Fuel sir! Fuel! You can fly in but not out. Plus, the aircraft on the ground are using room for any other aircraft to land. The FAA shut it down. The ports are buggered. So, operations will need to done off a carrier. I understand the military will be working the ports in hope of getting some parts of it operational. Further, there are total airports on Haiti. Two are asphalt and the others are dirt. Even if the other airport is operational the question is, can trucks get from one airport to the other? The country as you know is very poor and paved roads, etc. just do not exist.

We have to understand one thing, during the Clinton administration Haiti was a special project for Bill. There was one problem, we dropped aid, Haitian gladly accepted only to have a thug steal it down the street. Clintons aid was a wash as a result. This will happen again with this emergency relief.

Damn, the old third world dilemma, aid going to the wrong damn place.

Can't the USAF send in a couple of air refueling tankers and use them as a refueling point on the airport?

It is the same old dilemma with aid. Survival of the fittest. Sad really. I have not heard of a tanker aircraft coming in. Also, the runway, can it handle such a craft or will there be a fireball of all fireballs as it careens off the runway that could not handle this aircraft? I suspect the military will have to handle this in some fashion.

All quiet for me today. :salute:

Wow things are starting to get ugly their very fast.

Just today I heard news story of 'gangs' waging war in the streets with machetes over food.

I heard that the UN food bank on the island had been looted down to the last cracker.

It will be interesting to see how this all works out and hope for the best.

Oh and the airport being closed evidently the military is exempt to that. I'm suspecting they have fuel on hand somewhere.

This would be an opportunity to take out those gangs that terrorize the country, declare marshall law and shoot to kill. Would give the country a possibility to recover, otherwise it will decline even more to this apocalyptic anarchy.

Well that would be a good idea but theres a couple of problems.

Leadership..... there is none.

Infrastructure.... there is none.

The only thing that could be done would be to swoop in their with thousands of troops and arms and that would not send 'the right message'.

"Anarchy"

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14205092.htm

Exactly the problems that make it the only viable strategy and i think it would send just the right message.

Airport is now open. Marshall law as suggested above. :up: Sad we see another side of human nature in Haiti.

That side of human nature has been firmly entrenched in Haiti for decades. Only now has the 'cover' been pulled off and it is on full display for all the world to see.

I really feel for the average Hatian and hold the thugocracy in the highest contempt.

But there is little I can personally do but to donate cash and pray.

USS Carl Vincens (en sp?) enrout with choppers, troops, and her giant desalinization plant, per TV2 Danmark.

Vinson!! :D

The Bataan and her Marine contingent are on the way as well. :salute:

More good, and bad, news on the shipping and logistics problems.

http://bluepulz.com/?Id=2462

One hell of a situation!

Yeah, you only need to look at AVGs colleagues pictures to see that it's going to be a major logistical headache to unload, but they'll do it alright, by hook or by crook. :yep:

Ok dumb question and probably already answered but how about air drops of aid? You know, those parachuute-thingie-boxes full of helpy goodness? Sorry, don't mean to make light of the situation. Oh yea and helicopters. Huge, big ones. For the transportation of the aid people, rescue personnel etc.

It seems like no aid has gotten to the majority of the casualties which to me seems like a pretty sorry effort from the helpers. The spreading of diseases and deaths due to lack of food and clean water are beginning to pile up and might become another huge problem any time soon.

Air drop leads a mass of people killing for the goods.

Yea I suppose. But right now the help effort seems to have stalled, not because of you AVGWarhawk, you're doing a great job but it's not up to you. Reading some stuff and just thinking that the aid is getting there awfully slow. It's reminiscent of the Katrina-hurricane followup - debacle.

That's because peoples expectations were set to unreasonable levels in the presses eagerness to blame Bush for the disaster. The bottom line is it is a hugely difficult and expensive job working on that scale regardless of which party is in the white house.

It doesn't help that Haiti doesn't exactly have a world class transportation network even before the earthquake wrecked it. Getting goods to target is not easy, particularly when it has to be flown there or sailed there. The airport is quite small and there's not many of them and the ports have mostly fallen into the sea.
When the Vinson and Bataan get there, their helos will be able to help distribute equipment between points, but dropping aid at random will just result in increased looting and gang warfare which has already begun in many areas.
There's a lot of work to be done, but first the infrastructure has got to be repaired to the point of being able to be used to move things around.

A BBC Article basically highlighting what I've said...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8460787.stm