Pentagon Briefing on Haiti Response MSNBC live now (est. death toll now at 500k)

[berni_mccoy]

Discussing the humanitarian mission now.

Establishing airbase at airport (tower is down, but runway is intact), sending hospital ships and have already set up a medical base.

Mainly doing assessments of the situation on the ground at the moment.

Update: sending an aircraft carrier for air support, working with UN and FEMA is standing-by, some FEMA units on the way.

Coast Guard cutter Forward is there now, cutter Mohawk is en route, CG C130s en route and Choppers on site now performing rescues now and trying to re-establish airport. Air Force will be setting up mobile Air Traffic Control.

Update 2: MSNBC is now reporting that the death toll is beyond 100k, likely to hit 500k. This is a cataclysmic event.

[Coventina]

1. Thanks for keeping us without news access informed!

:hi:

[Captain Hilts]

2. Go, Navy!!!

Haiti's that a way! Aye, aye!

All hands, hang on!

[blondeatlast]

20. That pic really does give me a swell of pride.

:patriot:

[malaise]

29. Nice

:hi:

[Captain Hilts]

36. You can water ski behind these things, Mal. It will get there fast. Fingers crossed. nt

[spanone]

3. anyone hear the reporter ask why the u.s. response time has been so slow

fucking media is unbelievable

[tekisui]

4. I didn't hear that, but am not surprised.

There was virtually no communication from Haiti all night. We didn't even know if the airport was functioning. What a stupid-ass question.

[spanone]

5. the general answered that assessing the situation first is always best.....duh

[SoCalDem]

19. People often forget that humans have needs..even would-be rescuers

Dumping thousands of helpers into an infrastructure-less, damaged place can sometimes only create MORE chaos.

Speed is important, but planning is sometimes MORE important?

where will the rescuers stay?
where will they get food & water?
how will they get from point A to point B?
how many MORE people are necessary for their own safety & security?

rescue is not a suicide mission

[Posteritatis]

7. And "hours" isn't necessarily slow when moving carrier groups is involved. (nt)

[PacerLJ35]

31. Exactly...

USAF airlift crews were put into alert last night, but no one was gonna launch not knowing if they had a place to land, if there was adequate facilities to unload and receive supplies, and a host of other little details. You can rush out the door and be first to the event, but if you didn't plan it could all be for not and turn into a mini-disaster in itself.

[csziggy]

35. MSNBC reported at least two hours ago Coast Guard vessels are off shore

Of Haiti already, evaluating sea access and conditions and reporting for the benefit of Naval relief efforts. Even more than that, it seems:

U.S. Coast Guard, Navy head to Haiti to help with earthquake relief efforts

By Jennifer Grogan

Publication: TheDay.com
Published 01/13/2010 12:00 AM
Updated 01/13/2010 01:39 PM

U.S. Coast Guard crews are clearing ports in Haiti of debris and flying overhead to assess damage today while Navy sailors are en route to the country in the wake of Tuesday's devastating earthquake. Coast Guard vessels and aircraft left for Haiti at 3:30 this morning, with the cutters tasked with making sure the ports are open and free of debris so relief supplies can arrive and the aircraft charged with assessing the damage and identifying places where people need help, said Petty Officer James Harless, of Coast Guard District 7 in Miami.

The Coast Guard sent four cutters to Haiti — Valiant, from Miami; Forward, from Portsmouth, Va.; Tahoma, from Portsmouth, N.H., and Mohawk, from Key West, Fla. The Coast Guard also sent two C-130 aircraft, one fixed-wing Falcon and three HH-60 "Jayhawks."

A Coast Guard helicopter evacuated four critically injured U.S. Embassy staff to the naval station in Guantanamo for treatment, a statement from the U.S. Southern Command said.

More: http://www.theday.com/article/20100113/NWS09/100119898/1047/NWS

By the time Navy ship arrive, they will have access at least partially prepared.

[Captain Hilts]

6. @#*! should have to define 'slow'. nt

[tekisui]

8. The NAVY didn't tele-port there instantaneously--->slow.

[bullwinkle428]

16. Breaking on Fox News : "Obama to blame for not inventing transporter beam yet!"

[renegade000]

13. good lord

the earthquake happened yesterday! the us military isn't starfleet, we don't have transporters or warp-drives :eyes:. hell, it takes time for the national guard to mobilize in the US itself. the reporter is a moron.

[me b zola]

28. Obama has gotten resources quicker to Haiti

than bush* got to New Orleans. The media is unbelievable, in every sense of the word.

[PacerLJ35]

32. I don't know about that...

The day the hurricane hit NOLA, our crews were put into alert and launched as soon as the weather was good enough and the airfield was declared useable. Helicopter crews from all branches of the military arrived the day after as well. The only way the military could have gotten there faster was to have flown into the hurricane as it made landfall...

Now the FEMA response...that's another story.

[ohheckyeah]

9. FEMA is on the way?

God help them. Hey, maybe FEMA can send them some of the trailers from New Orleans.

[BolivarianHero]

11. The good thing about the Repukes being out of power...

FEMA is actually willing to help Blacks.

[aquart]

10. I saw that the search dog teams are already there.

The numbers are beyond belief.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Try saying that number ......

.... "five hundred thousand" ...... and then imagine faces. A half a million faces.

It is unimaginable.

[cali]

14. That's only a hundred thousand less than everyone in my state.

you're right; it's unimaginable.

[berni_mccoy]

15. When I heard that number, I got sick to my stomach. I hope that it is not that high

but that is what a Haiti official is saying now. MSNBC is qualifying that the number cannot be confirmed by US officials.

[dave29]

18. yes, it is so hard to fathom

hopefully the numbers do not get that high. :( :cry:

[blondeatlast]

22. The number alone made me gasp. Sorry, Stinky, if I tried to,

I think I'd fall completely apart. :cry:

[tekisui]

17. 500,000.

Oh my god. Half a million people. I can't get my mind around a number that large. :cry:

[WeDidIt]

21. more than twice as many as the Christmas Tsunami. n/t

[Inuca]

23. OMG

500K :cry:. In a country of roughly 9 million, I think.

[daleo]

24. Half a million seems hard to believe

Or hard to comprehend. But a big earthquake near an overcrowded, poor city - the numbers are bound to be incredible.

[malaise]

25. I said minimum 100,000 last night

I knew this was a disaster of epic proportions.
For the record that fault runs all the way to Jamaica.

[Javaman]

26. Jesus Christ. 500K? that can't be right?

holy shit.

[berni_mccoy]

27. Let's hope not. But it's what a Haiti official had been telling MSNBC.

[LibertyLover]

30. The rapid growth of Port au Prince contributes to the projected high death toll

I read recently that something like 2 million Haitians live in or around the capital with little in the way of urban planning or building codes. I'm hoping that the estimate of 500K fatalities proves to be too high, but sadly I think it might be more or less right on the mark.

[Parker CA]

33. Apparently the main residential areas in the city were built to support 50k people.

With a population of nearly 3mil in the area now, it's tough to conceive how packed in people have become and how bad this was.

[Libertas1776]

34. 500,000?

Let's hope that it is nowhere near that high. The deadliest earthquake on record was in Shaanxi, China all the way back in 1556. Let's hope that Haiti does not exceed that over 450 year old macabre record of 830,000 people. However, it appears to be coming close. Horrible, just horrible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1556_Shaanxi_earthquake

[KittyWampus]

37. a sombre history lesson

[NJmaverick]

38. I hope our help will make a difference in their hour of need