by Donald Rosenberry

Created on: January 16, 2010

The world watches a tragedy unfold. The catastrophe in Haiti is the stuff of nightmares. Construction in this, one of the poorest nations on earth and the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, has little if any earthquake mitigating engineering. In addition, the type of earthquake they endured is the most devastating in terms of the destruction of buildings.

In fact, though there is tremendous destruction in Port Au Prince, neither San Francisco or Tokyo would have fared much better if the same geological phenomena were to strike there. The destruction is nearly complete, what the world must do is handle the aftermath. 

A small island nation with few natural resources and precious little infrastructure in the best of times is even more desperately affected in times of crisis and the world has a moral responsibility to act. 

The United States is in a unique position to take charge of international relief efforts. Not out of the arrogance of affluence, but in this case because the US is the closest nation to the crisis with the ability to help. 

The true first responders, formally trained individuals who miraculously survived aided by everyone else who remained able-bodied have done the immediate work as best they can. Now external aid must step in to help those “people helping people” to give them a chance for immediate survival.

Then the crisis must be dealt with in a logical order. The US military has the capability to airlift additional, specially trained first responders and search and rescue teams, both military and civilian, to preserve as many lives as possible. These teams will require a logistics tail to support their activities, which will primarily be provided by helicopter.

In the meantime, the international community, who has already begun to amass supplies and relief teams, will be preparing to move in to Haiti to begin relief efforts. This is when it begins to become a complex logistical process—the aid must be provided but that effort requires measured action. 

The first step is to determine what can be accepted and what can be done to increase the reception capability. Suddenly launching a massive air bridge into the island carrying tons of supplies is actually counterproductive. Aircraft cannot land until the airfield has been assessed and, if needed, repaired.  Roads have to be cleared and distribution points set up. 

A first priority

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