

It is this type of destruction of the local transportation infrastructure that I think is the danger/problem even in the USA in the event of a large regional disaster. We depend more than we realize on the daily arrivals of thousands of tractor-trailers of food to our neighborhoods. If all or almost all of the roads are out, your going to be in for a long wait for the network to recover.

I suspect that one of the biggest obstacles to getting supplies out is the typical rich-western demand for near absolute safety against an imagined violent threat that is being overestimated. A vicious cycle of delay that is making the risk higher than it might otherwise be.

Higher security demands mean more trucks are needed, it takes more time to organize, and it delivers less per trip. Pictures of forty armed troops protecting twenty relief workers and three trucks transporting one truckload of supplies was a perfect illustration. Ironically the delays also mean that people are ever more angry and frustrated. Unrealistic estimates of risk are often self-fulfilling prophecies because every delay further jacks up the risk. Which then justifies further delay. I hope they don't get involved in this spiral but it wouldn't surprise me.

IMHO too many American relief specialists, most I have met, are romantic idealists who are too frightened by minor confrontations and loss of control to take the risks necessary to avoid it. Haitians are, on average, much more tolerant and less prone to violence than your average American but there are limits.

Also don't underestimate a three day supply. A normal three day supply can be stretched to six if need be. Most kits figure 1200 calories or more per person per day. Whereas 400 calories a day is closer to actual minimum.

Pronouncements that 30 days is the "minimum" means your lowering the numbers of people who will have anything at all. Except for the very richest Haitians, who are more likely to have other resources, nobody would be able to afford stocking up 30 days supply. While even the poorest Americans typically have more resources than most Haitians a lot of them can't afford to stock up a 30 day supply.

One of the consequences of the Northridge quake was upgrading the standards for bridges and overpasses. For a couple of years following the event, there was substantial retrofitting of these structures. I believe they can now withstand a magnitude 8 event. Larger quakes have been recorded in California, but the probability is quite low. There will certainly be problems, but there should not be massive destruction on the scale we are witnessing in Haiti.

I have sent off a contribution to the ARC. I hope we all do at something nominal to assist.

"...the biggest obstacles to getting supplies out is the ... demand for near absolute safety against an imagined violent threat that is being overestimated."

That's what happened after Katrina, and I would bet money that that is what is happening in Haiti now. Pay attention to the news: all the media is pushing the violence. There may be some, but I'll bet most of the people are just incredibly grateful to get a bottle of water.

Sue

"For a couple of years following the event, there was substantial retrofitting of these structures."

I am not doubting the facts, but I do tend to doubt the conclusions. The original overpasses were made from steel and concrete -- what did they add to improve them? How many of the contractors who did the work would be willing to stand under them in a decent quake? What's the immediate plan if all the overpasses remain standing and the roads under them shift 18" up or down in many places?

In Seattle, they 'retrofitted' the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Everyone (probably including the companies that did the retrofitting) are pretty sure that in a good quake, it's going to be the first thing to fall.

Earthquakes have incredible power. Modern Man has come up with a bunch of ideas that may or may not work. When I point out all the skyscrapers that appear to consist mainly of windows, I am assured that they have all been designed to withstand earthquakes. But please explain to me how a sheet of glass 10'x10', twisted diagonally twelve inches, won't break.

In Japan, I read that steel and concrete buildings broke apart. Do you know what flexed and stayed upright? The bamboo scaffolding they were using to build the buildings.

But I will bet that if/when a major quake hits San Diego, LA, Sacramento, San Jose, Portland or Seattle, most of those buildings will twist, and the death toll may well surpass Haiti's.

"Complacency Kills" - how's that for a bumper sticker?

Sue

ArtInFL, I was referring to what we in the US can learn. In a country like Haiti, they are pretty much screwed. When the average worker earns two bucks a day, it's kind of hard to put back too much in the way of supplies.
But in this country, if each of us on here put in a month or two's worth of food and water, that is that much less the disaster relief people have to cart in to take care of folks.
There are two things going on at once in Haiti, rescue and relief. The rescue workers need to get their job done quickly, it is almost a week now and that is a long time to go without water, trapped under debris, in a tropical heat.
The relief workers have to distribute food, water, shelter, clothing and medicine to where it is needed. A tough order in the current circumstance.

