With the USGS confirming that the earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday was 7.0 in magnitude, the scale of the devastation in the Caribbean nation begins to make sense. While details were scarce on Wednesday, in the last 48 hours, numerous reports and images have begun to emerge from the re... [ read more >> ]
With the USGS confirming that the earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday was 7.0 in magnitude, the scale of the devastation in the Caribbean nation begins to make sense. While details were scarce on Wednesday, in the last 48 hours, numerous reports and images have begun to emerge from the region. In addition to on-scene reporting, satellite images were also made available to search&rescue teams in Haiti and abroad. Already, emergency response teams are at the location in the poor nation, and others as far as Taiwan are getting ready to move there too, or are already en route.
Venezuela, Great Britain, Taiwan, the United States, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Cuba have already sent teams in Haiti, and some of the groups have already reached the theater of operations and are conducting relief efforts. The United States have sent an aircraft carrier and a bunch of other support vessels in the region, as well as a contingent of more than 2,000 soldiers. It is still unclear if they are to secure peace, or to help with the relief efforts, but Obama said shortly after the tremor that Haiti would benefit from the fullest cooperation and support on the part of the US.
The Brazilian Army, which also intervened, set up camps of tents and started providing emergency medical assistance to the victims. The field hospitals that Cuba had in the country were overrun with injured people since the first hours after the earthquake struck.
In spite of being under international embargo, Cuba has hospitals in many countries around the world, in which it provides medical assistance for the poor. Regardless of the efforts set forth by these countries and Haitian authorities, the situation is growing desperate, on account of the tens of thousands of people that were injured or killed in the shallow tremor.
UNICEF has also begun relief efforts aimed at the children of Haiti. Of the 9.6 million inhabitants that the Caribbean nation has, more than half are below the age of 21. The UN agency has dispatched teams from its New York, Panama and Dominican Republic centers, to aid with the relief efforts, and to deliver medication to the affected people.
Some of the most basic supplies include oral rehydration salts (that prevent diarrhea), water-purification tablets, and tarpaulins / tents, for temporal housing. The Venezuelan response team has also brought in numerous medical equipments, and the Los Angeles team, which is due to arrive shortly, also carries with it impressive amounts of supplies.
Satellites have done their part as well. The GeoEye 1 Earth-observing spacecraft has captured, on Wednesday, its first images of the affected areas. The large scale of the devastation could be seen for the first time from low-Earth orbit. The new datasets help experts devise rescue plans, and also map the areas that are most likely to have many victims. This, in turn, helps them prioritize their efforts, and makes their work a lot more efficient. In addition, the new maps are compared with old ones of the same locations, and then experts identify the hardest hit areas. More supplies can then be redirected to those locations, where people need them more.
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Source:http://news.softpedia.com/news/Exemplary-International-Mobilization-Aid-Haitians-132158.shtml
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