Day 2 in our series on EA USA’s Haiti earthquake assistance efforts from our team on the ground in the Dominican Republic. Following is an account from Richard Knight, our head of Emergency Logistics.

To say that it has been a busy day would be an understatement. 

The sheer amount of communications going backwards and forwards between the teams in Santa Domingo and rescue teams already in location, on route to location and on route from other countries has been staggering.

Currently there is a buzz around town that a major airlift operations will begin and Port-Au-Prince may actually become less congested at some point, although it is hard to imagine considering how many teams want to get into the capital. The talk is the US military will lead the airlift but there are also reports that because of the scale of the disaster, everyone may be called to assist.

I have a feeling that I may need to go and make some more coffee…..

One of the more unusual developments happened when an old friend and rescue doctor asked for my help in getting the latest update on the border and overland conditions as his medical rescue team was going in overland today. Because of this I made contact with our intelligence partner, iJET, to see what I could find out.

Ten minutes later an email arrives from the iJET team advising that a bridge collapsed earlier and the ground teams should keep this in mind. As I sat there wondering exactly how they knew this, another email turns up advising “See the attached – might be helpful.” Upon clicking the attached it was the very latest aerial imagery of some of the affected areas, showing the clear, semi-congested and completely blocked roads all broken down into different color schemes highlighting the best vs. the worst routes.

This was impressive stuff indeed. I sent it on to my friend so his medical rescue team could plan the best route to Port-au-Prince.

Shortly thereafter I received an unexpected phone call from one of our air ambulance teams advising that they needed to release one of the air ambulances they were reserving for us as they needed it for another job. This was mildly confusing as I did not ask them to reserve the plane and inquired exactly who told them to reserve it.  I received a rather abrupt response of “Of course you didn’t reserve it, we just chose to keep a plane as a priority for you as we knew you guys are in the area and will be first to know.”

One thing is clear – our history of working with these air ambulance companies and experience in crisis situations like this have been a huge help in terms of getting resources, which are in short supply here, and connecting those resources to the people who need them. I’m definitely in my element.

• EA USA Response to the Haiti Earthquake: Day 3 on the Ground
• First Impressions of the On-the-Ground Situation in Haiti from EA USA’s Head of Emergency Logistics
• Helping Our Customers Affected by the Earthquake in Haiti: An Account by Our Logistics Coordinator
• Meet a Member of the Europ Assistance Team