Haiti Earthquake Relief: How You Can Help

Most of you must have heard how Haiti one of the poorest places on the planet got hit with a major earthquake and being that the structures are so poorly build they have some major death and destruction on their hands. So if any of you guys want to sacrifice maybe your star bucks coffee for a day or two and help I listed some sites below. I’m far from rich in fact money is extremely tight and I sent in 20 bucks so help out if you can even if you send 5 bucks it’s better than nothing.

Haiti Earthquake Relief: How You Can Help

An earthquake centered near the impoverished Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince caused the collapse of several buildings and an unknown number of fatalities Tuesday. The quake measured 7.0 on the Richter scale and at least 1.8 million people live within the area where the earthquake had its highest intensity.

Huffington Post Impact is working to collect a comprehensive list of links and ways to get involved in relief efforts, detailed below.

NOTE: We will continually be updating this page. If you have more information about how people can get involved in relief efforts, leave a comment or e-mail us at impact@huffingtonpost.com.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that his "thoughts and prayers" were with the people of Haiti. "We are closely monitoring the situation and we stand ready to assist the people of Haiti," Obama said in a statement. The Obama administration said that the State Department, USAID and the U.S. military were working to coordinate an assessment of the situation and any possible assistance.

•The American Red Cross is pledging an initial $200,000 to assist communities impacted by this earthquake. They expect to provide immediate needs for food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support. They are accepting donations through their International Response Fund.
https://america n.redcross.org/ … 9a0v901.app194a

•UNICEF has issued a statement that "Children are always the most vulnerable population in any natural disaster, and UNICEF is there for them." UNICEF requests donations for relief for children in Haiti via their Haiti Earthquake Fund. You can also call 1-800-4UNICEF.
https://secure. unicefusa.org/s … .donation=form1

•Donate through Wyclef Jean’s foundation, Yele Haiti. Text "Yele" to 501501 and $5 will be charged to your phone bill and given to relief projects through the organization.
http://www.yele.org/

•Operation USA is appealing for donations of funds from the public and corporate donations in bulk of health care materials, water purification supplies and food supplements which it will ship to the region from its base in the Port of Los Angeles. Donate online at https://www.opusa.org , by phone at 1-800-678-7255 or, by check made out to Operation USA, 3617 Hayden Ave, Suite A, Culver City, CA 90232.

•Ben Stiller’s Stillerstrong campaign will be temporarily diverting all donations to support the Haiti relief effort.
http://www.stillerstrong.org/

•Partners In Health reports its Port-au-Prince clinical director , Louise Ivers, has appealed for assistance: "Port-au-Prince is devastated, lot of deaths. SOS. SOS… Temporary field hospital by us at UNDP needs supplies, pain meds, bandages. Please help us." Donate to their Haiti earthquake fund.

Doctors without borders Home | Doctors Without Borders - USA

•Mercy Corps is sending a team of emergency responders to assess damage, and seek to fulfill immediate needs of quake survivors. The agency aided families after earthquakes in Peru in 2007, China and Pakistan in 2008, and Indonesia last year. Donate online, call 1-888-256-1900 or send checks to Mercy Corps Haiti Earthquake Fund; Dept NR; PO Box 2669; Portland, OR 97208.

•Direct Relief is committing up to $1 million in aid for the response and is coordinating with its other in-country partners and colleague organizations. Their partners in Haiti include Partners in Health, St. Damien Children’s Hospital, and the Visitation Hospital, which are particularly active in emergency response. Donate to Direct Relief online.

•Oxfam is rushing in teams from around the region to respond to the situation to provide clean water, shelter, sanitation and help people recover. Donate to Oxfam America online.

•International Medical Corps is assembling a team of first responders and resources to provide lifesaving medical care and other emergency services to survivors of the earthquake. Donate online.

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Thousands feared dead in Haiti quake; many trapped
AP

By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer Jonathan M. Katz, Associated Press Writer – 25 mins ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haitians are piling bodies along the devastated streets of their capital after a powerful earthquake flattened the president’s palace and the main prison, the cathedral, hospitals, schools and thousands of homes. Untold numbers are still trapped.

President Rene Preval says he believes thousands of people are dead even as other officials give much higher estimates — though they were based on the extent of the destruction rather than firm counts of the dead.

His prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, tells CNN: “I believe we are well over 100,000,” while leading senator Youri Latortue tells The Associated Press that 500,000 could be dead. Both admit they have no way of knowing.

The magnitude-7 quake struck Tuesday afternoon.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitians are piling bodies along the devastated streets of their capital after a powerful earthquake flattened the president’s palace and the main prison, the cathedral, hospitals, schools and thousands of homes. Untold numbers are still trapped.

President Rene Preval says he believes thousands of people are dead. His prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, tells CNN: “I believe we are well over 100,000,” though he gives no basis for that estimate and says he hopes it isn’t true.

Preval told the Miami Herald on Wednesday that: “Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed.”

The magnitude-7 quake struck Tuesday afternoon.

