On January 12, 2010, Haiti experienced a devastating earthquake of 7.0 magnitude. It’s epicenter was approximately 12 mi west of Port au Prince near the town of Leogane where Hopital St. Croix was located and where our group had worked until 2005. A number of veteran members of our group decided to go to Port au Prince to help out in any way we could and headed down about 3 weeks after the earthquake.
As the Port au Prince International Airport was closed, we had to fly into Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. From there we took a 10 hr van ride from Santo Domingo to Port au Prince. The van trip was surreal and took us through a 2 mile “free trade” zone separating the Dominican Republic from Haiti near the Dominican city of Jimani. This area was heavily congested with venders selling their wares from both countries.
Once in Port au Prince, we stayed at the family home of a gastroenterologist with whom we worked for a number of years previously in Leogane. We brought tents and slept in his yard. We worked at a small clinic called the Bernard Mews Health Center which had been turned into a makeshift hospital that was being managed by military personnel from Jamaica. Most of our time there was spent in wound care and basic medical care for victims of the earthquake.
Our trip home was just as surreal as getting to Haiti. A few of us managed to find seats on a small plane flying out of Port au Prince back to the Dominican Republic. We spent time on the tarmac of the Port au Prince International Airport – the aiport building itself was closed due to damage from the earthquake, so the “gates” were right on the tarmac. The airport grounds was an entire city mostly made up of international military groups. There were military aircraft from all over the world. We were on the tarmac amongst US military C-130’s and even witnessed the take-off of a Russian AN-225, the largest fixed wing aircraft. From there we flew back to Santo Domingo, spent a night there, then home. Here are some pics of the adventure:
Near Jimani
Our accomodations
Port au Prince devastation
Tent Cities
Bernard Mews Health Center
Port au Prince Internatinal Airport
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