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Once again, Haiti Needs Help

Very quickly, after a disaster the magnitude of Haiti’s earthquake, even the most rudimentary concessions to sanitation disappear.

There’s no water to drink, not even the usual contaminated supply. Nowhere for raw sewage to go. In the 90-degree heat, bodies beneath the rubble begin to decompose. The sight, the stench, the loss of hope is overwhelming.

Haiti, the tiny Caribbean island that for much of the past 200 years has been fighting to keep its independence, has known little but hardship over those centuries.

Natural disasters have caused some of it – four hurricanes hit the country in 2008 alone – but repressive military dictatorships, government corruption and uprisings, intervention and then abandonment by foreign powers – including the United States – have conspired to keep Haiti’s 9 million people in poverty and the nation itself in ruins.

Even before Tuesday, with no construction standards, most of the buildings in the country’s capital were deemed unsafe.

Now, a 7.0 temblor, the worst earthquake in the Caribbean in more than two centuries, has shaken the infrastructure of Port-au-Prince, collapsing buildings, including the presidential palace and the United Nations headquarters.

Port-au-Prince’s airport was damaged, hindering efforts to get relief safely into the country. An already stressed medical system is struggling, with hospital generators low on fuel as thousands stream in, looking for shelter and aid. Aftershocks continue to haunt the devastated region.

Bob Poff, the Salvation Army’s disaster services director in Port-au-Prince, reported that the 50-odd young residents of the Army’s children’s home, damaged in the quake, had gathered in the playground area. They were terrified.

Countries all over the globe are answering the cries for help. The U.N., the Red Cross, the Salvation Army are sending teams, supplies and money. Navy ships, including the Bataan and the aircraft carrier Vinson, are on their way. In the aftermath of this tragedy, America’s compassionate people will provide money and prayers to support the poor nation, as they always have.

But missionaries from Hampton Roads have been answering Haiti’s call for decades. Among the local organizations that send teams to Haiti: Union Mission, Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Lynnhaven United Methodist, Catholic Church of St. Mark, Physicians for Peace. In fact, members of Gateway Free Will Baptist Church in Virginia Beach arrived in Port-au-Prince Tuesday, just before the earthquake hit. They’re helping the injured any way they can.

Now, more than ever, Haitians need help from all of us as they assess damage, tend to the injured and attempt to rebuild.