Sunday, January 31, 2010

 

Judith's Deployment - Update #5

Today is January 31, 2010. Its Sunday and its the original day Judith, Helen and their team were scheduled to return from Haiti. As is often the case with dynamic, crisis related operations, plans change. So it was for Judith's group. Because the next group scheduled to flow in and relieve Judith's group mobilized faster than anticipated; they began arriving sooner than expected. This allowed Judith group's departure to be moved up. In fact, Judith called me on Tuesday afternoon (January 26th) and asked me if I could come to Miami to meet Helen and her on Wednesday because they were going to fly out of Haiti to an as yet to be determined location in South Florida on Wednesday. Judith wanted me to meet her in Miami, spend a few days there and then fly back to Nassau. Luckily I have a very understanding boss and she let me take the rest of the week off.

I spent Tuesday getting a flight and re-instituting some hotel reservation that Judith and I had made previously for a trip to Miami that had be be postponed because of her deployment. By the end of the day, everything was set for a few days of R & R (rest and recuperation) in a nice hotel in the Coconut Grove area of Miami. Helen also wanted to take a break and do some shopping but could only stay over in Miami one night. Luckily, I was also able to get her booked into the same hotel we were in.

On Wednesday morning Judith's group was quickly manifested on a C-130 (a US Air Force cargo plane) that flew directly into Homestead Air Force Base, just South of Miami. The group was put on a bus and transported to Miami International Airport and I was there in time to meet them. So, from Wednesday morning until Friday evening, Judith had some time to decompress, relax and shop before her return to "normal" life here in Nassau.

What follows are two emails from Judith. The first one presented is the final one she wrote while still in Haiti. The second is one that she wrote while on her R & R break in Miami. Just like the previous ones presented in this series of blog posts, these last two are excellent. As has been the practice before, I provide editorial comments only where needed so as to illuminate things for a wider readership.

Following Judith's emails are pictures she took during her deployment. These pictures were taken at a variety of locations. They cover the locations where Judith worked, some locations in town and finally pictures of our neighborhood and house. One set of these pictures solves one of the questions Judith and I had been asking ourselves - what happened to our house? They provide the answer to this question and it is not a good one. In her email below, you will read about how it made Judith feel. Even though I was not there, this news and the images were very upsetting for me also. Even though its only a building, an inanimate object, its a symbol as well. These feelings come from that fact that this house was the home for Judith, Jonathan and myself for two years. This is also the house where we started our "pet family" - its where we lived when we brought Myles, our first family pet (our Hungarian Vizsla) home. Now its basically destroyed.

Anyway, here are the emails with the pictures after.........

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 4:49 PM; Subject: Status Update
Just a quick email with all the impressions from today. Please post ASAP so that people know that I am leaving tomorrow morning. Love you and looking forward to seeing you.

We were supposed to work the night shift tonight so we were off today. We went to the XXX office upstairs because they owed us one: we fixed their pants by hand-stitching a big old tear. We wanted to tag along while they were doing a recon route through down-town Port-au-Prince. I have a whole load of pictures that I will send as soon as I am in a spot where I can access my Yahoo account via wireless. In this case, a picture does not speak a thousand words. There are no words for what you see with your own eyes driving through the downtown area. There are areas that are relatively unaffected, and then there are sections that are totally devastated. And everything pancakes onto itself because the columns and rebar sections where probably made of wet sand and flower-arranger wire. In some cases, you could count de floors by just counting the layers of horizontal slaps slapped on top of each other. “Hmm, that house had five levels.” Pancaked is the best way to describe this. Each floor is now one pancake.

People still are afraid to return to their houses at night. After the aftershocks and seeing the devastation with my own eyes, I totally understand. I will not ever again walk through the airport here. Ever. So, what the people do, is they block off sections of the street with cars and rocks and tires and anything else they can find and they sleep on the street. They use the street, because that is far enough from the houses that if another aftershock happens, they will not be hit. Our drivers first thought that there were corpses on the street.

