Haiti Earthquake Problems will compound beyond the initial quake.

[ddeclue]

1) Fire will probably spread in the absence of infrastructure, broken water mains, gas mains, lack of first response to fight it.

2) Disease - large numbers of dead bodies will result in epidemics of cholera, typhus, tetanus and other disaster type diseases.

3) Hunger - Haiti is already the poorest nation on earth and hunger is already a huge problem there. This will escalate the problem to a whole new order of magnitude.

4) Landslides/mudslides - Haiti has zero vegetation because the population has stripped it bare in search of firewood for cooking.

5) Communications, control, transportation, information all crippled.

6) First response, emergency services, law enforcement all crippled.

Haiti will need a massive recovery response from the rest of the world that only the Indonesian Tsunami response surpasses and which will make the Katrina response look small.

They need to bring in some gas turbine generator sets from Siemens or Mistubishi or Rolls Royce or another industrial gas turbine company and get electrical generation up and going ASAP. The whole country needs electrification to put an end to using firewood to heat food that is causing the deforestation there.

They need to bring in cellular phone systems and provide cell phones to everyone they can ASAP.

They need to bring in doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other medical professionals ASAP.

They need to bring in huge amounts of heavy equipment - helicopters, dozers, cranes, jackhammers, etc ASAP to clear the rubble, and fix the roads.

They need to bring in U.S. Army, Canadian and French troops to maintain law and order and rescue people.

Bilingual Creole speakers will be needed to translate Creole to French and Creole to English.

They need huge amounts of food, medicine, clothing, tents, trailers, replacement shelter.

They need to vaccinate people against all the likely diseases (cholera, tetanus, typhus, etc.)

They need to bury the dead.

This is going to be huge. It will probably provoke a whole new round of Haitian refugees fleeing to Florida even if we DO provide a lot of help.

Obama needs to jump on this one and probably even fly down there with Colin Powell in tow to act on it and not let it sit like Bush did with Katrina and with the Christmas Tsunami in Indonesia.

[Maru Kitteh]

1. K&R.

Pretty much all true. I'm not sure though, that Obama going there himself would be a good idea - security was crap there before this catastrophe.

[ddeclue]

3. I'm sure we could manage the security if we could manage it for Presidents and VIP's in

Iraq and Afghanistan which are actually war zones.

[Maru Kitteh]

23. Really? How many fully operational military bases do we have in Haiti? How many 10's of

thousands of troops on the ground?

It would be wildly wasteful, disruptive and counter-productive for Obama to go there right now. It's just a bad idea.

[ddeclue]

35. Um as President Clinton said to the coup leaders down there in the 90's, Fort Bragg is 3 hours by ai

away by air and we've got troops on the way now. It's NOT 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan, it's the Carribean. In fact it's just across the way from Guantanamo and not but about an hour out of Southern Command HQ in Tampa.

[Maru Kitteh]

36. It would be just plain stupid for Obama to go there right now

for the multitude of reasons already outlined in this thread.

[iamjoy]

2. I Disagree With One Thing

I do not think President Obama needs to fly down there. President Clinton is already involved with ongoing efforts in Haiti. I believe it would be better to send Bill Clinton. Maybe we can even send our Secretary of State, too.

there's no way Obama can win this one. If he doesn't do anything for Haiti, he's a selfish jerk. If he appeals for help for Haiti, Americans are going to bitch about how he should do more to help people in his own country. We all know there are selfish people in this country who don't realize that a good day for most Haitians is the still worse than a horrible day for most Americans.

[ddeclue]

4. I beg to disagree.. it would be a HUGE PR win for Obama and a huge foreign relations win too.

One of the best things Johnson ever did was show up with a flashlight after hurricane Betsy on the ground.

The most important thing a President can do is this kind of thing: Help people when they're down and let them know that someone cares. When a President is standing there on the ground you can bet your ass that nobody that works for him (her) will be screwing around or making up bureaucratic reasons for why they can't get it done.

The stupidest thing George W. Bush ever did was circle New Orleans in AF1 and then fly on to D.C. He should have landed the damned plane and started handing out food and drink from the galley of the plane and pulling people off roof tops from Marine 1. He'd have become a hero to millions of people. Instead he showed he just didn't give a fuck (to quote Chris Rock).

Sending surrogates says you don't care enough to send the very best. He needs to go - he needs to get Colin Powell to go as our most famous Haitian American and it's great if other surrogates show up but he needs to at least go down there for a couple of days, it's not like it's a trip to Asia or anything, it's a 3 hour flight from Washington.

[vadawg]

5. you seem to be confusing the US and Haiti, hes the president of the US

much better to direct navy and army assetts to the area to assist than a presidential visit, and your kidding if you dont think people who are digging out fromt he various snowstorms etc etc to have hit the country wont get pissed if hes off abroad when hes meant to be the US president. Whether you like it or not the old charity begins at home theme is pretty much a universal thought.

[ddeclue]

6. Actually NO I'm NOT.

Do you live in FLORIDA?

I DO.

Florida is a huge state you need to win in 2012 if you are Barack Obama and it has a sizeable Haitian population that will expect him to take this seriously. I'm already counseling Florida Dem politicians I know to start organizing relief efforts from here in Florida and they are taking it very seriously here.

Haiti is right in our back yard, not half way across the world and if you're going to be pissed off that we help these poor people then there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with you probably bordering on racism.

[vadawg]

9. okay if you say so, but haiti is halfway across the world to a lot of the US states

[ddeclue]

10. NO it's NOT unless you are counting Hawaii, Alaska, or Guam.

Haiti is not significantly more distant than any other east coast U.S. destination. I can't help it if people have no grasp of geography or maps.