I'm thinking one of the biggest problems will be all the ruptured gas lines and fires. Of course water mains will be broken too so we'd be kinda screwed, doubly so if it happened during peak dry season. Lucky its only 9 months out of the year.

I think superadobe trumps wood esp for Haiti since they have deforestation. It works for emergency shelter, can convert it into permanent housing, and its dirt cheap


http://calearth.org/building-designs/emergency-sandbag-shelter.html
http://earthbagbuilding.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/emergency-earthbag-shelter-proposal/

There are earthquakes and then there are earthquakes. The energy they release varies enormously and, yes, it is possible to experience an earthquake that is going to break just about anything - something on the order of a magnitude 9 + (which occurred in Alaska in 1964). If we get one of those, well, I have lived a long, useful, and productive life - no regrets. Those quakes are beyond the scope of nearly all building codes.

But most quakes are of lesser magnitude and can be resisted relatively effectively. It is no accident that wood frame construction is standard in Southern California. Properly done, it resists shaking very effectively. One of the key items is to insure that the house is properly tied to its foundation, an issue with older dwellings. Of course wood is flammable, and follow on fires resulting from broken gas mains, etc. are a real potential. All I can say is that right now I know where my gas shut off key is located (right next to my fire tools) - I am not as sure about my car keys. There are also automatic gas line shutoffs, but their utility is debatable.

I don't know anything at all about earthquake measures taken for high rise construction, but the ones we have seem to do OK up to about magnitude 6.5 or so. I suspect that the glass in those things have various coatings that might allow them to resist the twisting of a quake.

While southern California is not earthquake proof, it is in better shape that many other susceptible places. Earthquakes of similar energy routinely cause much higher death tolls in other regions. Infrastructure does make a difference, as does a relatively well educated and trained population.

Still, the LA Times had a recent piece pointing out that the region has fallen behind in earthquake preps. I look at Haiti and think "We're next...."

Right now we are bracing for mudflows and landslides from the areas recently burned, as heavy rains visit us. If it ain't one thing, it's another.

First, not everyone, possibly not even a majority of people even in the US, can necessarily afford to set aside the price of a months supplies for the family. Many families are two paychecks away from living in their car. They are entirely too busy keeping a roof over their head and food on the table to spend much time worrying about hypothetical situations. I know and have worked with people whose entire discretionary budget for their family, assuming nothing goes wrong, was ten dollars a week.

That doesn't mean some level of preparedness isn't possible. A few dollars a week can be built into a substantial supply. At least it might if people don't get discouraged and give up before they get a start.

The three-day standard was selected to be a small enough step to be reasonably easy to accomplish with limited means but large enough to make a significant difference in the majority of situations in the US.

In my opinion, based on what I see in various reports, the distribution of supplies is being hampered by a desire to control the situation too much. They are handing out rations very slowly to thin lines of people when they should, IMHO, be taking their clue from feeding chickens instead of running a soup kitchen. We should be shoveling individual foil wrapped water packets and lifeboat biscuits out of the back of helicopters and trucks with feed scoops. The actual form of the relief is not important as long as they come in durable packages and a small number of servings. Single-serving size would be ideal.

Find people and spread supplies while moving. No stopping. No demand for anyone to line up. Wash, rinse, repeat until nearly everyone has received something. If the vast majority of people can get a little to eat and enough moisture in them so they aren't in danger of falling down your going to calm everything down considerably.

Take the edge off and then set up the more organized systems with lines and controls.

Another lesson: toothpaste smeared under the nose helps cover the smell of dead people...a little.

Just a suggestion, TeacherRO, but I think it would be helpful if the subject were changed to something more descriptive, now that people have been responding to the intended topic. Can it still be modified at this time?

Merging the old thread here.

"... the distribution of supplies is being hampered by a desire to control the situation too much. They are handing out rations very slowly to thin lines of people when they should, IMHO, be taking their clue from feeding chickens instead of running a soup kitchen. We should be shoveling individual foil wrapped water packets and lifeboat biscuits out of the back of helicopters and trucks with feed scoops. The actual form of the relief is not important as long as they come in durable packages and a small number of servings. Single-serving size would be ideal... Find people and spread supplies while moving. No stopping. No demand for anyone to line up."

