It’s been a busy year starting with Haiti, then onto the floods in Rhode Island, tornadoes in Mississippi and Alabama, floods in Nashville and now the Gulf Oil Spill. We are accustomed to dealing with earthquakes, floods and tornadoes, but when the Gulf Disaster began, the Team questioned whether or not they should get involved, but knew the only way to find out was to get on the ground and see for ourselves.
We were given a warm welcome by Lt. General Russel Honoré and The National Guard and immediately were asked to support the Guard in the construction of tiger dams. Water pumps are used to create dams and we have high-powered water pumps that were able to double the production of the building process. We also have a tremendous amount of low ground pressure equipment able to work on the soft sandy beaches and marshy wetlands. In most situations, with the tides coming in and out most wheeled machines and vehicles would simply sink so our gear was the best for this situation in moving the pumps and setting the dams along the shoreline of LA.
The purpose of these dams is to create a wall about 20 feet from the shore line. Because the oil is here and is being pushed onto the beaches by the waves, the walls keep the oil on a small portion of the beach instead of the whole beach allowing a small area where the oil can be cleaned up and removed.
Over the past 6 weeks, the Team has worked tirelessly fighting the good fight. I remember clearly the day when the oil landed on our beaches. The waves became red and the white sand turned black. That day was very emotional, and I could not figure out exactly why. So much of the devastation we encounter regularly includes a tremendous loss of life. Though 11 workers were killed on the oil rig, on that day we were grieving our homeland being invaded by oil. The emotional response was unexpected, and I fear the worst is still to come.
We as American people really have no answers. No one really knows when the well will be capped, if the relief wells they are trying to drill will work, how much oil is spewing into our Gulf daily, how large the plumes are moving like submarines below the surface of our waters and where the currents will take them. What are the long-term effects and could this go down as the worst oil spill in the history of our world?
With all that said, is everything that could be done being done? I think the answer is no. I think the disaster is so large that no one wants to take responsibility for it. This 20 Billion dollar fund is based on what figures? All I know is what I see on the front lines everyday. And what I see is not much.
I believe more can be done and if the opportunity arises or if the Team can create the opportunity, we will. Another fear we face is the imminent hurricane season that is upon us. It was already predicted to be a severe year, but what will the effect be of oil being picked up from the ocean and tossed over our houses, roads and fields. I fear this could become some of our worst nightmares.
Until then, we prepare and work hard daily, looking for solutions and making a difference.
A few weeks ago some of the U.S. Team members returned from Haiti to begin training and preparing the U.S. fleet for the 2010 storm season. Preparedness for us covers FEMA certifications, first aid, swift water and ice rescue training and continually running and servicing all of our equipment so it is ready at a moment’s notice.
Though the team is still working in Haiti clearing rubble from streets and home sites, we have to be ready and able to respond to the potential floods and tornadoes that will strike early spring and summer in the States. Sure enough, we finished our training just in time.
A few days ago we heard that Rhode Island was going to be in the path of some severe weather in the form of heavy rains and floodwaters. As we worked with some of the best meteorologists in the country we realized Cranston, Warwick and East Warwick were going to get slammed by the worst flooding in 100 years. At first the Pawtuxet River, running through Cranston, was supposed to rise 9 feet above flood stage. To our surprise, it crested at 20.79 feet, 12 feet above flood stage.
We arrived just as the river was about to crest. The team introduced themselves to Chief Gumbley, the Fire Chief for the City of Cranston, RI. After we explained we were there to assist him with water rescues using a hovercraft, free of charge, and it was outside all ready to be deployed, he said, “Ok, let’s do this.”
The calls were coming in left and right, and there was not much time to lose. The chief called for his assistant to work with us for the next 48 hours and respond to any calls that came in having to do with water rescues or water hazards.
Our first task was to inspect factories and office buildings that were along the river that were completely flooded. The water rose so quickly that people could have been caught in the buildings. After that, we received a call about a fully loaded tractor-trailer that was floating down the river headed toward the bridge that connected Cranston and Warwick. The only way to stop it was to cut a hole in the side of the rig, fill it with water and sink it. Throughout the next few days we had calls ranging from people trying to evacuate from their homes with rubber rafts getting caught up in the current to a man rowing out into the bay trying to commit suicide.We also were able to save many animals. At one point Tim had to swim into a home that was mostly under water to save some cats.
