Haiti earthquake - hell on earth

Even if they bring stuff in thru the port in The Dominican Republic, it's still got to be transported overland. It's not looking good with the roads decimated, and the bridges destroyed. Not to mention that EVERYTHING is going to need a military escort.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by OneToughHerring

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.

All I can say is red tap. I will leave it at that.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by August

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.

August is correct here. You see what we are up against. Runways without towers. No fuel for aircraft. Electricity out for a good long time. Water system in ruins and full of sewerage. Street system that sucked from the word go. The port is destroyed. It is an island to boot. Ok, just how fast do you want this done? Daunting task. These are the many problems emergency workers face. It is not as simple as flying in and dropping goods. People get crazy, shoot at the aircraft, shoot at fellow citizens and anything that moves. The logistics alone are mind boggling. As for Katrina, same deal. Water everywhere. Debrie in the way. Citizens going nuts. Lets face it...there was plenty of forewarning with Katrina. People stayed. Haiti...one dog ran out of a building right before quake. That was the forewarning. Not much time to prepare correct? Certainly not....this creates a huge death toll. Not pleasant. This ordeal is a bit different than Katrina and on more levels of government than Katrina. It will get done as quickly as possible.

[longam]

Hopefully they rebuild with wood instead of the massive concrete buildings.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by longam

Hopefully they rebuild with wood instead of the massive concrete buildings.

Need buildings engineered for quakes. CA has them, well, new construction anyway. Japan as well. It is not fool proof but it better than no engineering for quakes at all.

[Happy Times]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

August is correct here. You see what we are up against. Runways without towers. No fuel for aircraft. Electricity out for a good long time. Water system in ruins and full of sewerage. Street system that sucked from the word go. The port is destroyed. It is an island to boot. Ok, just how fast do you want this done? Daunting task. These are the many problems emergency workers face. It is not as simple as flying in and dropping goods. People get crazy, shoot at the aircraft, shoot at fellow citizens and anything that moves. The logistics alone are mind boggling. As for Katrina, same deal. Water everywhere. Debrie in the way. Citizens going nuts. Lets face it...there was plenty of forewarning with Katrina. People stayed. Haiti...one dog ran out of a building right before quake. That was the forewarning. Not much time to prepare correct? Certainly not....this creates a huge death toll. Not pleasant. This ordeal is a bit different than Katrina and on more levels of government than Katrina. It will get done as quickly as possible.

If you promise to fix all of those im positive they would volunteer as a new state, wouldnt that be nice.

[MothBalls]

Originally Posted by Happy Times

If you promise to fix all of those im positive they would volunteer as a new state, wouldn't that be nice.

That would be just great. It would bring a whole new meaning to 'Welfare State'. Just think of all those people we could enslave via welfare, food stamps, social security, and who knows what new programs would be created for them.

It'll never happen, they don't have any oil.

[longam]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Need buildings engineered for quakes. CA has them, well, new construction anyway. Japan as well. It is not fool proof but it better than no engineering for quakes at all.

I'm guessing that because of the location that concrete was the choice of building material, but it seems every house was built this way. They used re-bar here and there but of course not in every home. Even with these methods it still wont protect against a 7.5 quake.

I guess the Dominican Republic will finally get so air time even if they dont want it, maybe even some infiltration.

[Castout]

Poor people . . .

The quake hit them bad
It could happen to any of us . . .without warning . . .

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by longam

Hopefully they rebuild with wood instead of the massive concrete buildings.

Oh they used wood before, and cardboard, and plastic sheeting. That is one of the problems. There is no building code there besides who anticipates an earthquake of this size in the carribian?

On a side note I know a guy who shipped out on the USN Comfort this morning. It's nearly a five day trip in that boat but they are bringing world class medical care to the Haitians.

http://www.necn.com/Boston/Nation/20...263649561.html

This guy works for the military in an intellegence role thats about all I can say. If I hear some first hand accounts I will try to relay them.

[Oberon]

Good to hear that the Comfort has shipped out, that's one big step on the way. Thanks for keeping us updated SteamWake

There is no building code there besides who anticipates an earthquake of this size in the carribian?

I suppose the people who realise that earthquakes of that magnitude happen quite often on fault lines where they happen quite often
Port au Prince has twice had quakes on a similar scale, the other half of Hispaniola also has the same fault problems
There have been bigger quakes affecting the country so it certainly isn't surprising(unless you don't anticipate the likely)
I suppose the real question overbuilding codes is..... how much better would Puerto Rico stand up to a similar quake(or an even bigger one as is predicted)?

[MothBalls]

Here's a clip from CNN about the port. The gentleman they are speaking with says the Island has about 7 days of supplies, after that, they'll starve.

It's more than fixing the two cranes, the docks and debris are just below the surface and no ships can enter the port. Looks like a bad situation. I sit here wishing I could do something, but in a way, I already have. I watch the news and see my tax dollar funded resources in action so I guess aside from the personal contribution I made, I did do something.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/wor...ort.damage.cnn

[Biggles]

I just itch to help in any way. Walked around town today, minding my own business, but kept an eye open for any sort of donations from Red Cross or whatever. Didn't see anyone, bloody hell! This is just terrible, in any meaning of the word. I hate sitting here being utterly comfortable while these people starve and die. I feel I should be there and help, I really wish I could.

[Schroeder]

There are websides with information about relief organisations that are involved over there (at least here in Germany). You can get account data there and then do a normal bank transfer on their account if you wish to do something. I did (let's hope it won't just fall into the hands of some bureaucrats or thugs).