YES! But the powers in charge seem to be overlooking that answer. It takes too much time to hand things out individually, after inspecting each person to determine if they might be a looter or black marketeer. Have a helicopter carry a plastic-wrapped loaded pallet of water and food, set it down and leave to go get another, and position the next one a ways from the first.

But we don't want to interrupt the situation with common sense.

Sue

You kidding? Open that pallet, have the helo fly about 20 feet up, 10 mph, and just shovel rations and water as you canvas a field or somewhat open area near population-dense locations. Instead of people mobbing a landed helo, or attacking a pallet, they can have a line several dozen yards long to try and get at. Kind of like using a trough instead of a watering hole. Probably a LOT safer for the helo too, rather than try to land.

Of course, then the news would cover some poor local that got wacked in the head with a meal packet cuz he was trying to chase the helicopter or something equally asinine.

(you're not the only cynical one)

A majority? Really? Am I the only one who finds this ludicrous?



Easier said than done. Mobilizing huge support takes time, took time after Katrina, taking time now. Only now no one is criticizing the administration like they did back then.

If you want to speed things up, let the military handle it. They can deal with fixing supply lines, airport runways, infrastructure, etc., much quicker than anyone else. That was demonstrated after the Boxing Day tsunami.

"If you want to speed things up, let the military handle it."

Do you mean the sightseeing politicians and news media should stay out of the way and stop taking up valuable space (not to mention air)?

Blasphemy!

Sue

Regarding helicopters:
Last I heard, some three million people were affected. I can't imagine how many helicopters would be required to provide survival rations and water to so many. Seems to me it has to come in by truck, like it or not.

Where are the catapults when you really need them?

Did you ever see El Cid?

Sue

MDinana's comment about the helos is right. That is exactly how our troops were doing it. I saw the videos.

To Sodak about Art's comment on supplies stored.
With about 10% unemployment in USA and another 10% on some form of welfare I consider Art's guess to be a fairly good ballpark estimate. It might be ridiculous but I would think the numbers might be worse in some of Americas poorer cities, especially if you consider fuel and water.
I think even if there were supplies held, in a quake like that a lot of them would have been lost under building collapses anyhow.

It seems to me a major lesson about this incident is about the lack of any govt ready or able to respond in Haiti itself, so while I would love to comment on the effects of having a crappy corrupt government before a disaster like this quake happened, the risk of waxing political is to much for me to make such a comment...

So just assume my comment was something radical and I will refrain from saying it.

Sue ... right on with your thoughts about a major quake in L.A. Even in US authorities have the very best of intentions, a widespread quake (8.0 or better) is likely to cause major devastation. Most citizens would be lucky if they've got 2-3 days food/water. I give it about 72 hours before things start getting pretty ugly. There is NO way that authorities can enforce order with that number of people, or have a ghost of a chance for delivering all the food and water that is needed. It's completely impossible. The number of residents affected could be 20 times the number in Haiti, although I expect the total casualties would be substantially less (unless fires become a major problem).

The prospect is really not pretty.

other Pete

From what I'm seeing is that the military, actually the demand that the military supply what looks like a huge amount of security and no supplies go out without this security organized and in place, is a big problem. The Air Force asked permission to do air drops as they have in other situations, essentially drawing a circle on a map and delivering standard humanitarian rations thousands at a time in small packages so nobody gets hurt, without landing, but the Haitian government said they didn't want that.

This would have been far faster because the flights could be loaded in the US and delivered without having to wait to land, wait to unload, and then wait to take off. All flights are carrying enough fuel for round trips anyway as Haiti doesn't have the fuel or equipment. But the big payoff would be that delivers shotgun fashion supplies are delivered as fast as the flights can be cycled. No need for security, trucks, unloading or worry about the roads being clear.

There are a lot of reports of people who are a few hundred feet away from the supplies they need to save lives. Doctors who can literally see the pallets of supplies but can't get to them and can't have them delivered because the larger organization needs to arrange security for the delivery.

People hungry and thirsty who can see the supplies but who are stopped by a fence, armed guards, and bureaucracy from getting them.

We are better than a week into this disaster and only in the last hours has their been any effort to feed people on a mass scale.

The kicker for me was that ABC had a report where the truck wasn't loaded for several hours, from existing supplies, because there was a slight aftershock and the people wouldn't go into the hangar. And then, decided that they couldn't operate at night. Night is more than half the time available. My impression was that the people loading the truck and organizing this group were not very enthusiastic or energetic in doing the work. There clearly wasn't any sense of urgency.

