Haiti: Building Back Better – and Beyond
We already know that some 150,000 people were killed, 200,000 were injured and one million more lost their homes. After all the collapsed buildings are finally removed, this earthquake may be among the three or four worst disasters ever recorded anywhere on earth in terms of loss of life and injury.
Lessons Learned from Past:
All of those cases had several things in common:
– The victims never felt that relief was coming as fast as they needed it;
– The transition from relief to reconstruction was neither smooth nor untroubled;
– Maintaining international engagement and international coordination was a constant struggle; and
– The challenge of ensuring that the host government was strengthened rather than weakened was not fully met.
Three weeks after a monster 7.0 earthquake shook the muddy and porous mountains that surround Port-au-Prince, the Haitian Community Hospital is still an epicenter of medical care in a region of more than 3 million people. Johnson is working here as part of a Baptist-sponsored relief mission.
Doctors estimate they amputated more than 200 limbs in the first sickening week after the quake, as victims crawled out of the rubble and scaled a quarter-mile hill to the 70-bed hospital.
Pain medication was one of the first things to run out. So, screaming patients were wheeled into operating rooms and put under, then awoke in agony.
World Vision Haiti Quake Response Update
Still, there are pockets of Port-au-Prince not receiving aid.
While access to food and supplies is improving; shelter remains an urgent need.
By the end of distributions on February 3, more than 415 metric tons of rice were distributed for the benefit of more than 66,000 people [out of two million].
Many pregnant women are not able to deliver in local hospitals because of building damage and overcrowding from quake-related injuries.
Earthquake in Haiti: Update #43
- The American Red Cross and its partners are now producing almost 1 million litres of water per day, enough for 185,000 people to receive 5.4 litres per person per day.
- To date, the global Red Cross network has distributed nearly 4.2 million litres of water in 115 sites. In addition, Red Cross teams are working to scale up latrine construction as quickly as possible.
- Approximately 600 patients are being seen per day.
- As of January 29, more than 56 flights carrying Red Cross aid from around the world have arrived in Haiti.
- Shelter remains an urgent need.
Journal: Haiti Rolling Directory from 12 January 2010
