I Think We Need to Talk About Evacuation in Haiti....

[Junkdrawer]

You have a city of 2 to 3 million people that's broken - above ground and probably below ground.

no sewage

no running water

filled with the decaying bodies of tens or hundreds of thousands of victims

Wouldn't it be easier to create new, temporary city/refugee camps in the country side?

Should we be talking about temporary asylum around the neighboring countries?

[HopeHoops]

1. I agree except for one point - "temporary asylum"

Such things have a way of becoming permanent, especially since you couldn't FIND a neighboring country that wouldn't look like paradise to the people of Haiti. Through no fault of their own, mind you.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Tent cities will go up

and worst areas will be evacuated... but for many practical reasons moving three million people makes the current logistical problems and they are mounting, look like a walk in the park.

But you can bet on tent cities rising in open areas, and heavy construction equipment start the bulldozing and repair of critical functions oh at most in two weeks.

There is a time line to this... which is very predictable. We are still within the live recovery phase, which goes up to a week. Then we start in full force wiht body recovery and reconstruction.

[Bobbieo]

7. If the seaports are destroyed, airports are destroyed

roads and highways are destroyed and you can't get people with humanitarian aid into Haiti - how are you going to get people out of the cities and outlying areas?

This is a disaster that defies imagination. Unbelievable!!!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Airport is working, clogged, but working

the sea port will be dredged and repaired in short order, and anfibs don't care. (That port will be back to at least minimum conditions within a week I can bet. That's how fast military engineers can do this, and Seabees or equivalent from other Navies) work.

Once those get in, the heavy lift capacity to move supplies in an efficient matter will start. The Navy should be there, starting today.

But this is a worst case scenario. The one that gives logistics and disaster planners tummy aches.

They are moving aid already, just slow because there are not enough trucks. The Marines and the Army are coming in, and that is one thing they are bringing, LOTS of trucks.

One thing we are seeing, but I have been readying other national papers too, is coordination. Usually this becomes a national pride race... no, now we are having actual coordination between teams, and nations.

[elehhhhna]

3. neighboring countries have been pushing desperate Haitians off for YEARS.

[Robbien]

4. There's talk of moving some of them to Gitmo

US quake victims evacuated to Guantanamo
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/01/14/2792089.htm?section=world

Four members of the American embassy staff in Haiti have been evacuated to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials said.

They are receiving medical treatment for critical injuries, officials said.

The base houses the controversial US military prison for terrorism suspects, but the US military says it may also be used to help with relief efforts in Haiti.

--

Guantanamo Bay: A Possibility to Help Out Haiti?
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/01/13/guantanamo-bay-a-possibility-to-help-out-haiti/

Four seriously injured members of the U.S. Embassy staff in Haiti were evacuated this morning to the hospital at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, raising questions about whether the Naval facility could be used to help out Haiti’s earthquake victims.

There’s a possibility that the base could be used, but no decisions have been made. U.S. officials have said they are assessing the situation in and around Haiti after Tuesday’s devastating earthquake, and Guantanamo Bay — used since 2002 to hold suspected terrorists — is in the mix. The base is about 180 miles from Haiti.

At a Pentagon briefing today, Gen. Douglas Fraser, who heads the U.S. Southern Command, said Guantanamo is “a resource that’s available if we need to take advantage of it for various reasons. So we’re looking across the region to just understand what the possibilities are there.”

[MadHound]

5. You have one airport that is marginally functional,

No harbors that can be used. Evacuating these people is impossible.

[pnwmom]

6. Haiti is a country of mostly mountains. The flat parts of the island are mostly

in the Dominican Republic. Geography has always been one of Haiti's problems, and it's magnifying the suffering now.

[moondust]

9. Can ANY of the buildings be considered safe?

Now or in the future?

:shrug:

[malaise]

10. The truth is that Guyana is empty

with a negative population growth as a result of migration but that Indo-Guyanese government has been against Haitian immigration for way to long.

I think Guyana should take 250,000 Haitians. There's more than enough seafood in those rivers, more than enough rice growing there and all of 83,000 sq miles so space is not an issue. French Guyana is also empty.

[slackmaster]

11. I think New Jersey has some free space

:nuke:

[damntexdem]

12. If aid can't flow in, how can 3 million flow out?

And the immediate issue is saving those who are still trapped but might still be saved. For the longer run, who can rebuild Haiti other than the Haitians.

What we need for the long term is a long-term commitment to rebuilding.

[FreeJG]

13. CRUISE SHIPS!!~ Get the people off the island and onto crusie ships...

stocked by the waiting military ships. the island is not workable. the cruise lines can reschedule a week of cruises....come on....get the living off the island....we need the cruise ships for only a few days to to that.....

[Raspberry]

14. Um . . .

Under what authority could "we" commandeer cruise ships, which are private property, to do such a thing???

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. In time of war... oh wait, war on terror

and no, they will not do that... I was kidding.

[Zywiec]

16. Who is "we"?

Are you talking about the US or the United Nations?

[Junkdrawer]

17. All the people trying to address the disaster. We have a city of 3 million homeless....

and the plan seems to be to ship aid into said destroyed city. I can't see that working.

[Hangingon]

18. Remember the Mariel boatlift and the political consequences

[stray cat]

19. Maybe some DUers will volunteer to trade places -after all the US is so terrible....