I was afraid that I would not recognize anything and could not find our house, but once we got going, I recognized pretty much everything. We had to go in a few streets to get to Rue Pacot, via Rue Oscar (where Txx lived) and the Haitian Police HQ (what used to be the Duvalier family house). But we finally found it and came from up the mountain down. All around us in Pacot the houses were already completely destroyed and I saw cars crushed under garages and houses. So, I feared the worst. I saw the gates first, took a picture of the house number on the wall (49A) and only then did I look at the house itself. It used to have three stories, but now it has only two. The middle floor has totally disappeared. When I send you my photos, we’ll put the before and after pictures up so you can see this almost un-imaginable force of nature. In a few seconds, a whole country turned to rubble. We were able to walk almost all around the house, except for the back where two corrugated patio covers blocked our way (our: Helen and Judith). On the ground floor in the back was a den area that is now only two foot high. I was able to take a picture through a hole and saw a bed. The kitchen and dining area (the real second story of the house) have totally disappeared. The staircase area in the middle of the house has made a 90 degree, dead-man fall pivoting outside of the house and the wooden stairs just kind of bungle on its last attachment to the top floor. Our third story bedroom is now on the ground floor, pretty much. The same with Nxx and Mxxxxx’s house and the USAID house behind us. I took one picture of Nxx and Mxxxxx house and will send that to them later.

This has totally, totally wiped me out. I have no energy left and feel like I haven’t slept in two weeks. And this morning, before we left, I was fine. I cried hard for a minute at our old pool and thought of how Myles figured out that he did not have to chase the ball up our hilly drive way because it would come rolling back automatically.

We have also been told that the 18-member team with which I arrived, will leave Port-au-Prince tomorrow morning (Wed. 27 Jan). We are all a bit mad and angry because we are committed to finishing this up and feel that they are taking it away from us. But, we know that this is our stress speaking and natural in people who do this kind of work. Over-commitment etc. So, we are packing our bags right now, taking one last shower before we go to bed, and drink one last beer (or something stronger) with our fellow Huah (Army term) teammates before going to airport tomorrow and catching a military flight anywhere on the east coast. From there, we’ll find our way back.

One last funny thing. The 82nd Airborne has set up a camp right near the old Embassy. I guess to establish a new port. We stopped there to survey the site and asked if we could use their bathroom. They told us that we’d better not use their port-a-potties because they were really nasty. But, we had four of those at the airport for thousands, and there were at least seven for less than 200 soldiers. We asked them if they wanted to gamble that we could tough it out. We won. It was the nicest port-a-potty I have ever seen.
Editorial Comments:
- "rebar" - short for reinforcing bars; the steel rods that are run through concrete structures to strengthen them and give them some vibration absorbing flexibility. In Haiti, the rebar thickness used is typically well below what the specification would call for.
- "via Rue Oscar (where Txx lived)" - Rue Oscar runs parallel to Rue Pacot and a good friend, Txx lived on that street
- "Nxx and Mxxxxx’s house and the USAID house behind us" - Nxx and Mxxxxx were also good friends who we served with in Haiti. Its a small State Department world - We also served with them in Islamabad. In a similar arrangement to Haiti, their house and our house, while not directly beside each other, were very close to each other in Islamabad also - what a coincidence. Back in Haiti, our House (49A), Nxx and Mxxxxx's house - right next door and the "UASID house - right behind, forms a triangle of houses with a shared pool in the middle. At the time we lived there all three of these houses were leased by the embassy. The "USAID House" was for employees of the United Sated Agency for International Development. This agency is part of the State Department but it operates fairly independent of it and in countries where it operates, they run a separate mission from the embassy with its own Director. Sadly, all three of these houses were destroyed in the quake. At the time of the quake, we believe that none of them were "Embassy Houses". Apparently the leases were ended at some time after we left. A final note is that Judith and I knew the owners of these three houses or at least the Matriarchal "LaRoche Sisters" who represented the owning family whenever we would have discussion about upkeep and improvements, etc. They were very nice ladies and always appeared together. I wonder what became of them?

