Prairie Fire Journal

I realize that Haiti isn't a part of the United States, but the U.S. and the rest of the Western Hemisphere countries bear a great deal of responsibility for Haiti turning into the hell-on-earth which it has become. The island nation isn't any farther away from Washington, D.C. than many of the lower 48 states. Unfortunately, the coordination of the U.S. emergency response to the Haiti earthquake devastation is shaping up to be similar to the Katrina response.

First, the U.S. allowed a full day to pass after it was clear that this was a devastating natural disaster, supposedly waiting for the Haitian government to request assistance. Aid ships and military personnnel could have already been dispatched and sitting off Haiti's coast. This was a no-brainer due to the fact that Haiti was already occupied with U.N. peacekeeping forces and the U.S. State Department was well aware of the Haitian government's inability to cope with such devastation.

Next, by day two, president Obama finally announces that he is launching a full-scale rescue and aid operation for Haiti. Naval ships, search-and-rescue teams, military personnel, and plane-loads of aid and equipment are dispatched. Obama tells the Haitian people that they have not been forsaken and help is on the way.

Day three, the U.S. military takes over command and control of the Port au Prince airport. Aid flights begin arriving en masse. Supplies and personnel begin to pile up and the airport is temporarily closed to incoming flights. The aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and other Naval and Coast Guard vessels arrive. But little aid is actually making its way into Port au Prince where the people desperately need it.

Today, day four, anger is beginning to turn into violence as people fight over what little food and water is available. Thousands still lie buried under rubble. Rescue teams and medical personnel are hampered by security concerns. Aid convoys are hampered supposedly because of damaged infrastructure, even though these are exactly the kind of obstacles and scenarios that emergency aid operations are supposed to be prepared to overcome. Bodies are piling up on the streets. There is no central command and coordination. Nobody seems to know who's in charge of what, other than the U.S. military is in control of the airport.

Aid sitting on the tarmac of the airport, or off-shore aboard a ship, is of no more value to Haitian earthquake victims than if it was sitting in a warehouse in Miami. The 82nd Airborne said it would be two more days before they could begin handing out aid from a station they are setting up on a golf course. That is ridiculous and will mean death for hundreds or thousands more Haitians. It's obvious that little has changed since Katrina as far as America's emergency prepardness is concerned. If, by the end of today there still is no substantial movement of supplies into Port au Prince, then this operation has truly fallen short of expectations.

UPDATE 1-18-10: It's now on day 6 and the situation has only deteriorated further. Most aid is still not reaching the people who need it. Thousands more lives are lost that could have been saved. This operation has taken way too long to get water to people. They are dying because of poor operational procedures between the U.S., the U.N., and the other aid agencies. This is not good enough.

Emergency supplies pile up at Port au Prince airport, but are not reaching
earthquake victims.