Driving at night isn't fun but if your determined to do the job you work it out. Worse case you send out scouts to determine open routes and have people walking out front with kerosene lanterns if needed. You might only do two miles an hour but, on the up side, Haiti is a small place and even at two miles an hour you can cover a lot of ground in the 12.5 hours of night.

One of the biggest issues, and sources of confusion and indecision, perhaps best defined as a lack of leadership, has to do with the UN leadership, heads of the major NGOs, key people with the US embassy, and a good part of the Haitian government being killed or incapacitated by the earthquake. Add to that the admirable, but inconvenient, desire of the US military and UN to take their cues from the Haitian government and your looking at amateur night. Many of the professionals, those who were most aware of the situation and who had experience in the area and detailed knowledge of the area were killed or are injured.

All that and the fact that Haiti is a third world country with rampant poverty, poor infrastructure, poor construction standards have conspired to make the situation many time worse. There are plenty of really good reasons why things don't go smoothly.

Part of the lesson is that disaster relief isn't just handing out supplies and patting children on the head. Or even the massive complications of logistical issues.

What gets forgotten are the difficult issues of media relations, politics, international relations, psychology, group dynamics all play a part. Mistakes in any of those areas can cripple a relief effort. Easy as it might be to discount the roll of the press and diplomats the fact is that without the former the word and pictures wouldn't get out (media drives fund raising) and without the later we wouldn't be able to operate in Haiti at all. It is a sovereign nation with every right to say who comes in and what they do.

It has to be assumed that everyone is doing their best to do the right thing. There is little point in assuming otherwise. My critique is centered on what I see as a misapprehension of the situation and disordering of priorities. Not malevolence or stupidity.

Of course nobody comes in without existing biases. The military will always be more concerned with security and having reliable manpower on hand. Diplomats will focus on protocols and keeping the local government comfortable enough to allow relief to continue. Many of the major disaster relief organizations have more of a mid and long term focus and put emphasis on what it will look like in ten days or two weeks and after. Injury, hunger and thirst are the big issues now but if the water supply isn't set up we could see cholera and typhus epidemics that could make the death toll so far pale. Only about half the people in Haiti are vaccinated against tetanus and this may be the next big killer. It is not a pleasant way to go.

I see more than a few mistakes but feel sort of like I'm watching a horror movie. No ... don't separate ... don't go into the darkened room alone. Errors that are obvious from afar aren't always clear on site. And there is every chance that I'm seeing things that aren't there. Or issues that were corrected moments after I read or saw the account.

In the long term I'm pretty sure the relief agencies and military and logistical experts will all come together, study the events, critique their own performance and incorporate what they learn.

More importantly, and more central to this site, discussing the issues of what goes wrong and what can go wrong gives you some insight into how such things go. How seeming insignificant issues like how local jurisdictional boundaries fall can make a big difference. How getting the right type and amounts of media exposure can determine how your area fares in the long term. In the end if your going to survive and do good after a disaster your going to have to deal with people.

There are a lot of people who see survival as a beans and bandages, tactical, issue. Most of the relief experts see survival as a logistical issue. The best of those understand that those issues have to be handled in a larger context.

Art,

Very well said.

-Blast

A calm voice amidst the histrionics and cynicism.

Thanks Art.

Regarding the helicopters.

I'm not exactly sure of the math (its a bit late) but I think you would need over 30,000 helicopter flights (Navy SH60) per day to provide 1 gallon of water to each of the 3 million people. I think that works out to around 3,000 helicopters and crews assuming all maint work is done at night.

Ships, railroads and trucks are how you move large amounts of supplies.

- Eric

An SH-60 can carry 4,000-5,000 LBS of cargo for a short distance.

Many factors determine cargo weights, especially flight time/distances, number of crewmen, minimum altitude allowed for the flight due to natural and manmade obstacles, etc, etc.

Don't forget the "bird factor". Bird populations have a major impact on low level flight ops.

If I recall correctly, an aircrew is good for 8 hours and then they have to rest.

If there's one lesson we can learn from Haiti it's probably this ...

