MORE ABOUT HAITI
Earthquake Relief 2010
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Tragedy struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. Just before 5 pm, a 7.0 earthquake centered about 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince devastated Haiti. By midnight, there were 17 aftershocks of at least 4.5 magnitude (with 7 of them over 5.0). There were over 100 aftershocks in the next few weeks. Every major landmark in Port-au-Prince suffered damage. Over 200.000 people were killed and over 1,000,000 were homeless, simply sleeping outside on the ground, Tent cites sprang up as people tried to regain some sense of normalcy. Many whose homes were not destroyed did not move back inside for fear of further tremors and collapse, instead sleeping outside as well.
Pendus is located about 120 miles northwest of PAP. The earthquake could be felt there but the major destruction did not occur there. There were a few buildings that were greatly damaged (such as the Fonkoze office in Gros Morne). Most of the damage was cracks in the concrete buildings (such as the dispensary in Pendus). The total extent of the damage will take some time to evaluate due to the remoteness from Port-au-Prince and the limited number of folks with expertise to make such determinations.
Fortunately, the Pendus' distance from the epicenter of the disaster kept the injuries and fatalities to a minimum. Father Wilner Donecia was in PAP for an annual Montfortian priest retreat when the earthquake hit. He was unharmed but 10 of the Montfortian seminarians were killed as was the arch-bishop of Port-au-Prince. Four of the interpreters that St Mary's has used over the years were also in PAP when the quake hit. It took one week before we finally heard from each of them -- Fritzner Guerrier, Pierre "Octa" Roody, Serge Fortune and Sergo Castin. All had survived (with the only injury being Serge's shoulder as he escaped from his room during the quake). However, each of them lost their homes and most of their possessions.
Immediately after the quake everyone wanted to help. The next day, Andre Angrand, Josee Angrand, Jeff Newell, Sharon Newell and Helen Hession from St Mary met with about a dozen others in Indianapolis to coordinate a relief effort. Our group called itself Indiana HERO - Haiti Earthquake Relief Organization. Our goal was three fold -- to help get medical personnel to Haiti, to help get medical supplies to Haiti and to raise money for many other relief needs. Transportation to PAP-- even for critical medical personnel -- was nearly impossible. Haiti has only one international airport in the country and its radar, communications systems were damaged and its lone runway was not sufficient to accommodate the instantaneous world support effort. The main port area also suffered great damage, which further hindered relief efforts.
Many from Lafayette -- including Dr. Rita Mankus, Dr. Don Clayton, and nurses Mindy Clayton, Josee Angrand and Chloe Harshman -- were able to make it to PAP to help with the immense medical needs. Medical people from Kokomo, Noblesville, Indianapolis, and other central Indiana cities also were able to get to Haiti in the weeks after the earthquake. Each one typically had to fly to the Dominican Republic and then bus 6-8 hours to Port-au-Prince to get there. To put this in perspective, it would be like flying to Atlanta and then busing to Indianapolis. Not an easy or convenient way to get there!
We began to raise money from many places to help with the relief effort. Both St. Mary Cathedral and St Lawrence Churches in Lafayette took up special collections. Together they raised over $27,000. Emails to friends, relatives and acquaintances (which often got forwarded then onto others) brought in another $10,000. It was amazing as mail brought donations from as far away as California and Texas. The Pine Village Elementary School collected and donated over $600 to the cause! The outpouring of support was amazing.
Some of the first money raised was sent to Matthew 25 Guest House, Visitation Hospital and Deep Springs International to help with immediate needs. Matthew 25 --- a guest house run by the Parish Twinning Program of the Americas (and a place many of us stay as we come and go out of Port-au-Prince) -- suffered structural damage but its adjoining soccer field immediately became a triage area for the medical folks staying there. Sister Mary Finnick (also a nurse) and many other medial folk there soon had over 1,000 patients staying in make-shift tents on the soccer field.
Visitation Hospital -- also run by the PTPA and located about 2 hours west of PAP -- also saw great numbers of patients from the earthquake. Deep Springs International provides a simple one-bucket, in-home water purification systems throughout Haiti. It had an immediate response effort in Leogane (an area close to PAP that was almost entirely leveled by the earthquake). In all, Deep Springs raised over $200,000 to provide emergency water to many affected by the disaster. We were also able to send many medicines down with some of the medical folks that were able to make it to Haiti.
Money was also sent -- at the request of Father Wilner -- to help with humanitarian efforts in the Pendus area. After the earthquake, the costs of many essential staples such as rice, cooking oil and other necessities tripled or worse. Many could not afford such items at normal prices, let alone at the newly inflated costs. In an effort to help many strapped families, he provided meals to all the schools in Pendus and surrounding chapel areas for the last two months of the school year. When a family only eats one meal per day, it was a great help to have those children eat their meal at school, thereby leaving more to eat at home for the others in the family. We also heard stories of school children sharing their portion from school with other siblings not attending school. With refugee families moving home and away from the destruction of PAP, there were 50 new students enrolled in Pendus schools that needed help with the transition (having lost all they had in the earthquake). He also used money for medical needs of the many refugees as well.
Amputations were common after the earthquake (as many injuries were crushings as a result of the collapsing of buildings). Julie Lidester spearheaded an effort to collect wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and canes to send to Haiti. St Anthony Health Care made a major contribution of such items to help in this effort. In late April, Frank Donaldson and Jeff Newell drove a van loaded with nearly 100 such items to Nashville, TN to be sent by the PTPA sea container to the Visitation Hospital.
The Lafayette Latino community also came to the relief effort, holding its first annual Carnaval Latino in early May. Kimberly Huesca and Berna Turuno put together a fun-filled day that raised over $ 2,000 to supplement the relief effort.
Members of the Friendship Bible Study sponsored by the Thorntown United Methodist Church conducted a unique response to the earthquake. This group's members are adults with special needs. Using both their own money and the donations of others that they collected, they bought and packaged toiletries, school supplies and sewing items to be sent to Haiti. In all they assembled 50 such kits to be sent to Haiti as part of the relief effort. "These are people who are mentally challenged," said Linda Prage, one of the leaders of the group. "We did a lesson about being a servant, and kind of got the idea that helping Haiti would be a good project. It was precious to watch them take such care to pack everything." she added. "It was a big job for them!"
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