[vadawg]

13. as you have no grasp of what people will think if the president suddenly drops everything to run to

haiti, to my neighbours it may as well be ceylon or the ukraine, you may have some links to there but the majority of people dont. As i siad how do you think it will look if he throws everything into this whilst US citizens are dying from the cold or from hunger on the streets...

[ddeclue]

14. I don't give a damn what people in Idaho think but I DO care what people in FLORIDA think.

Sorry if you what to create a strawman argument but I'm quite confident that REASONABLE Americans recognize the scope of this disaster in Haiti just as they did in Indonesia and aren't going to equate regular problems with biblical scale disasters as you falsely do.

[vadawg]

18. lol i guess its just regular problems when it happens to someone else

the person who is terminally ill in idaho is more concerned with trying to pay medical bills and keeping a roof over their family's head than what is happening in haiti, i guess if it dosent effect you directly then the problem dosent matter...

[ddeclue]

26. I've got plenty of regular problems too - I'm unemployed right now but

I have the common sense to know I'm living in paradise compared to those people down in Haiti. I'm sure most reasonable Americans realize that too.

[FedUpWithIt All]

7. PR can and should take a backseat to the massive need there right now.

ALL resources need to go into recovery and aid. None should be diverted for PR and political capital at this dire time IMHO. Too many resources, which are desperately needed elsewhere, go into Presidential visits.

[ddeclue]

8. I disagree.. A President on the scene is more often than not going to get better results than Browny

[wake.up.america]

11. Unimaqngeable conditions in Haiti -first hand observation...

And now this? As impoverished is DR - Many Haitians consider DR a sanctuary.

[ddeclue]

12. The Dominican Republic is MUCH better off.. for one thing they have TREES.

[malaise]

37. If you think Hillary will allow Bill to take centerstage here

you are missing real politics. Hillary is Secretary of State.

[itsrobert]

15. Obama needs to put everything into this

Send the military, fly down there, get international aid. Do interviews down there with media.

Meanwhile let Health care reform get buried below Haiti news and have Heath care fall off the radar. Americans have short attention span, so use this as a diversion to get rid of the bill.

[ddeclue]

17. EXACTLY!

[JCMach1]

16. Aftershocks continue... just now 5.7

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/pt10013002.php

[JCMach1]

21. and another: 5.3

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010rka9.html

[MiniMe]

19. I disagree with Obama flying down there

It would take too many resources away from the rescue and recovery due to the security needs of the President. He should lend all the support possible, but stay out of it himself. They need as many hands as possible to help out with everything that is needed there, President Obama would take away hands from areas where they are needed.

[orion007]

22. I'm also thinking of and sending prayers toJean_Bertrand Aristide

[Maru Kitteh]

25. Exactly. Obama showing up would take resources away from the efforts. BAD idea.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. They are already starting with this

Command and Control is being run by CARIBCOM... why UNHQ is down and out.

Oh and Obama flying I am not so sure. But there is a ready spare... the UN Advisor, one Bill Clinton.

And in the first 72 hours I'd be leery of Clinton as well... and here is why...

SECURITY AND VIP.

True story from my life in the front lines.

During the 1996 floods, they were bad. So we had the President of Mexico come in... like any other VIP around the world there is this little issue with security... so his presence literally slowed down operations. Same thing, different day... during the California Fires, when the Governor showed up, and worst when George showed up they plainly stopped.

So if Obama does not show up for 72 hours, or for that matter Clinton, color me not surprised.

Now this is where ACTIONS speak louder than words... but first things first, the Haitian government (and they are already on it) need to kill the red tape to request help.

[BrightKnight]

24. AWACS might fix the tower problem. - n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Actually cheaper, a HMVEE with proper electronics and AF

Forwards Air Controllers... much cheaper

[ddeclue]

29. If it really comes down to it, a guy with binoculars and a handheld VHF radio

can do the job in a pinch. The real question is the runways, are they intact or broken up and for night operations is the runway lighting operational or not?

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. That guy is the FAC

as to the runway if they need to an engineering team can have it back and running in 12 hours.

Light... Jeeps, cars, Humveees or portable lighting sources if need be.

I remember writing the worst case for the TJ airport... and even trying the lights at three in the morning, The airport was closed... but we managed to get it lighted enough with emergency vehicles.

[ddeclue]

34. I'm a private pilot and aerospace engineer so I know about it.

There are plenty of "uncontrolled" airports that have no tower where you self announce but they need a tower controller (FAC in military terms) to control traffic in a busy rescue situation like in NOLA or down in Haiti now. Too many aircraft and too busy.

[ddeclue]

28. Not really... different roles.

Tower's real job is to direct ground and air traffic in the immediate vicinity of the airport.

AWACS job is to direct the battlespace as they call it. The closest civillian equivalent would be an ARTCC Air Route Traffic Control Center that directs planes as they fly their flight plans. ARTCC's handoff their traffic to local control towers when they reach their destinations, they don't try to control traffic at local airports.

The real question is what shape are the runways in? Did they break up or can a jet land there? What's the longest stretch of unbroken runway available?

[ChicagoSuz219]

30. To donate easily...

For those interested in helping immediately, simply text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill. Please copy & paste to your facebook page. Thank you.

[ChicagoSuz219]

31. To donate easily...

For those interested in helping immediately, simply text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill. Please copy & paste to your facebook page. Thank you.

[NYC_SKP]

33. As goes Haiti, so shall the Rest of the World.

If we don't get our act together with respect to, well, everything, but especially overpopulation and the environment.

[BrightKnight]

38. I hope that SOUTHCOM is not waiting for the State Department to micromanage

the logistics.

General Honoré's suggestion to put a General on the ground might be helpful.