* If you need rescue during a major disaster - it's probably going to come from your neighbors. Staying friendly is a good idea. But do you have tools to dig out your neighbors from a collapsed building, and do they have tools to rescue you? I realized that I don't even have a large-sized crowbar. I think I'm gonna' go pick one up from the hardware store.

** If you need first-aid - it's probably going to come from your neighbors. A lot of people on this forum probably have some kind of first-aid experience. But does your NEIGHBOR have those skills too?? Maybe we really don't want to consider that question too deeply. If I see my neighbor coming over to my place and carrying a bottle of whisky and a hacksaw ... I might just loan him a handgun and be done with it :-)

other Pete

Perhaps another lesson or two:

Decent infrastructure helps, as does relatively competent government agencies.

The Northridge quake was rated as a 6.7, somewhat weaker than the current Haiti event - a 7.0 I believe. But there is a stunning difference in fatalities. 72 fatalities are attributed to the Northridge event, the most spectacular of which was a motorcycle patrolman hurrying along the freeway predawn and finding a collapsed bridge the hard way.

Hospitals were damaged and the systems was stressed, resulting in the passage of remedial legislation, but unrest was minimal.

And yes, I am sure there was a lot of neighborly help. Thank God for that. Nobody is closer at hand than your neighbor.

Pete, while you are at the store, get two wrecking bars and stash them in different places. One good spot is under the bed.

Rescue and first aid from one's neighbors - I don't mean to detract from the heroism of any of the foreign SARs operating in Haiti, but speaking in round terms 99.99% of the rescues and inital aid to EQ victims in this disaster came from Haitians. You can't see that from the media coverage, every person pulled from deep in the rubble is a miracle, worth reporting and praising, I think they number in the hundreds - but tens of thousands were pulled from the rubble in the early hours of this disaster, which seems really amazing to me.

Crow bar, long barrel crow pry bar (forget the technical name for this - 4 ft long crowbar, it costs $28 at Ace Hardware), bolt cutters if you are searching through reinforced masonry, shovels, gloves, masks, some cut up SPF wood for leveraging and cribbing - do the CERT training on light S&R, have these things handy, and you can have a pretty good idea of what you may be doing the first 48-96 hours after an earthquake. Its either that or work the triage area treating crush injuries and fractures with immobilization and motrin...

What utter crap. Give Americans more credit. First of all, we've had massive incidents - flooding in the midwest, fires in the west, yes, even Katrina, and - the smallest event worth mentioning - 9/11. Yes, there were some problems in New Orleans - but you know what? There wasn't as much looting and violence as reported. A lot of it was spooked white guys who never set foot out of their small towns into an urban situation imagining "sniper fire" from afar. Was there violence? Absolutely. Was it widespread and ongoing? Not at all.

In California, in the earthquake that took out the Bay Bridge and devastated so much of the area, was it utter chaos and violence? No.

We are a rich nation. We are a rich people. The poorest of us on this forum are kings compared to most people on this planet. We have water, we have food, we have shelter. We have, however you feel about it, a government that mostly works. We have access to physical and logistical resources that are mostly effective.

I'm sick and tired of people thinking that America is on the brink of chaos all the time. We gripe and moan and whine and wheedle about one political football or another, but you know what? My electric is on, my phones work, my food is fairly safe, I drive on roads that are mostly in good shape, I can call 911 and cops or firefighters or an ambulance will come.

In big emergencies, our wealth is our biggest asset. Not money wealth (but that helps) but the wealth of social networks, the wealth of education, the wealth of material goods we own and can use or share to solve problems.

As a government appointed Emergency Management Coordinator, one of my tasks was to create a directory of key local resources that we might need to use in a major emergency. Stuff like backhoes, portable toilets, fuel supplies, water treatment. My problem isn't finding these resources - it's picking which ones to use. When I put out the word that I needed to make a list of things we might need in an emergency, I was quickly overwhelmed by offers to help, offers of access to stockpiles (the local lumber yard said "Consider our entire inventory as well as our staff and equipment as on your list and available on 15 minutes notice".

We are not Haiti. We are not poor. We are still the strongest nation in the world, and while we may have fallen behind my friends in Europe and Asia in many areas, when it comes to domestic disaster response, we are still a nation that knows what to do in emergencies. We can (and do) mock the folks who go up Mt. Hood in a t-shirt, and we can (and do) ponder why someone would not carry a flashlight at all times, but I don't think we really ponder what it means to only have the money for a little food, and no more. No flashlights. No coats. No tents. They have nothing.

