So, exactly how...?

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

are the people in Haiti supposed to get the medical attention they need when planes with medical equipment and supplies are being turned away

Unacceptable.

 

[mom'sfolly]

They are being turned away because there is only one functional runway at the Port au Prince airport. This is the bottleneck to the whole operation. I believe that several countries are also sending hospital boats into the area.

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

mom'sfolly :

They are being turned away because there is only one functional runway at the Port au Prince airport. This is the bottleneck to the whole operation. I believe that several countries are also sending hospital boats into the area.

I don't buy it.

A Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) cargo plane carrying 12 tons of medical equipment, including drugs, surgical supplies and two dialysis machines, was turned away three times from Port-au-Prince airport since Sunday night despite repeated assurances of its ability to land there.​

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

Turned away by whom and assurances from whom? The country is in turmoil and communication is shot. Leadership is non-existent. The airport is bottled up with more planes wanting to land than they usually see in a year. Air traffic control tower is down. I watched them helicopter in troops and supplies today while the crowds clapped and cheered.

But, boats will have trouble too the harbor is full of wharfs and docks and one huge crane that toppled into the water.

A week is a long time, but this is a huge operation being mounted.....

 

[redhen]

Are they at least plane dropping supplies yet?? I know they are sending troops over..

 

[redstars]

Quote:
Yes they are dropping supplies.
It was on the news this morning.I can't believe they took a week to do it.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

It didn't take them a week to get supplies there, it is just that demand is so very high that there was no way to get the volume of supplies there quickly when transportation is so damaged. Air dropped supplies are dangerous, they hurt civilians and frequently only the strong and the fast get the supplies and many of it is so damaged by the drop as to be useless. Air drops are a last resort.

What I was waiting for them to do is rain down MREs and water pouches. I don't think they did. Dropped by themselves they should have been fine.

 

[FarmerChick]

From an article"

But the good news was overshadowed by the frustrating fact that the world still can't get enough food and water to the hungry and thirsty.

"We need so much. Food, clothes, we need everything. I don't know whose responsibility it is, but they need to give us something soon," said Sophia Eltime, a 29-year-old mother of two who has been living under a bedsheet with seven members of her extended family.

The World Food Program said more than 250,000 ready-to-eat food rations had been distributed in Haiti by Tuesday, reaching only a fraction of the 3 million people thought to be in desperate need.

___________________________

Haiti was hit by a 6.1 aftershock...WOW

How do you feed/water/cloth and more supplies to handle 3 million people?

It is mind boggling the amt. of help they require.

 

[Camelot Farms]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/20/haiti.earthquake/index.html?hpt=C1

Talks about this mornings aftershock AND the US Comfort which is a state of the art medical ship. They will be able to ferry the injured to the ship for treatment, taking the pressure off of the hospitals. They have already begun air lifting some of the more serious cases to the ship.

It sounds like the Comfort is a mobile hospital complete with OR's etc.

God bless all who are working to help in Haiti.