Article in Gilroy Dispatch

Our local newspaper, the Gilroy Dispatch, had an article today that referenced my trip to Haiti as well as another Gilroy resident who was over there. Follow the link to read the story - Click Here

Scholastic Kid Report interviewing Harry Smith from CBS News

My brother Bill put this in a blog comment and it's worth making sure everyone has the option to see this.

First, the kid that interviews him is great, really good questions and very articulate.  But what is really important is hearing Harry Smith describe what he went through over there and how he is dealing with this after his trip over there.  For someone that has seen so much, it is amazing how much this trip impacted him.  Post Traumatic Stress is going to be a problem I think for not only the victims, but those that went over to help.  Worthy viewing.

They are on a plane to Atlanta

I did not get much in the way of details, they were running to get on the plane as we spoke.  I believe it may be a commercial Delta flight, but I don't know for sure and I don't know when it will be arriving.  They will call me when they get there and we'll figure out if we can get them home from Atlanta today or tomorrow.

Apparently they were just sitting on the tarmac, waiting for flight options, there is no terminal, everything is outdoors. 

Video from Alden Ho at one of the clinics being run today

Here's a video that Alden Ho posted on Facebook showing one of the clinics in operation today.

Chris at Port au Prince Airport

Chris called this morning around 6 AM PST to let me know they made it to the airport and are now trying to figure out how to get out.  They are waiting for military transports that have seats available (if you carry a US Passport you can get on one of these).  There are some commercial flights going out but they come at a cost of $600 p/seat.  So they will wait and she will call once she hears more information.

Alden Ho Photos

I've included some Alden Ho photos in the Flickr photo slide show I posted yesterday.  There are some new ones today, I will add them to the slide show but I thought I would include some here as well so you can see them directly.  All photos © Alden J. Ho Photography, aldenho.com and used with permission. You can find Alden on Facebook too and see all of his pictures, warning though, there are some graphic pictures of amputations there as well.

This is Michelle and Chris Gonzales getting prepped to head out for the day

Here are two of the three clinic teams in the back of a panel van getting ready to head out for the day

Clinics setup seeing patients, this is Tricia and a translator working with a patient.  They saw over 300 patients per team in about 5 hours time.

Clinic setup, lines of people waiting to be seen

I think this is Nitti working with a boy.  Lots of scabies and lice.

Here's my Chris with a patient

Photos from Michelle Cabasaan

Michelle posted more photos on Facebook today, I'm re-posting them here for everyone else to see.  She mentioned that she is trying to minimize Internet usage from her phone because she learned how expensive it is, but she will post more.  She volunteered for the Search and Recovery mission today with Union College.  They have located 3 victims so far just by moving a little rubble.

You can click on the photos for a larger version.

Looks like they're getting ready to head out for the day.  Chris on the left, with ChrisP next to him.  Tricia is in the front and I apologize I forgot the name of the others.  If someone can post in the comments their names I won't forget in the other photos, I met them quickly!
 

 

This is Michelle with Polly.  They are trying to recover her family members.  Michelle says that Polly will probably be on HBO and / or Oprah.

This was a six story apartment building

Epicenter location

I thought it was a little interesting to see where the epicenter of the big quake was as it relates to Port Au Prince and the hospital location where the team is at.  The first picture from Google Earth below shows that distance for each location.  The second picture is zoomed out a little more and shows the relative intensity of the shaking across the area. 

You can click on each picture for a larger view.

Photos from Michelle Cabasaan

Apparently Michelle's cell phone is working from over there and she has been posting pictures from today on Facebook, so I lifted some of those photos and am putting them up here.  All photos were taken by Michelle with a cell phone camera, these are from today, the first day the team is actually working with patients. 

I have not talked with Chris yet today, I think I probably won't hear from her until tonight.

You can click on these pictures individually to see slightly larger versions.

What do you want to know?

I've been learning a lot and posting up information that I can find that is helpful for me.  Over the next few days I'll be speaking with Chris, short phone calls, but I should be able to ask some questions about what is going on, what she and the team are experiencing, etc.  What types of things would you like to know?  Please post your comments with questions and I'll do my best to get them answered for you.

Hospital Adventist on Google Satellite

In these three images (click on them to see larger versions) you can see how things have changed around the hospital since the earthquake struck. The first image is from August, well before the disaster, then you have two images post disaster. The second image is from January 13th (the day after) and the final image is from January 21st.

2009 Tax Year Deduction for Contributions to Haiti Relief Efforts

Remember, on January 22nd a new law was put into place to allow write-offs on this years 2009 tax returns for contributions made to qualified charities after January 11th and before March 1st 2010.

This disaster is huge. Please help the cause, there are many legitimate organizations that can help, for some ideas, click here.

Another call from Chris - Where they are

I received another call from Chris at about 4:45 PM PST, she was in her tent at this point, pretty exhausted, much clearer phone call this time.

