Word from Haiti: Former Beach resdident serves on Search and Rescue team
These email excerpts are from Rodney Melsek, brother of Lee who also grew up on Fort Myers Beach and now lives in Sacramento, Calif. He is part of the management team for Search and Rescue team who arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Jan. 14.
Jan. 19: I have been in Haiti with earthquake relief efforts for 5 days now. We were rockin’ and rollin’ this morning (6:03 a.m. EST) with a 6.1 earthquake aftershock. The building I am in swayed back and forth for 10 to 15 seconds quite a bit. I was standing on the second floor landing and grabbed the handrail of the steps in front of me. I am in the US Embassy and it swayed from one side to the other, back and forth quite a lot. Scary. But all my colleagues and I are fine. I’m here with 22 of the best management folks in FEMA helping USAID and othersin response efforts from the big one last week. Haven’t had a shower in a week, and good food is hard to find. Mostly hot dogs, rice and Meals Ready to Eats from Army. And no cold Pepsi (I’m dying for that). I should loose a few pounds, something I could use. I suppose. Can’t stay by the computer much longer this morning, connectivity is poor to say the least. Phones here only work sometimes and computers just as much trouble. My colleagues taking lots of digital picutres so I should have some to share when I get home (don’t know when). Very very hot here, but no rain which is good for us. Mostly still a ‘search and rescue’ mission and know medical assistance is next on the priority list. Don’t know what CNN etc. are saying about this, but we are trying out best down here believe me. Traffic is a nightmare. Five miles can take an hour easily. I can’t believe I’m missing all the big games back home this time of year! Lots of aid from all over the world coming in. The first night I was here I had to sleep on the ground next to the runway at the airport with C-130s landing and taking off every 10 minutes. Not a good nite. Sleeping on the ground at my age (stinks.) I came from Sacramento and traveled thru Clearwater, FL. So, got to go. I’ll be back in touch when I can be. Just thought you’d like to know my comings and goings.
Jan. 21: Another day in paradise. Two big aftershocks today within an hour, between 4 and 5 on the scale. I was in American Embassy and floor and walls moved. But nothing like the one the other day at 6.1. That was really scary. I thought the building was coming down. But weather is beautiful. The big issue now is trying to get Port operations going. They lost a lot at the Port, craine and pier(s). But most supplies will be coming by ship from now on and they need a working port. Don’t know all details yet. Search and rescue about over, maybe 2 more days or so. Then comes debris removal, clearing the streets, assessing infrastructure and the rest. Lots of folks still need food and water daily-this is largest challenge by far. I’m still on MREs from the Army, but small cafe in Embassy now open with sandwiches and fruit juice. They make their own french bread here and it is wonderful. In the mist of all this destruction and misery, the french bread is a shining star. Of course I would give anything for a pizza and a Pepsi. We have electric, and brought communications vehicles with us that allow FEMA to network into web etc. I sleep on a cot now, compliments of the New York Search & Rescue Team. So I’m finaly getting as few hours of pretty good sleep per night. No shower in 6 days now and none on the horizon. Oh well. I once went 90 days while in the Peace Corps in Africa without a shower and I remember how that was. I can’t wait for a good shower back in a hotel in Miami when we get out of here. I may have to peel these clothes off. The folks I work with are great, keeping our spirits up in the midst of this misery is hard. Expecially when you see the children. It is difficult for me to describe here. Like children everywhere, they are so innocent and wide-eyed. They certainly didn’t deserve this disaster. There are no schools in Port-au-Prince operational yet and everyone is scrambling for food and water on a daily basis. One of my colleagures is dealing with orphans and that is really a tragedy. So many with so little. But there are a lot of NGOs here (non-governmental relief organizations), possibly the most of any country in the world. They have networks of folks whom they supply daily with goods and bless them for that. I have US Coast Guard personnel assigned to work with me and they are super folks, too. They pitch right in and join the battle willingly. The U.S. Army is here, too, mostly providing security around the airport which is still open. Tomorrow the FEMA Administrator, Mr. Craig Fugate coming to see us at work here. He used to be the state of Florida emergency management director. Among other things, I imagine he wants to see how this team is do
ing. I served with him during ther 2004 hurricane season in Florida and it will be good to see him. Usually when someone comes (don’t know if this will apply to him), or when they go to Miami or some other out-of-county city, they bring back ‘goodies’ for us. Tonight someone came from Washington D.C. and brought us a box of chocolates, some razors, mouthwash, and other assorted goodies. It was very welcome. Again, reminds me of Africa and the packages of kool-aid friends used to send me there-the most welcome thing I ever needed there. I remember at some point having 25 packages of grape kool-aid on my kitchen counter. Here, a couple of packages of cookies goes a long way. While driving up in the mountains above Port-au-Prince, one of my colleages came upon a road blocked with rocks fallen from the mountainside due to the quake. People were clearing the road by hand and stopped the car to ask for water. When my colleague offered up two bottles of water the people were so thankful and continue to clear the road. I have no idea where they would get their next drink of water.
Jan. 22: Not much to report tonight. A few of my colleagues traveled out to smaller villages today in vehicles and by helicopter to get an estimate of the damage and take some relief supplies to an orphanage-food, water, baby supplies. Some emergency managers who’ve been in this business many, many years told me they’ve never seen such devastation.Relief supplies keep pouring in here, mostly distributed by local NGOs now. The Disaster Assistance Medical Teams have five 80-doctor/nurse teams in country at various locations in and around Port-au-Prince treating patients. The worst of those get shipped out to the USNS Comfort in the harbour for more extensive care. They are trying to get the hospitalsthat were left standing after the quake back in business as soon as they can so that they can begin receiving patients. From a personal perspective, I’m still eating MREs, with only bottled waster to drink. Every day now seems so much like the last, the hours in the day fly by so quickly when you’re really busy. And the work never lets up here. The search and rescue phase of the response is about over, possibly by Monday. Those teams will be packing up and going home I suspect. Then the task of clearing and doing away with debris really begins in earnest. American citizens who were on the island are still being evacuated by plane and many hundreds more remain to evacuate. As relief planes drop off their cargos, they pick up people for the outbound trip. Number of rescues that U.S. Urban Search & Rescue teams are creditied with saving so far in Haitian operation: 43 out of 122 total (others by foreign teams).
Rodney Melsek
FEMA IMAT-N West
Search and Rescue team
Port-au-Prince, Haiti