Tens of thousands feared dead after Haiti quake
AP

By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer Jonathan M. Katz, Associated Press Writer – 7 mins ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Dazed survivors wandered past dead bodies in rubble-strewn streets Wednesday, crying for loved ones, and rescuers searched collapsed buildings as officials feared the death toll from Haiti’s devastating earthquake could reach into the tens of thousands.

The first cargo planes with food, water, medical supplies, shelter and sniffer dogs headed to the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation a day after the magnitude-7 quake flattened much of the capital of 2 million people.

Tuesday’s earthquake brought down buildings great and small — from shacks in shantytowns to President Rene Preval’s gleaming white National Palace, where a dome tilted ominously above the manicured grounds.

Hospitals, schools and the main prison collapsed. The capital’s Roman Catholic archbishop was killed when his office and the main cathedral fell. The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission was missing in the ruins of the organization’s multistory headquarters.

At a triage center improvised in a hotel parking lot, people with cuts, broken bones and crushed ribs moaned under tent-like covers fashioned from bloody sheets.

"I can’t take it any more. My back hurts too much," said Alex Georges, 28, who was still waiting for treatment a day after the school he was in collapsed and killed 11 classmates. A body lay a few feet away.

"This is much worse than a hurricane," said doctors’ assistant Jimitre Coquillon. "There’s no water. There’s nothing. Thirsty people are going to die."

Bodies were everywhere in Port-au-Prince: those of tiny children adjacent to schools, women in the rubble-strewn streets with stunned expressions frozen on their faces, men hidden beneath plastic tarps and cotton sheets.

Haiti’s leaders struggled to comprehend the extent of the catastrophe — the worst earthquake to hit the country in 200 years — even as aftershocks still reverberated.

"It’s incredible," Preval told CNN. "A lot of houses destroyed, hospitals, schools, personal homes. A lot of people in the street dead. … I’m still looking to understand the magnitude of the event and how to manage."

Preval said thousands of people were probably killed. Leading Sen. Youri Latortue told The Associated Press that 500,000 could be dead, but conceded that nobody really knows.

"Let’s say that it’s too early to give a number," Preval said.

Haiti seems especially prone to catastrophe — from natural disasters like hurricanes, storms, floods and mudslides to crushing poverty, unstable governments, poor building standards and low literacy rates.

In Petionville, next to the capital, people used sledgehammers and their bare hands to dig through a collapsed commercial center, tossing aside mattresses and office supplies. More than a dozen cars were entombed, including a U.N. truck.

Nearby, about 200 survivors, including many children, huddled in a theater parking lot using sheets to rig makeshift tents and shield themselves from the sun.

Looting began almost as quickly as the quake struck at 4:53 p.m. and people were seen carrying food from collapsed buildings. Many lugged what they could salvage and stacked it around them as they slept in streets and parks.

People streamed into the Haitian countryside, where wooden and cinderblock shacks showed little sign of damage. Many balanced suitcases and other belongings on their heads. Ambulances and U.N. trucks raced in the opposite direction, toward Port-au-Prince.

About 3,000 police and international peacekeepers cleared debris, directed traffic and maintained security in the capital. But law enforcement was stretched thin even before the quake and would be ill-equipped to deal with major unrest.

An American aid worker was trapped for about 10 hours under the rubble of her mission house before she was rescued by her husband, who told CBS’ "Early Show" that he drove 100 miles (160 kilometers) to Port-au-Prince to find her. Frank Thorp said he dug for more than an hour to free his wife, Jillian, and a co-worker, from under about a foot of concrete.

The international Red Cross said a third of the country’s 9 million people may need emergency aid, a burden that would test any nation and a crushing catastrophe for impoverished Haiti.

President Barack Obama promised an all-out rescue and humanitarian effort and American officials said they were responding with ships, helicopters, transport planes and a 2,000-member Marine unit, as well as civilian emergency teams from across the U.S.

"We have to be there for them in their hour of need," Obama said.

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, was expected to arrive off the coast of Haiti on Thursday. More U.S. Navy ships were under way as well, the U.S. Southern Command said.

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter evacuated four critically injured U.S. Embassy staff to the hospital on the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the military has been detaining suspected terrorists.

A small contingent of U.S. ground troops could be on their way soon, although it was unclear whether they would be used for security operations or humanitarian efforts.

Cuba, which already had hundreds of doctors in Haiti, treated the injured in field hospitals. The aid group Doctors Without Borders helped quake victims in tent clinics set up to replace its damaged facilities.

Port-au-Prince’s ruined buildings fell on both the poor and the prominent: The body of Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, 63, was found in the ruins of his office, according to the Rev. Pierre Le Beller at Miot’s order, the Saint Jacques Missionary Center in Landivisiau, France.

Senate President Kelly Bastien was among those trapped alive inside the Parliament building, and a day later had stopped responding to rescuers’ cries, Latortue said.

Even the main prison in the capital fell down, "and there are reports of escaped inmates," U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva.