Final pontification and I'll step down.

I know a woman, her kids and mine play together some times. She has, in the past, gone to Haiti to do some work in an orphanage. One of the trips down (she has made several) she brought several large cardboard boxes of clothing. Upon arrival. when she opened the box, fights among the children broke out. Not over the clothing. Over the cardboard from the boxes. Because the cardboard made a better sleeping pad for the kids - who were sleeping on the ground. Imagine - struggling over cardboard so you don't have to sleep on the dirt. It's not like here. It's so unlike here you can't even imagine.

One more thing. If some of us look around and feel that their local situation resembles Haiti to an uncomfortable degree, get to work. If your local leaders aren't up to snuff, work actively to replace them with those who are better. See to it that better standards are instituted, and that public service agencies are improved.

This does happen. When I was in college (ancient history lesson here) three Boy Scouts went missing while attempting a summit climb in a local mountain range. The resulting search was wildly mismanaged. In the next election, the incumbent sheriff was bounced, his successor worked to improve SAR, and things got better - not immediately, but it did improve. A huge factor was the involvement of concerned citizens, who worked in preference to complaining. A lot of good things happened because of their work.

Martin -- Thanks for that, we have had our own large scale disasters and while there will always be finger pointing to some degree, we as a nation do come together. We generally take the lessons learned and apply them; that's one of the reasons we have building codes.

Speaking of building codes, I need a serious pry/wrecking bar too. I have smaller ones designed to assist in construction, but none would be particularly useful in working a collapsed home -- leverage is a good thing.

You can usually find a bar about six feet long, pointed at one end, chisel at the other. They give better leverage than he larger crowbars.

I can vouch for the long pry bars at Ace Hardware - although they seem a smidgen lighter than the ones used by the local FD for CERT training, they worked well in real weight tests during a refresher training session. Someone said something about give me a lever and I'll move the world, that's what you wish for in a S&R lift situation. And they were only $28, I have bought 3, one for my brother who lives a couple blocks away, another for a brother organizing a CERT team 5 miles away. (usual disclaimer, not paid or employed by the long pry bar people or Ace Hardware, just a happy customer / consumer)

I also decided to sacrifice a long-neglected 4x4 and some scrap 2x4s, and chopped them into short lengths, and filled an empty garbage can with them. I'm sure there will be cribbing material after a bad shake, but I figure it isn't so safe to pull cribbing material from fallen structures, and it would be better to have it ready and semi-portable (by 2 rescuers). Two pair of cheap gloves and goggles go on top, I am always redudant with those...

Another lesson: idealistic do-gooders do more bad than good..

-Blast

I heard about those people on the radio last night.

I thought they were keeping non-essential planes out of the area? Has that changed, and they've got so much room and facilities that they're letting everyone and anyone in?

Sue

Interesting article. I wonder how many more organized groups have similar issues on a different scale. I'm pretty sure I recall stories about an airplane being turned away with 12 tons of medical supplies. Sounds like a lot but ya gotta wonder what types of supplies they were and the relative priority of about a 737's payload capacity of medical supplies was compared to what was carried in on the planes that did land.

Everyone wants to help, and everyone is sure their contribution will make a difference. Someone has to manage priorities and and it is guaranteed to be a thankless job.

- Eric

Interesting article, Blast. Thanks.


“If you buy a can of peas and it costs 59 cents, it’ll cost about $80 to get it where it needs to go,” Rothe-Smith said.

Mathematics of donation favor cash

Many agencies try to motivate donors with the mathematics of the situation. Jeff Nene, a spokesman for Convoy of Hope, a Springfield, Mo., agency that feeds 11,000 children a day in Haiti, urges cash donations that allow his group to buy in bulk from large suppliers and retailers.

“When people give $1, it translates into $7 in the field,” he said. “If they spend $5 for bottled water, that’s nice and it makes them feel good, but probably it costs us more than $5 to send it. If they give us $5, we can get $35 worth of water.”

That’s a sentiment echoed by virtually every aid agency.

“I would really say at this point, honestly, right now, money is the best thing to give,” Rothe-Smith said.

