Just five years after an earthquake that killed nearly a quarter of million people, yet another disaster has occurred taking the lives of hundreds of thousands. Waves from a tsunami were not needed in Haiti this past Tuesday to cause nearly as much destruction as was felt by the Indonesian people during the 2004 tsunami.
..........On Tuesday, January 12 at approximately 5:00 p.m. a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck through the Haitian Capital of Port-Au-Prince. This quake has estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people. In addition, to the initial quake, there have been 41 aftershocks in the region affecting recovery efforts and causing further alarm amongst the people of Haiti.
..........Fortunately, support is flooding into the country from throughout the world, but time is critical due to the number of fallen structures and the number of people that may be trapped inside. The most important concern now is getting to where the people are and getting them out before it is too late.
..........It has been shocking to hear everything that is going on in Haiti. As a child, I remember reading and hearing of Haiti while in grade school, with focus on the poverty of the nation. To see a disaster strike a nation like this, I knew that the outcome was going to be bad. My first thought when hearing of the quake was that this was going to be one of the biggest natural disasters that we have seen in a while.
..........Some of the worst stories started coming out this past Friday. While I was watching Cnn, I was hearing of the lack of doctors for the injured. More specifically, doctors were walking out of one particular medical site for “security risks," which did not affect others who stayed to help the patients, such as Sanjay Gupta. Some of these patients were only hours out of amputation procedures. Fortunately, as of Saturday morning these doctors have since returned to this medical site.
..........I was also rather disturbed to hear about how the dead are being handled. I understand that something needs to be done, these bodies obviously pose a health risk. However, these are also people's loved ones. Some people may never know what happened to their loved ones because bodies are being taken by truckloads and buried, with no effort to get information such as photos that could later be used to tell if peoples loved ones are among the buried.
..........As tragic as this story is now it could potentially get worse. My concern coming from a healthcare perspective is the health care risks that will come from all of the devastation. With little or no access to running water and adequate sanitation as the dead lie in the streets, communicable diseases will become a concern. This will have to be the focus of volunteers in the coming weeks and months as the city tries to recover and rebuild.
For more on the Haitian disaster or on how to donate, click one of the following links:
Sources:
www.cnn.com
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