I saw on our local news station where our ENT doctor is part of a group of doctors from Dallas who have gone down there to help. He was talking about the number of amputations and such because of the infections. Horrible.
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I saw on our local news station where our ENT doctor is part of a group of doctors from Dallas who have gone down there to help. He was talking about the number of amputations and such because of the infections. Horrible.
My concern is how long it has taken to get these people just the basic needs. I thought the world learned after Katrina but it seems they did not. People going 4 and 5 days without food and water is just inhumane. Those that survived the actual earth quake by then are themselves in serious condition..
Who can blame the people for becoming angry and violent?
The problem is that many of these survivors are in areas that are unreachable because of the devastation caused by the quake. Roads are impassable.
The 82nd Airborne arrived yesterday - that may help.
Another problem - there is no fuel available at the airport for the planes. That means they have to land heavy - with enough fuel to take off once they unload.
I am hearing reports of help reaching more remote areas outside the city.
And they are still finding survivors! Yikes!
I was alluding to the people AT the site of the disaster.
In '94 people we pi$$ing and moaning about how the gov't. and local officials didn't come to their aid. THEY/WE did nothing to help ourselves when we needed to.
I am talking about the people in and around the San Fernando Valley. The most common problem was people getting fecal matter stuck under the nails of their thumbs.
I do not expect the FD/PD/FEMA to show up for a few days after anything happens. Ordinary people did come here to help but, that was after the first 72 hours-we had already taken it on the chin.
Katrina was a U.S. based catastrophe, we didn't have to worry about getting to an island and off loading supplies on an airstrip that had no control tower and two runways? The logistics of Katrina, while just as bad, served as a blueprint for what not to do, expect or how to handle a disaster like that.
There are differences between a hurricane an earthquake.
You can prepare for a 'cane or pretty much and wind/weather disaster.
Try this.
Wake up at 4:00 a.m.
Grab your clothes and run out of the house, with no shoes on.
Oh, before you go to sleep- break glass, pull down some furniture to block the exit path you have chosen, and make sure the water heater is on the floor leaking, the gas line is broken and it's pitch black outdoors.;)
Hey, I just had a glass of Hater-Ade.
I tuned into CNN and Larry King had a motley crew of 'stars' on to help raise money.
He had Danny Glover, Paula Abdul and and idiot named Peter Wentz?
LK is an idiot.
He asks Wentz some question and PW breaks into this "I have to figure out what to tell the kids about the earthquake..."
What is he going to do? Lie to them or use that as the "parent's threat"?
IF YOU DON'T GO TO SLEEP YOU'LL SUFFER the same fate as a Haitian child?
How's about telling the little ---t the truth. Something terrible has happened there and people are suffering.
Be thankful of what we have at the moment, it could disappear in the time it takes you to send a TWEET......:confused::rolleyes:
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I think it's great that the 'stars' give huge amounts of money, but the real turnoff is when people start to try and "out give" each other.
Madonna gave 250k but someone else gave a million? Shut up and just adopt a few kids so you can be cool again, Gosh, if you can't get the African model adoptee, shoot for the Haitian.
Trust me, no amount of money will me a fan of yours.
Now, if you showed up, unannounced in Haiti and started to hand out supplies without making a big deal out of it?
I may reconsider.:eek:
The key word here is the word "AFTER"... after the strorm was over and the people had to wait days for any help as in food and water..The same in Haiti. I, in NO way was comparing a hurrican to a earth quake, there is NO comparison. Just the delay in getting help in to the people who needed it.. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that.Quote:
I thought the world learned after Katrina
Most of the people in the next American catastrophe will be walking in circles trying to get on YouTube to post video, Facebook, e-mail or Google trying to figure out trying to post a blog. Did I mention Twitter.
BTW, to illustrate my stellar record as a quick thinking dude in a 'situation'?
I was at work in one EQ and I immediately stuck my arse under the desk.
I heard the gal that was working with me yell my name and she came running to my desk, trying to wedge into the kneehole with me.
I shoved her out and told her to get under the other desk a few feet away.
Later on I tried to justify my 'actions' by telling her that if the building fell on us?
They would find the both of our nasty arses wedged tightly into that space.
So, what would her husband have thought?
Seriously?
You have not lived or been traumatized until you start to play, "what if"....
"What does ten stories of building look like on my head?"
Altho we joked about it later, I wondered if I could live with myself had the building fallen, I survived, but my coworker dies because I pushed her out of my hidey hole?
Ride bikes, motocycles, go climb hills and drink until you grow gills?
When it's all out of your hands, you'll pray to any old god, any where, any time.
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The kindness, generosity and sacrifices made by the American people have no equal on the planet.
We are a country of overachievers, goofballs, nitwits and morons.
But, GD.....We can do ANYTHING we want.
We can move heaven, earth and a few planets to get things done.
