US Rushes Haiti Aid as Quake Toll Rises
FrontLines - February 2010
By Ben Barber
A major earthquake struck the
densely populated Haitian capital
of Port-au-Prince just before 5
p.m., Jan 12. As of Feb. 6, Haiti’s
government estimated 212,000
were killed, hundreds of thousands
badly injured, and up to 3
million people in need of food,
water, medical care, and shelter.
The disaster set off one of the
world’s largest emergency relief
operations in recent memory.
Within one hour of the magnitude
7 earthquake, USAID
activated its Response Management
Team (RMT) at its headquarters
in Washington and also
told two emergency rescue
teams to fly immediately to the
Caribbean island nation.
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USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, left, visits a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 23.
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President Barack Obama
named the newly installed USAID
Administrator Rajiv Shah to head
up the U.S. emergency response
and coordinate all U.S. aid. Obama
initially pledged $100 million in
aid, but three weeks after the
quake, USAID spending on the
emergency had reached $296
million; U.S. civilian and military
aid together reached $464 million;
and other governments and the
public pledged many millions
more.
Shah won praise from senior
administration officials for his
unflappable focus and work during
the crisis, according to The
Washington Post.
“Dr. Shah has been excellent,”
said Denis McDonough,
National Security Council chief
of staff, who The Post said
worked closely with Shah since
the earthquake struck. “Focused.
Calm. Facts-based.”
Speaking to reporters the day
after the quake, Shah said, “The
goal of the relief effort in the first
72 hours will be very focused on
saving lives. That is the president’s
top priority and is what the
president has directed us to do.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton cut short a trip to
Asia and returned to Washington
to help handle the crisis. She and
Shah visited Haiti a few days after
the quake and met with Haitian
President René Préval, who was
attempting to run a government
out of a small police station near
the airport. Many key officials had
been lost in the wreckage.
Los Angeles County fire
captain Bryan Wells, sent by
USAID to save people from collapsed
buildings, told a reporter
that “being here on behalf of
USAID in support of the Haitian
government is great.”
“And when we pull people off
a rubble pile and spontaneously
people start chanting ‘USA, USA,’
it gives you a great sense of pride.
And the guys really feel it. They
feel proud to represent the American
people here in Haiti.”
Some 47 people were pulled
alive from the wrecked city by
Urban Search and Rescue
(USAR) teams deployed by
USAID from Los Angeles County,
Calif., and Fairfax County, Va., as
well as four other teams sent by
USAID in coordination with the
Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) from Miami-
Dade, Miami City, Virginia Beach,
and New York City.
Another 87 people were
saved by dozens of other rescue
teams sent by other countries.
Together, according to the
United Nations, a record number
of people were saved in a modern
disaster, said James Fleming,
director of the RMT.
The U.S. military sent more
than 10,000 troops to protect and
deliver aid, and oversee operations
at the damaged airport,
ramping up landings from 30 to
150 a day. Since the seaport was
damaged, the airport became the
major route for relief. Some
flights were diverted to the
Dominican Republic, which
shares the island of Hispaniola
with Haiti. Aid was then trucked
overland to quake survivors.
The U.S. Navy sent the aircraft
carrier USS Carl Vincent to
anchor off Port-au-Prince so its
helicopters could lift water,
food, and other supplies to distribution
points. The Navy also
sent the hospital ship USNS
Comfort from Baltimore.
USAID physician Robert Ferris
was on the Comfort and
reported to FrontLines that hundreds
of Haitians are being
treated daily for fractures, lacerations,
and other injuries. He
said that the huge ship was fairly
stable except for the occasional
bump from a quake aftershock.
On the ground, the 31 members
of the USAID Disaster
Assistance Response Team
(DART) landed soon after the
quake and began traveling around
the city assessing damage and
needs; and coordinating the
deliveries of food, water, and
medical care to survivors.
The DART team was sleeping
on the floor in offices at the U.S.
Embassy, which survived the
quake intact, or under tents and
hangars at the airport, which
became the hub for emergency
relief.
Two weeks after the quake
hit, some 863 emergency workers
were in Haiti carrying out
USAID assistance. This included
over 500 search and rescue
workers and 348 staff from the
Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS), which
set up five emergency clinics
and other medical aid services.
USAID also gave funds to
other groups to carry out emergency
assistance including: $36
million to FEMA; $33 million to
HHS; $7 million to the International
Organization for Migration;
$10 million to the World
Food Program; and $5 million to
the World Health Organization.
Fleming said that USAID was
working with other aid groups
and the Haitian government to
determine how to shelter the
hundreds of thousands of people
made homeless by the disaster—
especially as the rainy season
begins in May and hurricane
season begins in June.
Since hundreds of thousands
left the city for smaller cities and
villages untouched by the quake,
USAID hoped to establish a system
of support for host families
who take in relatives and friends
from Port-au-Prince—a system
that worked well in the Swat
Valley, Pakistan, displacement a
year earlier.
Cluster teams of foreign aid
agencies formed to tackle shelter
and other issues such as: agriculture;
early recovery (including
creating jobs to clean up rubble);
education; telecommunications;
environment (including mudslides
and drainage); food;
health; protection (especially
orphans and vulnerable children);
water; sanitation; and
hygiene.
“If there is an unsung hero in
the response to the quake,” said
Fleming, “it is having the
response teams ready—it is all
the systems we built before the
disaster.”
Since Hurricane Mitch caused
widespread damage and loss of
life in the region in 1998, USAID
has focused on having a standby
RMT and DART ready to swing
into action. After major responses
like the tsunami in the Indian
Ocean in 2004 and the Pakistan
earthquake in 2005, “we tried to
refine the system,” Fleming said.
“During an emergency is not
the time to plan. We needed to
be ready. That’s what the newspapers
don’t see.”
★
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