I must say I think the most moving event of this response was flying through a neighborhood transporting a citizen and the fire chief to find someone’s cat. As we were flying over the flooded streets, I watched this young man in horror as he saw his brand new truck floating down the street toward the river. He held his head as he saw his home for the first time completely destroyed. He cried and explained he thought his cat would be in the bottom room of his house. At the time we did not have much hope that the cat would be alive but we broke the window and swam in anyway. Sure enough, there was the cat, floating on top of a bucket in the closet.
At that moment the Team and the homeowner forgot about all that was lost and how terribly the storm ravaged everything. At that point all that mattered was that everyone, including the animals were safe. We are always reminded in the most difficult times in life, what really matters. I don’t mean to forsake all that happened in Rhode Island that was terrible, but for a small moment in time, life was put in perspective.
For the past few weeks, CNN has asked me to participate in interviews on the Don Lemon show to specifically discuss the rebuilding phase of Haiti. I usually read the New York Times and a few other publications every morning, and I have been intrigued by the varying views on how to go about three important phases: temporary housing, short-term housing and long-term rebuilding of infrastructure. I have also read so much about the corruption in the government and the abuse of funds that have come into the country in years past.
Then, I spent a few weeks on the ground in Haiti and I got a completely different feel for the country. Everywhere I went, I saw young people, people selling things on the streets, small business and extreme poverty unlike anything I have ever seen before. And part of me said, “What good will it do if we build houses, sewage and water systems and basically just give people a place to live”. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to sound cynical, but wouldn’t it be great if we could teach and educate the Haitian people to dothese things.What if the investment in Haiti could also be in the people and not just in structure and infrastructure? What if schools and clinics could be built in these areas along with housing? Everywhere I went, I saw beautiful hard-working people, but people who were malnutritioned, in need of medical care and in need of learning a trade.
What if there was a huge focus on taking many of the young people in Haiti and teaching them to be doctors, nurses, engineers, architects, builders, welders and truck drivers. I think at that point, we would have not only done something good, but excellent.
The First Response Team of America does something excellent in the United States. We preserve life and jumpstart response and recovery efforts, which lead to communities knowing that they can and will prevail when all has been lost.We are doing the same thing in Haiti, but from being here, I have realized that the Haitian people are in need of an opportunity that so many Americans have been given: a good education.
Opportunity is the greatest gift I have ever been given in this life. If we are responsible with the opportunities that we have been given, they oftentimes cascade into others. The young people of Haiti must be given an opportunity in education if there is ever going to be a change. If we invest in the people of Haiti, there will be an investment that has a great return in the years to come. It will prove to result in sustainability for the future of Haiti and its people.For I believe in this country are those who will one day be the politicians, educators, doctors and engineers leading Haiti to its greatest potential.
I don’t mean to be an eternal optimist, but I can’t help but see beautiful people everywhere I go and a country that is breathtaking. I hope education and nutrition could someday bring an end to the poverty and broken government.
Last night I found a field in which to sit with a view of the ocean and the city of Port-au-Prince in the background. There were patchy areas of the city, some with lights on, others dark and large billows of smoke rising from all over. Sometimes the wind would blow bringing smells of the destruction. From a distance, the view of the sea and mountains were beautiful, but the smells and smoke would throw me back into it all and remind me where I was and what I was seeing.
I read yesterday that the death toll could be at 200,000. I could not help but realize I was looking at a graveyard. As I was touring the city and assessing the damage, I was taken to a 7-story school. I climbed on top of the rubble, located in downtown Port-au-Prince, and I quickly realized that I was standing on top of 7 stories that had been compacted into about 12 feet. There was a crushed globe and homework tossed to the wind with little 1-inch by 1-inch photos of little boys and girls stapled to it. There were crushed desks from the classrooms, tattered clothing strewn about and the smell of all of the bodies still trapped under the rubble.
