Carol Shattuck (at left) aboard the DC6 carrying AmeriCares' first airlift of lifesaving medicine.

Today is my Fifth Full Day in Haiti
Carol Shattuck
01/22/10

Carol Shattuck, our Chief of Staff, recounts her experience on AmeriCares first emergency airlift to help Haiti with earthquake and humanitarian relief. Carol brings over 10 years of experience with AmeriCares, including dozens of relief missions. Read her latest report from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Today is my fifth full day in Haiti. Each day seems like at least a week long as we start early and finish late at night. We continue to have aftershocks, including this morning. 

Everyone is very on edge about the aftershocks. People who were here for the initial quake are particularly traumatized, as you can imagine. Help Support AmeriCares >> 

As I get out into more parts of Port-au-Prince, I have a fuller understanding of the monumental destruction.  It is very hard to drive by buildings where you know people are buried. All you can do is say a silent prayer for those who were lost.

Then your focus turns to the survivors who have set up makeshift camps all over the city. As many as 1.5 million people are living in the camps and the conditions are very difficult. But as you go by, it is uplifting to see children playing and smiling.

Yesterday I visited the main hospital in the city. The buildings are full of patients and every available outdoor space is filled with hospital beds with tarps overhead. You see many people who have lost limbs.

As I talked with the surgeons, I heard tough stories of surgeries in the early days, many done with little or no pain killers. The medicine and supplies we brought in were put to immediate use during the surgeries and post op to ward off infection.

With so many people living in unsanitary conditions, there is great concern for outbreaks of infectious diseases.  0ur medicines will help to prevent a second catastrophe.

I was interviewed by CNN yesterday and the reporter asked how the relief workers keep going.  My answer then and today is that you focus on the work at hand. It is easy to do that when in every direction you see dire need. 

There is so much help here from all over the world, but coordination and communications continue to be a major challenge. It is getting better, but has a ways to go. Some of that is just because first responders are still getting to some areas for the first time.

The team is in good spirits. Most mornings start with an energy bar. Usually we don't stop for lunch and just keep going until dinner. Last night we feasted on packaged noodles. They tasted great.

Yesterday our second shipment of essential medicines and supplies arrived and we delivered more medicines to clinics and hospitals. This is why we are here - to save lives. We are doing that, but there is so much more to do for years to come.

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