Why the bottleneck to get supplies into Haiti... EXPLAINATION HERE.

[PavePusher]

No conspiricies, no tin-foil-hattery, no "failures of government"...

It's all about the infrastructure, or rather the lack thereof. Read and Heed, and stop the wailing.



http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/18/826200/-Airport-Ground-Operations-101

[Skittles]

1. thanks PP

important to know

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Thanks for rationality

[tabatha]

4. I hope someone sends it to Blitzer.

[bettyellen]

7. did you see Cooper and Gutpa doing their "what's wrong here" schtick tonight?

They both seem like they have no clue themsleves what;s going on down there.... they talked about people not getting antiboitics at all - as if it never happned- and I was like okay I saw that on BBC days ago....and they didn't see it at all. So sadly I know more thatn they do. Their converstaion was like "I didn;t see it, did you? " and "No, but I woder why it's so slow, I mean we could have used a van of antibiotics!" . Well know I see where DU gets it from, yikes. They call this reporting?

[jberryhill]

13. They can only see what they can see

They can't channel hop and web surf, so what they see, or don't see, is all they can report.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. I finally sent an EMAIL to CNN

on that

[Hekate]

3. KnR nTY

:hi:

[Prometheus Bound]

5. US troop landings delay Haiti aid

Posted 57 minutes ago

An order giving United States military aircraft priority to land in Haiti after last week's massive earthquake has delayed the arrival of urgently needed medical teams and supplies by up to 48 hours.

Doctors have described a "dramatic" situation, where more than five cargo planes carrying surgical equipment have been refused landings at Port-au-Prince airport in the days after the 7.0-magnitude quake.

.....Benoit Leduc from Medecins Sans Frontieres says the delays have made the situation worse and doctors are now in a race against time to save the injured.

"It's difficult operations, we're facing logistics constraints. We had five of our planes, three cargo planes and two of our expatriate staff - including surgical teams that we tried to send in pretty quickly - five of these planes were refused to land," he said.

"They had to go across the border. So these additional delays - we clearly had like 48 hours of delay - because of this access problem to the site."

Under a 'cluster system' set up by the United Nations, US military planes were given priority to land at the Port-au-Prince airport.

Mr Leduc says even as late as yesterday afternoon the system was still causing bottlenecks at the airport.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/01/19/2796074.htm

[Abq_Sarah]

9. Someone has to secure the airport

Offload the equipment and supplies and form units to distribute aid.



This isn't the movies and that crap doesn't happen overnight.

[HeresyLives]

11. The UN sorted out the 'priorities'.

ROME – The U.N. food agency reached an agreement Monday with the U.S.-run airport in the Haitian capital to give aid flights priority in landing — a deal that came after the U.S. military was criticized for giving top billing to military and rescue aircraft.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100118/ap_on_re_eu/haiti_aid

[Prometheus Bound]

22. Yes, I noticed that. One good thing about the criticism.

[Captain Hilts]

12. They desperately need people there. nt

[TheWraith]

14. Military transports does not mean troops.

In this case it means C-17 Globemaster heavy transports bringing in mostly food, water, and equipment, 85 tons per trip. Not to mention dozens of both military and civilian SAR teams.

[Abq_Sarah]

6. That meshes with what I've read elsewhere

One runway, one ramp, one tarmac and a two hour limit that includes landing, unloading and taking off again.

It's a logistical nightmare.

[donheld]

8. Please take this thread down

if there's not "tin-foil-hattery" what good is it. :D

[flyarm]

10. I am in Tampa area..hdqrs of Centcom, a big group of nurses and medical supplies and ground medical

techs were supposed to leave last night..they have been on stand by since last Wednesday, on our news this morning they said they were leaving this morning.Now tonight they said they didn't go and would not be leaving till the morning..and yet our Congressman was there in Haiti this morning..he was doing his Pr shit from the ground in Haiti..but these medical response teams did not go..nor all the equipment they have.

