Help for Haiti

[Planet]

Our hearts and prayers go out to all of those effected by the disaster in Haiti.

You can help immediately by donating to the Red Cross to assist the relief effort. Contriubute online here, or donate $10 to be charged to your cell phone bill by texting "HAITI" to "90999."

[david petley]

...thanks for posting this Planet. I was a bit surprised to not see a thread minutes after the initial magnitude 7 quake.

There is a list of disaster relief and aid organisations at this link -
http://content.usatoday.com/communit...i-earthquake/1

Here are some videos which give some idea of the level of destruction.

davidp

[Frets]

Bill Clinton is on the job.
Considering his work on tsunami relief he's the right guy for it.
Granted it will take more then someone calling the shots. It will take work and money to rebuild Haiti,

Itopefully the relief will come as quick as possible and be sufficient so the people there can start rebuilding thier lives.

[NOH3SiiTATiiONZ]

3 million people in need of emergency aid so many donations are gunna be needed,, i agree with the guy above, Bill Clinton is deffinately the man for the job(:

[atRax]

They need people to teach them how to grow crops, reforestation, exports and how to build strong building against hurricanes and quakes like that.

Here in Samoa we had a 8,3 earthquake for 3:40 sec and no building fall at ALL.... ok there was a Tsunami so now people are building in higher grounds.

Its a really sad event for this poor country but maybe its a good moment for a change in their way of life as a nation. I wish them a 10 year straight with no problems!

[david petley]

What they need right now is food, emergency shelter & water so if you are donating, donate to organisations that can deliver that, and soon.

They have no infrastructure left at all really, so the world has to go in and do some saving (where is Superman when you really need him).

Samoa has a population of around 200,000 ...Port-au-Prince had a population of 3,000,000, and early estimates are putting the death toll at maybe 100,000.

davidp

[Frets]

I agree with David. The first thing to do is save as many as possible, Then get on with rebuilding the country.

[WannaBe_80z]

I think that's what he meant. Obviously save them all and send emergency help but once everything is "stable" when they begin the rebuild. Then a nation that has some insight on their same natural disaster events they get hit with and help them prevent this from happening again.

[atRax]

...prevent this from happening again.

and it will : http://scienceblogs.com/highlyalloch...ti_earthqu.php

Of course they need the obvious water,food, shelter to start with medical and bulldozers. Than comes the carpenters, psychotherapist and school prevention.

Theirs a lot to dig and bury I give them 6 months of clean up before it looks devastated but walkable with not that many trash all around.

imo it was that or more war for this overpopulated region. I know its sad and history teach us that a nation can come back from a collapse but it needs to consider mother nature in the first place.

[david petley]

google have a put a good resource online at - http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/

davidp

[david petley]

The news stories starting to come out now are horrifying

for example ...just saw a vision bite of a dutch surgeon working in a tent with no floor, who had amputated more than 20 limbs that day ...with a hacksaw.

david

[david petley]

Reports are indicating that over 70,000 bodies have already been buried in mass graves, and the final death toll could exceed 200,000.

david

[WannaBe_80z]

This is just getting worse everyday. A really tragic thing going on over there.

It really does hit home in thinking that maybe all these science fiction movies aren't too far fetched. All we need it one massive earthquake big enough to trigger others around the world and we could have a VERY devastating event on our hands

[david petley]

Yes, it is really tragic and the movies could never prepare one for such a reality.

It is estimated now that possibly 200,000 people died, another 250,000 injured and over 1.5 million people homeless with no real infrastructure to help them.

the World Food Program is planning a tent camp for 100,000 people - an instant city the size of Burbank, California

...and they will need a few more of those.

david

[Planet]

The stories coming out now of survivors that have been buried for 6 days now are simply amazing. I just heard a story of a man who would not give up on his wife and after the construction equipment had stopped digging for the day, he stood by vigilantly calling for her in the rubble throughout last night only to hear her voice cry out from beneath. They pulled her out a few hours later with only minor injuries.

[gerbick]

Haiti was just hit with a 6.1 magnitude aftershock this morning - early report here

[david petley]

body count is 170,000 ...and more will be discovered as the clean-up continues.

Tents are needed to house more than 1,000,000 people.

david

[david petley]

the Haitian government has lifted the official death toll to 230,000 (and I guess they will be adjusting this figure for a while yet).

davidp

[david petley]

...in response to a since deleted post.

This is hardly the topic to be debating semantics, since all government money is the people's money anyway. Donate it and claim the tax deduction, or pay the tax and let the government spend it.

It is not about where it comes from, it is about the need of the survivors for assistance, and that costs money. Many nations worldwide have come to the party, so whether Bill Clinton is personally involved or not doesn't really matter.

davidp