By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Washington — The U.S. Agency for International Development has dispatched a disaster assessment team along with a U.S. military assessment team to determine the scope of the humanitarian crisis affecting the Haitian people in the aftermath of one of the region’s most violent earthquakes in a century.
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said January 13 that an agency Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) was expected to arrive in Haiti from San Jose, Costa Rica, about 1:30 p.m. EST (18:30 GMT) to assess the crisis even as relief efforts from governments and relief agencies gear up their responses. He said two urban search-and-rescue teams with 72 personnel each are being sent to Haiti.
In addition to a USAID mission already in Haiti, the deputy commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), Army Lieutenant General P.K. Keen, is in Port-au-Prince and has already begun providing an assessment for the U.S. military, SOUTHCOM Commander General Douglas Fraser said at a special briefing January 13 in Washington.
USAID is working in conjunction with the U.S. departments of State, Defense and Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in mounting relief efforts, he added.
Virginia Task Force 1, which is an international urban search-and-rescue team from the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department in Northern Virginia, is expected to arrive about 3 p.m. EDT (20:00 GMT) in Haiti from Dulles International Airport outside Washington. The Los Angeles County Fire Department Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 2 has also been tapped to go to Haiti. Shah said 48 tons of emergency rescue equipment is being sent by USAID. A third team based in Miami is being prepared for deployment.
“Our teams have been working in a coordinated and aggressive way … all night to make sure that the U.S. mounts an effective response in supporting saving lives, which is [President Obama’s] absolute top priority for this period of 72 hours when we will try to search and save as many lives as we can,” Shah said. Haiti has a population of more than 9 million people.
Shah said he consulted with U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten in Port-au-Prince, who indicated that the Haitian government’s first concern is saving as many lives as possible, which is why the search-and-rescue teams are being rushed to Haiti.
“We begin by getting our teams on the ground with the effective logistics and support to begin a search-and rescue-operation,” Shah said. “On the ground, the [U.S.] Embassy team and the USAID mission that’s already there … will be working effectively and aggressively to identify which sites and which buildings the teams start with.”
Shah said USAID will be using U.S. military assets, including Air Force transport and the U.S. Coast Guard, in getting relief support to critical areas. Injured U.S. Embassy personnel were evacuated by a Coast Guard helicopter, State Department counselor Cheryl Mills said at the special briefing January 13.
The Pentagon said the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship that is now berthed in Baltimore, has begun recalling its crew and is preparing to sail for Haiti, though it could take several weeks for the ship to arrive. Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. military worked through the night preparing the response to this disaster.
Fraser of SOUTHCOM said U.S. Coast Guard cutters and Navy ships in the region are being sent to Haiti to offer assistance, though they have limited relief supplies and helicopters. The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group is being sent from Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia with a full complement of aircraft and helicopters, and is expected to arrive in the early afternoon on January 14. While at sea, additional helicopter groups will be added to the Vinson, Fraser said.
Helicopters provide rapid transportation and evacuation support in natural disasters. They can deliver supplies and remove the injured, especially in remote areas where ground transportation cannot go.
Fraser said the airport in Port-au-Prince is not fully operational so the Air Force is sending a team to get the runways open and the flight control tower operating. A significant effort will be made to provide rapid communications, he said, which is critical to any effective relief operation.
Preliminary estimates by the International Red Cross indicate that at least 3 million Haitians and others, which is effectively about a third of the country’s population, may be affected by the earthquake. The magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the island nation January 12 at 4:53 p.m. EDT (21:53 GMT), according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s initial report. The epicenter of the earthquake was approximately 15 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and about 1,140 kilometers (710 miles) southeast of Miami, the Geological Survey said.
The State Department has set up a special telephone line — 1-888-407-4747 — to help Americans trying to locate family members who may be in Haiti. There are between 40,000 and 45,000 U.S. citizens living and working in Haiti.
