The Storm Last Friday….

Dear Tom,

I wanted to share with you this email from Alastair Lamb, our Country Director in Haiti. Last Friday,  on September 24th, a sudden and violent storm raged through Port-au-Prince. The highest intensity levels hit the J/P Haitian Relief Organization’s camp in Petionville. The early estimated damage to replace the infrastructure lost to J/P HRO in the storm is approximately $350,000.

Thank you,

Ana LaDou
Executive Director
J/P Haitian Relief Organization

P.S. Please consider making a donation to help us rebuild the camp at Petionville by clicking here.

—— Forwarded Message

From: Alastair Lamb
Reply-To: Alastair Lamb
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2010 15:16:19 +0000
To: Ana Ladou
Subject: update on the devastating storm in Haiti

Ana,

It is Saturday, 1am and I am lying on my cot trying to sleep but simply too much running through my head.

The wind struck from nowhere — and within 5 minutes, the hospital, office and staff accommodations (tents) were gone or downed and twisted.

To say I am proud of the team and the camp population is an understatement. Even as the storm and winds raged on, our medical services didn’t skip a beat. We had a seven year old with a double pelvis fracture that we stabilized through the storm — and then countless local staff cut a path through the fallen trees for his transfer to the hospital, which we had relocated to a nearby gym at the Petionville Club.

Throughout the camp, the emergency responders trained through the CERT program cut fallen trees, transported people to the emergency clinics and cleared critical drainage ditches that had been blocked by storm debris.

From our own team, I saw amazing leadership and heroism. Joel, a volunteer from California, risked his own life to dash back into the unstable office tent to retrieve essential drugs needed to treat casualties.  Another volunteer exercised extreme ingenuity by videoing himself unplugging the satellite communications system –  so he could plug it all back in properly after the storm passed.

By 7pm the wind had died, and some of the longer term staff cleared the shredded remains of our tents. Many lost personal effects, but after sharing 4 MREs between about 10 of us, we were soon planning the new clinic, new office and tomorrow’s distribution of aid.

As I lay here I can here the heavy snores of the exhausted but many like me are twisting and turning in our cots, willing the 5am start on reconstructing shelters and lives in the camp.

To which end I should get some shut eye.

Alastair