Haiti’s quake refugees likely will face an increased risk of dengue fever, malaria and measles — problems that plagued the impoverished country before, said Kimberley Shoaf, associate director of the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters.

Some of the biggest immediate health threats include respiratory disease from inhaling dust from collapsed buildings and diarrhea from drinking contaminated water.

She said swamped clinics may not be able to give people help they need for broken bones and other injuries, leading to complications — a warning borne out on the streets where people, some covered in the dust of collapsed buildings, nursed wounds that bled through crude bandages.

The U.N.’s 9,000-member peacekeeping force sent patrols across the capital’s streets while securing the airport, port and main buildings — but also struggled to rescue colleagues from their collapsed headquarters.

U.N. mission head Hedi Annabi of Tunisia was among about 150 people missing, mostly at the headquarters building, said peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Annabi’s chief deputy, Luis Carlos da Costa, was missing as well.

Le Roy said only about 10 people had been pulled out, many of them badly injured.

Brazil’s army reported that at least 11 of its peacekeepers were killed. Jordan’s official news agency said three of its peacekeepers were died.

The U.S. Embassy had no confirmed reports of deaths among the estimated 40,000-45,000 Americans who live in Haiti, but many were struggling to find a way out of the country.

Dozens were forced to abandon a Tuesday evening flight to Miami when the earthquake damaged the airport.

Kency Germain of Eatontown, N.J., kept his family — five adults and three children including his wife — at the airport until nearly 3 a.m. They made their way to the U.S. Embassy, where they were allowed to sleep briefly near the entrance.

"It was safer in there (the airport) than it was out there in Port-au-Prince," Germain said.

___

Associated Press contributors to this story: writers Mike Melia in Port-au-Prince; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations; Frank Jordans and Bradley S. Klapper in Geneva; Matthew Lee and Julie Pace in Washington; Jamey Keaton in Paris; Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo; Alicia Chang in Los Angeles, and Andrea Rodriguez in Havana.

Good post Dino, thanks!

$10 donations may also be made by texting the word “Haiti” to 90999. The donation will go to The American Red Cross and will be charged to the donor’s cell phone bill.

Nice. A good use of modern technology.

Tragic, the images break your heart.

Thanks for the info bro, the world needs to step up on this one. These people barely had the basic necessity’s before this, so no way can than they deal with this on their own. So people give what you can, maybe brown bag it for lunch today and send the money you would have used to go out for lunch anything will help. I’m going to get a collection together at work today and see if the company I work for will match it.

Good work y’all

This will add a new meaning to “heckuvajob ‘brownie’”

Unfortunately the very last thing Haiti needs is that corrupt corporatist SOB privatizing the relief efforts to his buddies at Carnival Cruise Lines and Blackwat— excuse me, XE.
If he gets his hands on Haiti, the locals will be lucky to find themselves as displaced as Sri Lankans after the 2005 wave.
Man shouldn’t be permitted to be a crossing guard at a Sr high school for gifted smart kids— never mind anything where folks actually depend on his half-stepping ass

Obama asks Bush to help with Haiti relief: Official

AFP/Getty Images/File – Former US president George W. Bush, seen here in 2009, will join former president Bill Clinton to help …
Thu Jan 14, 9:09 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Former US president George W. Bush will join former president Bill Clinton to help lead the US relief effort in response to the earthquake that devastated Haiti, an official close to Bush said Thursday.

Bush, President Barack Obama’s predecessor, “will join president Clinton in helping with disaster relief” after the catastrophe, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

The official announcement was expected to come from the White House.

The United States has launched a massive aid operation, including specialists, Coast Guard cutters, helicopters, transport planes and the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, along with 2,000 Marines deployed.

The USNS Comfort, a floating military hospital and a team of doctors and medical supplies, was also readying to sail from the US East Coast to Haiti.
The White House declined to comment on the request to Bush and Clinton, but said that Obama would make a new statement on the unfolding US relief effort for Haiti later on Thursday.

Obama is due to speak from the Diplomatic Room of the White House at 10:05 am (1505 GMT).

On Wednesday, Obama ordered a “swift, coordinated and aggressive effort to save lives,” in Haiti following the murderous quake, as a massive US aid mission swung into action, using troops, naval forces, aircraft and rescue teams.

Just remember to take the chain off the chainsaw before you give it to Bush and everything will be OK.

And there goes the goodwill…

Keep up the good work, y’all.

It’s situations like this that make me want to get another job. You can’t imagine the comments I’ve heard from fellow employees about the people there. Just disgusting.

I donated $50 through yele.org, through PayPal.

“•Donate through Wyclef Jean’s foundation, Yele Haiti. Text “Yele” to 501501 and $5 will be charged to your phone bill and given to relief projects through the organization.
http://www.yele.org/”

Well you have to look at his last at bat Sonny. I think a better job for him would be to finish up on the Katrina thing.

The man wants to help, then the man wants to help.

He does have a lot of supporters, couldn’t hurt.

I agree, him and Clinton are no Angels but it would do their souls good to help out. They don’t ask for date of birth at the red cross hit the link in my first post.