These huge teams of medical people are ..in the field response medical teams ..to get people to surgeries and medical care teams. And they have been sitting on stand by..and supposed to leave for sure last night..and didn't go..then didn't go this morning ..when they were ready to go..and now are held off till morning..but political people are getting there??????

wtf is going on???????? people who need desparate care are not getting it.

As Doctor Gupta said preventible deaths are occuring..and yet Centcom can't even get medical people there..why..wtf is going on???????

People are dying for lack of medical care..critical care..but don't worry..our polititicans are there!

edit to add..i had just posted this on another thread.

[Abq_Sarah]

15. Do they have a staging

Area cleared for the hospital close to where the majority of wounded are located along with security and transportation to get the personnel and equipment to the site?

I saw an article earlier about a hospital that was already set up but they had few patients because they didn't have the means to get the patients to the hospital.

[flyarm]

16. i don't have any idea..these people are sitting on the tarmac at McDill AFB as told on our news

morning and now tonight.

[Abq_Sarah]

19. If they haven't received clearance

They're not ready for them on the ground.

[flyarm]

32. they are sitting in a C-130 transport aircraft. waiting to take off for Haiti eom

[suzie]

21. The BBC broadcast tonight had a Brit with the UN saying they had problems

getting anywhere because of a lack of fuel for vehicles of all kinds.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

30. Hopefully they can get the port operational soon. That'll make a huge difference.

Or will it? Do they even have facilities for storing fuel? Can fuel trucks get to the port? Do they even have the equipment to get the fuel from the ships into the theoretical fuel trucks that may or may not exist.

This entire situation is a nightmare.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. I'll repeat the answer

As much as I hate politicos on scenes, that plane was NOT empty, it brought cargo and medical personnel...

That plane did not come in empty.

Politicos are a pain, but they come loaded for bear.

[duvexy]

18. Bottleneck supplies

That is true, it is abhorable.
Well, we will just keep trying.  Pretty soon it will be
Americas fault why we can not get there.  

[mzmolly]

23. I've heard some supplies are entering through the Dominican Republic.

I wonder if this would be an alternate plan that could be utilized more often?

[miyazaki]

24. thousands could already have food/water relief if

-they put to use the tried and proven methods
developed by our U.S. National Laboratories
of airdrop-scattering MRE's and water packets/bottles
by massive cargo planes without parachutes. This was documented
years ago in places as Bosnia and the Middle East to
provide massive and immediate relief. The scientists
who developed these techniques are wringing their
hands in the air at the moment and have been furiously
contacting anyone within the Administration to get it done, faulting
not Obama himself but his handlers and those in charge of
not following through with these methods.


The common misnomer of people (including people of high command) receiving injuries from falling supplies
such as these was why it was tested in the first place, as the
design of the packages provides enough terminal resistance
to survive the impact on the ground and not harm any person who might be hit.
this method also helps prevents hoarding by any thugs as the items
will have scattered over an extremely wide area.

more info: http://www.kgoradio.com/Article.asp?id=1662660&nId=0&spid=33179

[mzmolly]

27. VERY important information!

Thank you for sharing.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. I know the method and I realize that they may go there

but they do cause some injuries from terminal velocity. Depends on concentration of populations

It is getting to the point where they will have to go there.

[mzmolly]

31. Would you please start a thread?

This is too important not to share far and wide. Thank you! :hi:

[miyazaki]

33. Done. ;)

[pansypoo53219]

25. why turn planes there around.

in billund denmark, it was fly in one way, take off the other on one runway. i think this is what they are doing.

[PavePusher]

26. Look up the layout of this airfield.

This level of crowding/aircraft movement is a nightmare there.

[alfredo]

28. Much of the city is blocking the streets, and there's little heavy equipment

to clean up the mess. Anyway, bringing in the heavy machinery before they are sure there are no survivors, is a good way to kill someone that is trapped under the crap you are moving around.