PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – I have been spending my nights in an aircraft hangar for almost a full week now and have gotten used to the constant roar of engines from the huge cargo planes constantly taking off and landing. The long hours working under the hot sun make us so tired that we can sleep regardless of the noise. But yesterday morning, I was jolted awake by the sound of the entire hangar rattling and groaning.

It was an earthquake! I rushed to unzip my mosquito tent and jumped up to run out as the wings of the light aircraft in the hangar were swaying above my head. Just as I made it outside, the earth stopped shaking and there was quiet. It was a much weaker quake than last week’s monster, but was still enough to send fear through an already shaken population – as we saw when we arrived at the national hospital.

During the quake all the patients were evacuated and none of them wanted to go back inside. So the narrow lanes in the hospital were crammed with patients and doctors under the blazing sun. We saw operations taking place in the open air while cars spewed exhaust fumes across the procedure. Dead bodies pulled from rubble near the hospital were wheeled to the morgue past lines of patients.

It was absolute pandemonium, but at the center of it all, Operation Blessing was there to tackle an urgent need. We installed a large water purification unit in the center of the hospital, put in a line with a tap, and provided clean water to serve the 3,000-plus patients and medical staff on the compound.

The unit has the capacity to output up to 10,000 gallons per day and will remain in place for as long as it is needed. It is the first of 10 such units that OBI is installing to provide relief to quake victims.

Clean water will become particularly vital to survivors in the coming days and weeks as the potential for disease to spread is huge given the poor living conditions for those now displaced. Today we will be installing another unit at the soccer stadium where we set up our field hospital. The hospital has gained traction and now has teams of French and U.S. doctors working alongside our Israeli team. Yesterday, there were 14 stations operating in a long line and we were able to treat more than 450 patients.

Operation Blessing has been coordinating the transport and distribution of tons of relief goods arriving by plane from the U.S. To date, we have hauled and distributed 35 pallets of medical supplies and food and we have three huge truckloads of supplies that will leave for the general hospital and stadium today. The relief effort is in full swing with little signs of trouble on the streets.

While on one hand the lack of fuel is causing a logistical headache, on the other hand there are much fewer cars on the roads making it easier and safer to get relief convoys to their destination.

Operation Blessing has been keeping our supporters and donors up to date using a facebook group. Click here to go to our Facebook group page.

We started the group immediately after the quake and it has grown to almost 17,000 members. We initially started it as a means to convey information from OBI to our supporters, but soon saw that others were using it as a message board to place photos of missing loved ones in the hope that they could find information. People from all over the world have joined the group to discuss the quake, leave messages of condolence and hope, and get behind the nation of Haiti.

Tags: Caribbean, clean water, David Darg, Disaster Relief, Earthquake, General Hospital, Haiti, IsraAid, Medical Aid, medical clinic, Medical Supplies, National Hospital, OBI, Operation Blessing, Port-au-Prince, Relief, Relief Supplies, Water Purification, Water Purification System

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Caribbean, David Darg, Disaster Relief, Earthquake, Haiti. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.