May God Bless the people of Haiti

The coverage of this earthquake is painful to watch. Such massive destruction and loss of life, and so close to our country. I'm going to find a charitable organization that is helping and make a contribution. This reminds me of the Indonesian Tsunami disaster.

PM incoming about a relief org.

That country seems to be cursed. Tragic event and little infrastructure to service the people. We haven't even heard the numbers yet.

NOTE: Not directed at you smokelaw but beware of scams asking for Haiti relief money. Stick with known quantities (e.g. Red Cross, etc).

Roger that...watching CNN at lunch- the photos of the children are heartwrenching. The Tsunami seemed unreal also- and when they attempted to estimate the number of souls that perished- it was over 200 thousand- hard to wrap your mind around loss of life at that massive scale. Hopefully the 100 thousand plus estimates I have already seen are not true- and like the Tsunami where many were simply washed out to sea, countless now are buried and may never be found.
Unbelievably tragic........

Now seeing estimates of as many as 500,000 dead.

LuxLuthor said:

Now seeing estimates of as many as 500,000 dead.

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Unfathomable...........

Smokelaw, thanks for link. Also it looks like the Red Cross is another resource.

I wish I could order a lightning bolt to strike this horrible person. Unbelievable.

RAGE CAGE said:

The Tsunami seemed unreal also- and when they attempted to estimate the number of souls that perished- it was over 200 thousand- hard to wrap your mind around loss of life at that massive scale.

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Yeah, I was living in Thailand at that time and being in the middle of it really didn´t help. It was impossible to understand even when it was right in front of you.

Hope those guys will recover.

Just donated to Doctors Without Borders - they put more of their money towards the cause than the Red Cross does (per Charity Navigator).

But in a time like this, ANYTHING you can do to help is needed, wanted, and appreciated.

I can't even comprehend the magnitude of this disaster.

:candle: john

Might have to go home and rewatch 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year we make contact.

Today's featured article on Wikipedia is on a moon of Jupiter- Ganymeade-participates in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance with Europa and Io.

If there is a God, he just blessed them with some pretty nasty poop, so i wouldn't be asking him for another "blessing".

I wish the people of Haiti best of luck though. Lets hope that the estimates are too high and that the no more shitstorms hits them.

LuxLuthor said:

Smokelaw, thanks for link. Also it looks like the Red Cross is another resource.

I wish I could order a lightning bolt to strike this horrible person. Unbelievable.

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That kind of statement seems completely in character for Pat Robertson. In fact, there is a whole wikipedia article devoted to controversies surrounding him.

According to the preliminary news it seems like all of the facilities of Doctors without Borders have been damaged/destroyed by the earthquake, so it seems like they could really use help.

Companies that are pledging support:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/34847721/site/14081545?__source=yahoo|headline|quote|text|&par=yahoo

For those that cannot afford to send any monetary donations, I think it would be a method of supporting the relief by patronizing the companies that are helping now. Some of the companies listed are accepting donations at their point of presence locations.

One could also start an email campaign. Companies that give very little - ask them to pledge more. Look at the list(above in article), some of the largest companies(Wal-Mart) are giving smaller amounts than the smaller companies.

Companies giving $1,000,000:
Coca-Cola
UPS
Lowes
Google
via their Web link - http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/


These people live on $2 a day....

Their good day is difficult at best.

They already had next to nothing.

Now they have even less.

If lucky, they have their life.

If lucky, they will have you.


Fin

This is a real tragedy.

****The rest of the content of this post has been removed by Greta as being completely inappropriate for this thread. If you have these kinds of issues and want to express your opinions, please go to the Underground.****

To donate to the red cross you have to go through whitehouse.org. Without getting political, bear that in mind.

One organization getting a lot of support and publicity is yele.org I believe. News channels are claiming it to be a direct link to the people who made things happen there.

Such a massive natural disaster in a country which was barely able to provide basic medical care under normal circumstances.

I don't think that money is a major problem right now - charities have enough funds for emergency use. Donate, but don't rush your decision to whom and how much you should donate. The big problem is logistics. I've thought about it, and it really is horrible.
The UN headquarters are destroyed, and most of the senior staff is dead. Many hospitals have collapsed, even the president of Haiti doesn't have a place to sleep anymore. Newest sources seem to suggest that the airport in Port-au-Prince is closed for air traffic. How you're gonna help if there's no way into the country?
Seems that US forces offered to take over air traffic control, but I couldn't find a timeline. The US are also sending the USNS Comfort, a very large hospital ship, among a host of different vessels. But it takes 5 days to make the ship ready, and another 5 to reach Haiti. I don't want to think about how many people will already have died of otherwise treatable injuries by then. Many countries are also sending SAR teams. But... 3 million people affected, and a few planes with rescue personnel to search for people trapped under the rubble? A drop in the ocean.
Not to mention the lack of food, police, shelter and hygiene products. Diarrhea is at most discomfortable in the western world, but could be the major cause of death in the aftermath of this earthquake, along with deaths accounted to bad hygiene. But I hope the infrastructure is sufficiently restored at the point where this becomes a major concern.

So to sum this whole thing up: It's a disaster, on a really large scale.
My thoughts are with the victims.

edit: Sub_umbra: at least they seem to have a level of coordination between the different GO and NGOs now, as a result of the 'suboptimal' planning and communication during the Tsunami disaster. And corruption.. well, the Haitian government seems so nonfunctional that the president might give wide-ranging authority to the UN. That's at least what I hope for.
Another problem I see is people, in an act of blind actionism, donating way to much money. The biggest charity in Switzerland received massive amounts of money during the tsunami disaster, and they had no idea how to spend it. In the end they've built a complete village... which no one wants to live in. Meanwhile, people in disaster area of low intensity and thus low media value are still suffering, and actually receive less help, because people donate for a specific purpose only, instead donating to the charity in general.

I was on a series of conference calls today with other members in the jamaican Diaspora in the NorthEast and we are waiting on word from the Consul General in Miami on how we can respond appropriately. Other Caribbean governments are working together to respond to the disaster alongside the US and like Balou stated the logistics of getting the aid to those most in need is mind numbing.
The Jamaican Prime Minister is going to Haiti tomorrow with members of Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Managemenat and we will have another conference call tomorrow afternnoon to go over their report
There are more than a few occasions today of people flying into the Dominican Republic and then making their way across DR into Haiti but that is being discouraged. As I get more info I can pass it on to anyone who mighht be interested. I will be sending pretty much most of my collection to team members that are going to Haiti...with the hopes of getting them back of course but if they don't come back at least they will be put to good use.

As terrible as such a disaster is, it is heartwarming and inspiring to see the depth of concern so many are expressing in tangible ways.

It seems as though there has been another earthquake in the area of Haiti, a 4.7, which is probably an aftershock. I hope this one doesn't cause more damage. I especially hope there are no tsunamis hitting the shores or taking out the incoming emergency aid ships. These people need our prayers. They have mine. I pray that help arrives quickly, that infrastructure problems and government corruption don't get in the way of needed help, and that nothing else bad happens to these people. They have already suffered enough.

Another issue is that building standards there are not nearly as strong as they are here.

A 7.0 quake would be enough to level every building in its path. The 500,000 figure could very well be realistic. I've heard that all of their houses of government have literally collapsed.