As I sat and reflected on the day, I could not make sense out of much. I could not find purpose in all of this destruction, even though we try to find and embrace the silver lining. All I could come away with is to love and cherish every moment of every day with the ones you love. There is no promise of tomorrow here. Really, I know that sounds trite, but it’s true. You just never know. Spend life investing in the things that really matter. Yes, life ebbs and flows for all of us. We have good days, bad days, and horrific days. But, if you are lucky enough to have friends, to have family to have someone to love, appreciate every moment you have with them. That, I believe, is what makes life beautiful. To be present, to feel alive, to know you are breathing. Now, that’s what matters.
Things are moving along here in Haiti, and they are much smoother than you would have expected overall. Although, there have been many things to figure out. I’m still amazed that we are here with heavy equipment and are working daily.
We have had a few scares. Yesterday, we were approached by a group of people demanding money as we were going to empty the trucks at the dumps. They were wielding machetes and screaming, but I could not understand them because of the language barrier.
After that incident, I hired someone to drive with us at all times who could interpret. What’s been happening is when we get within a mile of the dumps, people start running alongside the trucks, and they jump onto the trucks and climb up the sides, while we’re still moving. As we get closer to the dump sites, they begin to go through the rubble in the back of the trucks, looking for metal. The reason being is that they can take the metal and sell it for food and clothing.
Sometimes when you write about it a day later it’s easy to be passive about it, but I remember at the time that it was pretty scary.
Probably the most moving part of the day was at the end. The sun was going down, and I found a safe place to dump the concrete debris way in the back of the dumping area. There, I was greeted by a group of little boys. Most likely, they ranged in age from 4-7. They were barely clothed, waiting for me to dump the truck to see if there may be anything of value in the rubbish. These little black skinned boys were covered in white concrete dust looking up at me speaking loudly in French. My interpreter said, “They are telling you that this is their new home, they have no place to go, their parents and family were killed in the quake, and they are hungry.”
I stood there for a little while. We just looked at each other. I knew there was nothing I could do. I knew there were tens of thousands of boys and girls like this. I could do nothing. I would have a picture in my blog about this, but decided it was not right. How could I even capture that moment in a photo. It is a terrible thing that has happened here to these people. There are so many different views. Some religious people say that this happened because years ago the country was dedicated to Satan. Others say there is no hope for these people because the government has done them wrong for so many years due to its corruption. Then some will go as far as to say these people were poor already and they are lazy and are looking for a handout.
I say, there are a lot of hurting people here. There are a lot of hurting people all over this world. As far as I’m concerned, what I see here are victims; victims of a terrible and vicious earthquake. We can’t make everything better. All we can do is help; help one person at a time, one good deed at a time. May we all make an investment in this life that our time will have a good return. Help those victims that you may see in your own world.
I’m thankful for the opportunity that I have been given in this life. I’m thankful for good parents; I’m thankful for being born in America. I hope that you and I can be thankful and responsible with the opportunities that we have been given in this life. It’s the only one we have here. Make each day count.
It was a little over two weeks ago when a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti. The reports kept flooding in from everywhere about how bad it was, but what was even more concerning was how little everyone knew about the extent of the damage.There are an estimated 10 million people living in Haiti. The worst hit area was Port-au-Prince, with 2 million residents.Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, with 80% of its citizens living under the poverty line, and with no real building codes.In the United States, we have strict standards for construction, using rebar reinforced concrete.In a place like Haiti, the poor construction and lack of infrastructure provides no safe haven for this type of earthquake.At first there were reports of 50,000 dead, then 100,000, and now it’s been confirmed that there are more than 150,000 dead.In 1989, an earthquake struck San Francisco, also measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale.That quake killed 63 people.Two earthquakes, measuring the same on the Richter scale, and yet the loss of life is so different.Buildings in Haiti simply crumbled within minutes burying an unknown number of people, the amount of whom, we may never know.
Within a day of the earthquake, many were writing to the First Response Team asking if we were going to respond.My heart was aching for those suffering from the earthquake, but I saw no other option but to write back and explain that we did not have the resources to respond.With the present economy and our young age as a non-profit, we are still struggling to stay afloat.To haul heavy equipment likes ours, overseas, is an expensive operation. I didn’t see a way that we could do it.But each time I went to send my response, I couldn’t.I could not hit the send button.I was haunted by the scenes of people standing in the rubble; people trapped with others trying to break them free.Then I saw a picture of a woman standing up straight, from the waist down wedged in by concrete, with her upper body free. She was stuck, and she looked into the camera with the eyes of sadness and hopelessness. There were tens of thousands of people buried, and I just could not turn away.
