Emergency Disaster Services Bulletin

Saturday, January 30, 2010

UPDATE TO HAITI RELIEF OPERATIONS

Port-au-Prince, Haiti: While the situation in Haiti continues to be very serious, The Salvation Army Relief Team is providing massive amounts of food, water and other relief materials to the people in Haiti.

· The team in Haiti received a shipment of 18 pallets of food, representing 213,840 meals along with 4 pallets (over 5,100 individual bottles) of water on Saturday.

· A subsequent delivery of 35 pallets of food (415,800 meals) was in route with a scheduled Sunday arrival time in Port-au-Prince. These meals were accompanied by 8 pallets of water which provided over 1300 gallon jugs of water for distribution.

· Team members were coordinating with the US Army 82^nd Airborne to arrange a food delivery of over 174,000 meals to a particularly hard hit neighborhood in Port-au-Prince which had not received any major food distributions before now.

· Meetings were held and partnerships continued to be forged as The Salvation Army convened meetings in its role as Camp Managers for the approximately 20,000 displaced people now finding whatever shelter they can in the Delmas 2 neighborhood. Critically important issues being addressed is water and sanitation, the provision of medium-term shelter, various NFI’s (non-food items) including kitchen and cooking kits, etc., and, of course, regular and reliable deliveries of food. On-going medical services and the timely restoration of education programs for displaced children are also priorities.

· This weekend was also a transition time for the team as some members transitioned out of Haiti and new team members began arriving. International emergency personnel continue to provide support and assistance for our Haitian Salvation Army Officers and staff who have been working heroically and self-sacrificially ever since the earthquake.

· Medical services continued seamlessly this weekend despite the arrival of a new team of doctors, nurses, and support staff to replace outgoing medical personnel.

· Massive community packaging events are being conducted (with more in the planning stage) in communities around the USA. This continues to be a critical link in the supply chain that has allowed The Salvation Army to deliver well over 1.3 million meals already and will ensure that these life-saving deliveries continue until local systems can be restored.

· Early estimates are that The Salvation Army will be required to supply over 1 million meals per week for at least the next six weeks in order to sustain displaced families until regular and sustainable UN deliveries of food can be put into place.

Report submitted by Major Mike McKee, PIO SAWSO, Haiti Incident Command Team.