Lee is back safe and sound! Thank you so much to those who prayed for and supported him! Lee is not much of a writer - so much of this information is from a member on the team, Mike Slusher. Thanks for the info, Mike.
As we entered the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, a city of over 3 million people, we occasionally noticed a building damaged by the earthquake. As we drove closer to the city center, we drove by the U.S. Embassy, the U.N. compound, and other compounds for various other countries military personnel. The damage became more and more noticeable. Instead of 1 or 2 buildings being damaged every 5 or 6 block, we began to see damage every 4 or 5 blocks, then every 3 or 4 blocks, etc. Then, the damage was several buildings on every block until you get to the city center, which is also the Capitol. We were told that an unknown number of bodies remain in many of these buildings.
You may have seen pictures of their Palace. A beautiful white building…completely collapsed. Imagine our capitol building with the dome sitting on the ground and everything crumbled around it. All of the government buildings surrounding the Palace were severely damaged or flattened. Three and four story buildings were nothing more than a pile of ruble with multi-colored government papers mixed in the debris and floating around. A huge tent city has been erected on the grassy areas surrounding the capitol. In fact, everywhere we traveled there were tent cities. The various relief agencies, government, private/religious are providing food and water to those living in these tent cities. The term tent-cities is also a generous term. Although there are numerous tents provided by relief organizations, there are countless rag tents mixed in as well.
We also went into neighborhoods that had been destroyed by the earthquake. We went to one area where over 100,000 people had once lived. Imagine a V shaped ravine. From the top of the ravine to the bottom was at least ¼ mile. The ravine was over ¾ quarters of a mile long and opening out into the bay. We stood at the top of the ravine and looked down a sidewalk that led through the neighborhood to the bottom. As we looked out, it was easier to count the number of homes and business’ that had not been damaged, than to count the damaged ones. We were at this area because one of the pastors, who escorted us, lived in the area. He is a young man who lived with has parents and his church building was located across the sidewalk from his home. The church was destroyed and now a tent, provided by the citizens of the United States, stands in its place. His home, where his step-mother perished, is still a pile of ruble.
Ruble. That’s what is amazing. Ruble is everywhere with no way to remove this much debris. We saw 2 front loaders and 3 or 4 dump trucks removing debris in the capitol area. In the neighborhoods, a handful of people are using sledgehammers and hand tools to break the concrete away from the rebar. They are going to recycle the rebar. The concrete is being left in piles since there are so few private dump trucks to haul it away.
You can’t rebuild until the demolition is done. You can’t demolish because you don’t have the proper equipment to handle the heavy loads and to carry the debris away. If you are living in a tent city, you are so far from your old house, how do you get back and forth? You have to stay in the tent city to get your food and water…and protect what you have left.
We were exploring relief possibilities through Missions Door and Delta Ministries. We visited a destroyed community center/church where the pastor and 4 students escaped. When the earthquake hit, it lasted about 8 seconds, paused and then lasted for 17 seconds. During the 1st shake, this pastor and his students tried to leave the 3rd story of the building only to find the staircase blocked by a collapsed wall. When the 2nd shake struck, the wall fell back out into an open area and the pastor and students were able to step out of the building and flee. As soon as they cleared the building they turned, and watched their building crumble to the ground, completely destroyed.
----
Lakeside Church is sending a new group May 2-8 led by Mike to Haiti to see about working with AIM. There is currently so much ruble that nothing can be done about building until more clean up happens. AIM may send groups for more immediate relief - food, shelter.