Q: How do you fly to Haiti?
A: First, you buy a ticket... then with any luck, your plane won't be diverted back again above the Haitian airport...

My guess is that they bought tickets the ordinary way at a commercial air plane... whose cargo is probably stuffed with emergency supplies...

At the Haitian airport I guess everything is pretty chaotic and that those at the airport have better things to do than screen out potential naive non-professionals that the plane brought in.

It is nothing new that idealistic non-professionals arrive at catastrophe sites, but the situation is accentuated by the absolute screaming lack of food, water and (I'm guessing) bedding. It is true that a pair of willing hands can always be put to some use, but that is only beneficial if the overloaded professional isn't distracted by the need to supervise or babysit the unskilled. I'm also guessing that Haiti has an ample supply of unskilled hands already...


It is hard to criticize efforts of charity given with a pure heart, but sometimes I do wonder about the limits of human stupidity. Of course, stupidity coupled with the option to get rid of surplus stuff is a powerful combination... I've heard plenty of those stories about relief shipment with bowler hats and peculiar ladies underwear before.

Landing priorities are set by the Haitians, the UN, and the US, in that order. If someone convinces the Haitains or UN to approve a landing, they land. Otherwise the US turns away flights who haven't arranged ahead of time. This is what apparently what got the French medical flight in trouble - they didn't give notice ahead of time that they were coming (they probably didn't know who to call and took off anyway).

The "Haitain Government" is a headless corpse right now - I would not be surprised if it amounts to some Joe who worked at the airport previously. That may be the highest-ranking you can find at the moment. UN is not much better in the best of times, and they often have too many people "in charge".

Based on flight rates the runaway & takeoffs/landings don't seem to be the limiting factor right now - parking areas are. Also, no loading / unloading equipment survived. Flights even had to bring their own ladders for passengers to disembark at first! Any flight without ladders for passengers or winches to lower cargo gets turned back. Otherwise they just sit in the parking area taking up space, preventing another flight from coming in. And if there's no one on the ground to receive & move the cargo then whatever the plane lowers to the ground just sits there in the middle of the tarmac, as useful as a dog dropping on a sidewalk.

The final report is probably going to reach the obvious conclusion that absolute #1 priority should go to a Seabee battalion, even ahead of medical flights. A bulldozer may displace a lot of tetanus shots on day 2, but by day 5 or 6 the bulldozer probably pays for itself many times over. One of the harbor piers is apparently partly open now: here's another chance for a Seabee team to be a huge difference-maker.

And as usual I expect that next time the report will be ignored, and priority will go to celebrity sight-seeing and tetanus shots, etc, with infrastructure and construction flights only done at night when nobody is looking.

If you have a local CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams) organization, this is exactly the sort of scenario that they're training for - neighbors rescuing neighbors. If you don't have one nearby, groups like neighborhood watch, churches, and ham radio clubs can help start the ball rolling. http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjpq3UAIPlA

Thanks to the folks here who suggested that I buy a good, solid pry bar from Ace Hardware. I'm going to go and pick one up from Ace Hardware this weekend.

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Here is something to think about ... suppose you had to treat 350 patients in a medical clinic in a slum in Africa. This is a one-day medical clinic, where people are diagnosed and provided with whatever medicines they need. How much do you think that would cost???

Answer: $450.

That's all. That was how exactly much it cost for my relief team to treat 350 patients in an African slum in the middle of 2009 - working in a fairly difficult third world environment. How was this done? By being very resourceful, and utilizing local people/equipment as much as possible. For example, I recruited a group of local African med students to provide some of the doctor/nurse services for free. I also found outlets in the host country where I could buy good-quality pharmaceutical drugs at a fraction of the cost from western countries. All this took a lot of work - but it paid off. Great savings in both $$ and effort are possible if things are planned in a resourceful way.

I'm not saying that the same methods would automatically apply to Haiti. Very likely they would not - especially given the scale of the disaster that has unfolded there. But it is true that vast inefficiencies occur when the relief response becomes uncoordinated. That's why donors wind up paying 89 cents for a can of food, and then people tell you it costs $80 to transport it to Haiti. That kind of statement tells you that people and organizations are not working together effectively.

However ... as Sheriff Blast points out - there's no point being an armchair advisor. In spite of the huge difficulties involved in the Haiti relief effort - a lot of good work will be done. That's what counts!

other Pete