Where does Uranus figure in all this? Now I am really:confused: We can't figure out if gays can marry, pot should be illegal or if Elvis died on the can or not.
When I see American citizens piling their dead neighbors out on the streets- I will bellieve.
Check it out.
What was the purpose of the impromptu parade/prayer deal on the Haitian
streets a few days after the quake?:eek:;)
Those people have less baggage and more heart that we will ever know.
You know about logistics and the mission to get your cargo/laod to the desired location. And that's on a good day without some drunken pilot taking out a bridge pier!:eek:
We can do Katrina and the Waves, a 9/11 attack or Cali earthquake dozens of times, but we cannot anticipate what we need to do in each situation.
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I am always irritated about the people here in Lost Angeles who complain about their houses burning down during the fires.
They will not admit they didn't clear the brush from around their homes, didn't trim trees, put in sprinklers, take fire insurance or water proof their undies. They want a fire truck and 15 firemen on each corner, yet the balk at paying a few extra bucks in city taxes for the firefighters they need.
After the next disaster listen to backlash from the peope who lose, then ask yourself what did they do to prepare?
LOL, they loaded up the Land Cruiser with their son's baseball trophies, the wife's shoes and the computer with the HALO game on it.:eek:
53 orphans to Pittsburgh; 90 more to the Netherlands and France.
Quote:
Rescue mission bringing Haitian orphans to Pittsburgh
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
By Sadie Gurman and Jon Schmitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A team of medical personnel accompanied by Gov. Ed Rendell and U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire was in the air and headed to Pittsburgh early today with 53 children from an orphanage in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
The mercy mission, which included medical staffers from several Pittsburgh area hospitals, was beset with paperwork problems involving the orphans that forced the rescue team to return on a different plane.
But after several hours on the ground at the airport in Port-au-Prince, the children boarded a C-130 military transport plane and took off around 11 o'clock last night, bound for Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. After a refueling stop, the plane was to fly to Pittsburgh.
The mercy mission, funded by an unknown sponsor, left about 11 a.m. yesterday from Pittsburgh International Airport aboard a Republic Airways chartered jetliner that carried Mr. Rendell, Mr. Altmire and the medical teams.
But after landing in Port-au-Prince early yesterday evening, the jetliner, which was only allowed to remain on the ground for two hours, was forced to depart before officials could resolve some documentation issues, said Gary Tuma, a spokesman for the governor.
Mr. Tuma said officials scrambled to secure another plane to bring the orphans back to Pittsburgh.
The rescue mission came in response to messages last week from sisters Jamie and Ali McMutrie of Ben Avon, who said last Tuesday's devastating earthquake endangered the health of 130 children in their care at the BRESMA orphanage in Port-au-Prince.
Mr. Tuma did not know whether any of the children had serious injuries from the earthquake, which destroyed a large part of their orphanage.
Earlier yesterday, officials said the plan was to have as many as 61 children, ages 1 to 4, waiting at the Port-au-Prince airport and immediately board the plane, which was under orders to leave within two hours. Once in Pittsburgh, they were to be taken to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC for evaluation, Mr. Tuma said.
UPMC officials early this morning put the number of children on board the plane at 53.
Also aboard the charter flight were medical personnel from UPMC, West Penn Allegheny Health System, Pittsburgh Mercy Health System and Excela Health.
Catholic Charities has made arrangements for their care until they are adopted, he said.
About 90 other children from the orphanage were being taken in similar rescue missions conducted by the Dutch and French governments, he said.
The Pennsylvania mission was arranged with various agencies including the U.S. State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and military.
"The reason the governor is personally on the plane is that the Haitian ambassador thought it was important to have someone of his stature on the plane so if the mission ran into difficulty he might be able to break down some of the barriers," Mr. Tuma said.
He said he did not know how the mission was being funded.
Also among those on board was Mary Carrasco, director of A Child's Place in the Pittsburgh Mercy system, which provides care for children who are abused, neglected or in foster care. With her was a Haitian interpreter who speaks Creole to communicate with the children, according to Joan Mills, who works in Dr. Carrasco's office.
Over the days leading up to the trip, Dr. Carrasco and her team gathered medical supplies including Pedialyte, wipes, diapers, cups, bottles, pacifiers and other items to care for the children.
Ms. Mills said they expected to find children beset with dehydration, diarrhea and other problems related to lack of food, water, health care and sanitary facilities.
Also on the flight were Joyce Leifer, a pediatrician who is associated with Children's Hospital; Ed Sites of the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work; Connie Moore of Excela Health's Latrobe Hospital, who has experience as a pediatric nurse; and three professionals from West Penn Allegheny: Chip Lambert, an emergency medicine doctor, Deborah Bohan, a physician's assistant in pediatrics critical care at AGH Suburban, and Arc Balest, a neonatalogist.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10019...#ixzz0d5hyAiVG