I had never shipped equipment overseas before, but I was determined to figure it out. The other conflict I was trying to mitigate was how we would help the people of Haiti without abandoning our commitments to America.With the looming storm season, I decided the only way we were going to be able to do both was to commission a new fleet of equipment and a new team just for Haiti. I quickly got on the phone and over a 4 hour period was able to secure a Peterbilt Tri-Axle dump truck from The Pete Store and a Towmaster Trailer from Towmaster. Then Cleveland Brothers CAT decided to donate the use of a CAT 312 Excavator with a claw/thumb. For those of you who don’t know what any of that is, basically it is enormous equipment that has the capability of grabbing, lifting and hauling large pieces of quake debris such as slabs of concrete.
Over the next week it was a difficult task to figure out how to transport all of this gear around the country and get it all to converge at one of The Pete Stores, which ended up being in Baltimore. When on site Jeff Arscott and his team took the truck trailer and excavator and began to fabricate a hitch and get everything ready to head out of the country. The crews worked around the clock while I worked on securing a ship to get our gear to Haiti.
I called Samaritan’s Purse, a great organization with tremendous resources, who also have the experience of helping communities devastated by disasters all over the world. We were able to partner with them and put some of our gear on a barge that they secured.
I’m making it sound simple and straightforward, but it was far from it.Securing trucks, trailers and a barge is no easy task, especially when you are heading into a country where most of the ports have been destroyed.
The Team and I flew into Port-au-Prince just a few days ago, and our gear arrives first thing tomorrow morning. Our first task is going to take place in one of the poorest communities in the country; a community that also has one of the worst crime rates in the world. It’s called Cité Soleil. There are 200,000 people living there and more than 90% of them are without a job. Aid organizations have been having a difficult time distributing aid in that area because of the challenges with security. When I went down to see the city, there were thousands of people in the streets getting water from a broken pipe. The pipe is purposely cracked, and a few hours a day the government opens the pipe so that people can clean themselves and get water.
We believe that if trucks with emergency aid supplies come in, the crowds will overtake the trucks. There is a need for an organized distribution so that more people don’t get hurt. There is a church in the community that has an enormous broken wall around it, but it has completely crumbled. We are going to take our equipment down to this location as soon as the boat lands, and we will immediately remove all of the rubble around this church and assist in erecting a new wall.After the wall is up, Samaritan’s Purse will be able to set up a stable medical clinic and bring in the needed supplies that the community needs.With the new, safe and secure environment, emergency aid can be distributed safely and in an organized fashion.
After that we will be headed to another nearby city called Leogon.At first glance, 90% of the city has been destroyed.
I think I’ll stop here. I don’t want to even begin to describe the sites. It would not be right. Everyone has seen enough. The sadness and pain left in the wake of this catastrophic devastation is beyond words. We are here.There are many here. I hope our resources will be unique and will begin to make a difference. The team and the new gear will be here for at least one year. We can’t heal the wounds here, but we can help in our way. Somehow, someway everything is going to be ok.
Winter is here, and we are about one week away from Christmas. What a challenging year it has been for many on multiple fronts. I hope the holidays will bring many together and find happiness in friends and family...what life is really all about. The team is dispersed and home with their own families, the weather looks cold and calm and the fleet is sitting in PA. In a week or two we’ll get back together and begin training, which will cover a broad range of preparedness from FEMA, Red Cross, swift water rescue, communication, medical, gas and electrical, handling hazardous debris and much more.
For those of you who follow us on our blog we thank you and look forward to keeping in touch with you in the coming storm season as we meet people in their hour of need. As I reflect on what it is I’m thankful for this year...it’s all of the folks I have met, who have lost so much and who have multiple reasons to grieve, but press on as the sun comes up each day. They inspire me to keep on in this life. Like our good friends from Parkersburg, IA, who lost their town and coach, this world is full of people who live with strength and honor each day. May we take notice and try to emulate the best in people.
It’s just odd that the worst in life can often times bring out the best. Each day is a gift...cherish the ones you love. Happy Holidays to you and yours and savor each moment this life has to offer us.