With her help I think I located where they are at, I have some pictures below that I will describe shortly.  I am trying to confirm that this is correct with the base camp and will advise when that is the case.

She reiterated the mass devastation, it is like a war zone, bodies everywhere, people everywhere, chaos.  Things are very disorganized, which is not surprising at this point.  She felt tomorrow, her first real day with patients, will be very eye opening.

I found on Google Earth the Hospital Adventist and described the shape, driveway and surrounding areas to Chris.  The name is right and the description sounded right to her, so I believe this is where the team is located right now and will be based out of.  The Google Earth pictures are post earthquake, taken just 7 days ago on January 21st (if you click on the pictures you can see them larger).  You can see all of the tarp tents surrounding the hospital.  Chris said she is across the street in a tent city, I marked this on the map (first picture) with an A.

The other map shows a wider view of Port au Prince as well as the airport that they came into, the straight line distance between the airport and the hospital is just under 7 miles.  She said on the way there they drove by the capital buildings which were destroyed.  This short drive I guess took most of the afternoon.

Below the two pictures I have a link to the hospital with the web based Google Maps, so if you click on that you will be able to browse around the map to get a better idea as to where things are.

View Haiti - Hospital Adventist in a larger map

One word: Devastation

Spoke with Chris just now and she says what you see in the media does not do justice for the amount of devastation there is in Haiti.  Unfortunately the satellite phone quality is not great, we got dropped a couple times and she has heard from others that it is bad for everyone.  But I did get a little information out of her.

She is not completely sure where she is, she said it is at an Adventist Hospital, I'll try to find out from base camp exactly where that is and post information.  She said it took a long time to get there and everything is just destroyed all around, even where she is now.  She has not seen a patient yet, sounds like that will take place starting tomorrow.  Her understanding is that they will be starting at the hospital then venturing out to deal with folks outside of the hospital.

There is no sense of law and order, no police or law enforcement to be seen and it's a little scary from that respect as well as the sheer amount of devastation.  She is upset that she did not bring some sort of video camera or better camera setup (our smaller point and shoot is broken, should have just bought a cheap one for her to take with her), all she has is a couple disposable cameras and she is already finished with one of them.  Others on the team do have cameras though so I will try to get some stuff from them as well to post when they get back.

I probably will not hear from her until sometime tomorrow, but the news at this point is that they have arrived at the area where they will be working and will begin to try and help tomorrow.

Satellite phone works!

She called, plane did land and they are on the tarmac just standing around for now waiting to find out what is next.  She said United was AWESOME in the way they were treated and how the flight was handled.  She'll try to check in later.

UA 9022 is in transit, next stop Haiti!

Photo 1 - United Check-in @ ORD

Had a brief conversation with Chris late last night, the were headed to the airport after some R&R at the hotel.  Flight departure information was still a little sketchy at that time.  United Airlines flight 9022 is in the air now, headed for Haiti and can be tracked via Flight Tracker (click here for tracking), scheduled arrival is 11 AM EST.  When Chris has a spare moment she will try the satellite phone and check in but I imagine she will be busy upon arrival!  She will not be able to update this directly as she has been, so I will post updates for now as I get them.

More photos from Tricia!

Photo 2 - In the check-in line

Tricia has been great about sending photos via her iPhone and she took a few photos while they were checking in at Chicago (ORD) for this flight.  United has an area setup for all the relief workers there and has a grand welcoming on all their displays (photo 1) for the relief workers and it looks they are making it easy for them to check-in.  She also captured a couple of photos of the team in the check-in line as well as a crew of Water Filtration Specialists that are en-route with them on this flight it seems (photo 4).

Photo 3 - Checkin-in line
 

Photo 4 - Water Treatment Team

The final picture that Tricia sent before departure shows ChrisP and Chris (as my Chris is known by the crew, since Chris Gonzales started in the Kaiser Emergency Department before Chris did, he added the P for Pauley and now they call here "cripsy") getting ready for take-off in FIRST CLASS! Not sure how that happened but I'm guessing everyone was happy getting that treatment!

More to come as soon as I hear details. 

Photo 5 - First Class!

United Airlines flight 9902

An article printed on January 19th in the Chicago Tribune (Chicago is United's home base - click here for the article) discusses flight 9902 (a 757), which is a flight setup specifically for relief efforts.  At the time they were planning 30 flights to deliver much needed aid to Haiti.  This is the flight the team is heading out on.  Since it is a special flight, I don't think it can be tracked in the normal ways.  I'll get a call from Chris tonight before they board (or early morning, depends on when things go) and will try to post the details that they know.  Looks to be about a 5 hour flight.

KTVU Channel 2 Video of Chris and team leaving for Haiti

The video that was aired tonight has been posted on KTVU Channel 2's website.   You can view the video by clicking here.


http://www.ktvu.com/video/22360785/