January 30th, 2010: 4th Day in Haiti

Hi,

For the last 4 days we have traveled all over Port of Prince. The city is built on the mountain side with the rich living higher up the mountain, having a better view of the port and less of a chance to run into the common man or street gangs.

This earthquake destroyed mostly multi-story buildings. What we have seen are buildings that look mostly normal till you realize that the first floor is really the second or third floor with the lower floors having been totally destroyed. The hospitals desperately need post-op and recovery wards.

Even the US Naval Hospital ship has run out of ward space and is air flighting patients off the ship to any available beds ashore. Presently there is the hospital ship US Comfort, aircraft carrier CVN Carl Vinson, LPD Guston Hall in the harbors.

I know this won't surprise most of you but the UN is less than useless here. They hold lots of meetings but they haven't made any efforts to actually coordinate the efforts of the 600+ NGOs working here.

Our team have been distributing medicine to other hospitals from the Promess warehouse near the UN base. The base has hundreds of SUV's just parked at the base and not being used to distribute supplies.

The sky is filled with military aircraft such as C-130s, C-17's, Cods, Black Hawks, Sea Kings, Sea Stallions and the new Ospreys bringing patients and emergency supplies being rushed from the ships and the US.

If it wasn't such a horrible disaster I would enjoy being here. There are several of my Coast Guard classmates attempting to lead the efforts to open the harbor to allow the large supply vessels they desperately need.

But with the level of destruction and death here its difficult to stop and take any moment of self pleasure. I am just greatful to have a chance to help here.

Mark -Out

January 28th, 2010: After 2 Days in Haiti

Hi,

I have been busy traveling through the devistated city finding the damaged and destroyed hospitals to see which are still capable of operating and receiving our medical teams.

The smell of death is still in the air as thousands of victims still lay entombed in the rubble that once was schools, stores , homes, and offices. This picture is of the collapsed nursing school, a 3 story building that still holds the remains of 250 students and teachers.

From my time in the Coast Guard I am used to the smell of death, but never in such numbers. It looks like the final total will be over 300,000 dead and many more are in jeoardy from secondary infection from crushed or amputated appendages. Many are dying from tetanus as they were pierced by the rebar in the cement construction and have never been immunized for it.

Most hospitals only have one building still functional, what ever it once was cafeteria, storage or laundry is now an operating room. With the open courtyards acting as the pre-op and post-op with only a tarp to protect their open woulds from the elements.

Most hospitals have patients and staff still burried in the rubble, so the post-op courtyards have the smell of death permeating them. It is truely a scene from hell, something I only thought I would see in some post-apocalyptic movie.

Please pray for these people and those caring for them.

January 26th, 2010: Getting to Haiti is Half the Battle

Hi,

It is Tuesday night, January 26th. We left tyler on Monday afternoon to Orlando then drove 4 hours down to Fort Pierce where we are catching a missionary flight with Missionary Flights International Tuesday morning.
I am more excited than usual because we might be flying to Haiti on a
DC-3! Yes you heard right a WWII plane that was around before my dad was born.

When we got there we queued up wit several hundred other Christians seeking to get in and assist the first responders. There was every major NGO there, Samaritan's Purse, World Vision, MTI, Baptist Missions, and a whole host of others. As promissed there was DC-3's, but my group went on a turbo prop donated by Joe Gibb's Racing Team. We all crammed in with our backpacks full of energy bars and anti-mosquito devices and headed off to Haiti.

Flying to Haiti was beautiful until we came in for landing. The airport is now a militarized base with most aircraft being military aircraft. As we approached it looked as if the city was burning, but this was just the cement dust be blown by the wind.

As far as I can see the Haitian government no longer exists, it wasn't much to start with but now it is completely destroyed. Police, military and firemen are either dead or looking for their own family members. Even the UN forces stationed here under MUNISTAH have suffered massive loss to its senior leadership. As we drove the 20 miles to Mission of Hope we were struck by the devistation and the smell of death that wafted in the air.

Pray for these people, it would not be an exageration to say that every family here lost someone.

The depth and loss of these people is unimaginable.

Mark - Out

January 22nd, 2010: I am Deploying to Haiti

I was just notified that I will be deploying to Haiti on January 25th to begin our assessment in that country.

I am so excitied to get a chance to help these people. We will be working with 3 other Chrisitan agencies with permanent and long term presence in this country: Windows of Hope, Mission of Hope and Convoy of Hope. I know the "Hope" thing is a little redundant, but we run into the same problem with "Mercy"

I will be going with Captain Jon Fadely a long term maritime officer with Mercy Ships. Please pray for our safety and my my families safety as I once again deploy with out them.

Jan 13th, 2010: Haiti Earthquake

Yesterday, January 12, 2010, shortly before 5pm, a Richter scale 7.3 earthquake, lasting 35 seconds, struck Haiti. This was the most powerful earthquake to strike the country for 200 years. The hypocenter of the earthquake was close to the surface of the earth (10 km deep) and its epicenter was close to the city of Léogâne, 17 km South West of the capital city, Port-au-Prince.

Estimates say up to 200,000 people have died and 1.5 -2 million have been left homeless. Please pray for the nation of Haiti and those deploying as first responders to this crisis.

Mercy Ships and its partners in haiti are beginning the process of assessing the needs of this country and its people. I hope to be a part of this response as we assess what services and equipment we can provide to the first responders and eventually those involved in the reconstruction of these people's lives and nation.