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Fri, January 29, 2010 9:00:51 AM; subject: Table has Turned
We are back, not in the Bahamas yet, but in Miami. We took a stage-or-baby-steps approach to the whole return to the 'real' world. It is too much to be in Haiti in the morning and in your own bed at night. You just can't process it. It is impossible for the human mind.
Our team all had to laugh that once we were manifested onto the next C-130 flight to Homestead AFB, we became the evacuees we had processed for the last ten days. And let me tell you how well the military does this. I had total faith every time an evacuee asked me where the plane was going because they had to go to Miami, Boston, New York. I told them, without actually verifying, but with total faith in the military system, that it did not matter where there would end up because the military would help them get to their final destination. That made the evacuee feel comfortable and they were no longer stressed out about flying to the U.S. And, of course, I was right about our great military.
When we landed at Homestead with about 45 real evacuees, we were welcomed home and everybody cheered. It still makes me well up thinking about it. We got put on buses to the gym, immigration and customs were done automatically for us, without us having to wait in a line (all of the evacuees, not just the diplomats). There was food and drinks and hand sanitizer and clean port-a-potties and cots to rest on. The only thing that I could not handle is that all these people were shoving stuff in our face; "You want coffee? Let me give you some sanitizer too!" It was too much for me after those intense 10 days. I had to be left alone for a while. Even for an extrovert, being around people in an intense environment for 24/7 for 10 days pegged my people-meter.
A bus brought us to MIA international airport where we met Frank. That was the greatest to see him again, but also totally surreal. The surreal part of being back is slowly dissipating and I think I'll be OK, not perfect, when we land in the Bahamas tonight. Helen stayed in the same hotel with us (great, four star) and we cleaned up, shopped, ate, drank, and crashed hard into our real beds.
I got sick on my last day in Haiti, cold with sore throat, just like pretty much 90 percent of the people working there: close quarters, bad hygiene, bad food, and exhausting days. I am just now getting over it.
Yesterday, I was so spaced out that I asked Frank if I had taken the wrong headache pills by accident. We have some that are a bit stronger than Tylenol and I had one of those by accident once before and it made my totally loopy. I thought that had happened again. This time the loopy-ness came from my experiences, not a pill. I was walking around Coconut Grove by myself and just started sweating, I could only walk really slow and felt weirdly high. So, I went back to the hotel and slept for while. Earthquake inside: My body looks the same, my basic personality is there, but the rest of me is shaken; earthquake shaken, not stirred. I need time to clear the rubble, bring in the Komatsus and clear the ways to normal.

--------Here are some photos......---------
This is the Black hawk that Helen and Judith, along with most of the rest of the team flew in from Santo Domingo to Haiti. It actually landed on a landing zone established for the embassy. Judith said the flight was quite smooth and very exciting. From Santo Domingo, they flew West along the southern coastline of the Island of Hispaniola. A little before the Haitian town of Jacmel, they turned North, flew up and over the mountains and down into the valley where Port au Prince is situated. She said the views were fantastic. Also shown is the reception hangar at the military side of the airport in Santo Domingo, the DomRep. This was where they joined up for the Black Hawk ride to Haiti. It was set up to receive evacuees. Notes the tables set up with clothes, etc., donated to evacuees. ------------------------------------------
These are photos of operations at the airport.
Top left: The processing and waiting area for evacuees
Top Right: The control tent where passenger manifests were completed, etc. Parked directly in front is a US Air Force C-5 Galaxy - a particularly huge transport aircraft
Bottom Left, going across; First two are pictures of supplies with particular note given to the stack of diapers; next are the infamous porta-a-potties; then the waiting line of evacuees and last are the wheelchairs of which any were needed because many evacuees were elderly.
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Here are two photos taken at the embassy. The first is Judith's "Hooch". Actually an office cubicle on the Consular area. Judith slept on this side and Helen, her partner from Nassau slept on the other side. Judith said she was quite comfortable. The other photo is of the line that was more or less a permanent fixture for the first couple of weeks after the quake. Some would wait in line for days to see if they could get a visa to leave. Judith said they would literally wait for days and not leave; meaning the line area got pretty nasty.
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This montage shows the destruction in the downtown area of the city. Of note, is the the building in the center, top row which is the National Cathedral. Bottom right is signs of progress with the "Komatsu" scooping the rubble up into the dump truck.
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More photos of the downtown area:
Top left; going right: In the distance sitting in the bay is the USNS Comfort; the famous hospital ship. Next is an orderly line in from of the partially destroyed Presidential Palace. Judith suspects the line is orderly because if everyone remains calm they will get some aid, food or assistance or whatever might be at the end of the line.
Bottom row from the left: The former US Embassy, now closed. Its where Judith and I went to work everyday. It was closed up when the quake came and not damaged. We heard the US Government donated it to the Haitian government to use for some post quake rebuilding management purpose. The final two pictures are of tent cities that sprung up. These were initially thought to be primarily for people whose homes were destroyed. It was quickly realized that people who had homes intact were also living outside because they were afraid an aftershock would bring their homes down onto them.
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These are outside shots of the house we lived in from July 1998 to July 2000; 49A Rue Pacot. The house was more or less completely destroyed.
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These are pictures of some of the interiors of the house.
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Below is a chart with a side-by-side comparison of the house before and after the quake. The house was built on the side of a hill, with the left side being three levels consisting of a storage area/cistern at the ground level, the main floor consisting of the dining room and kitchen and the upper floor consisting of bedrooms. The main floor of the left side of the house collapsed and the top floor of that side of the house fell onto the main floor. It seems like much of the debris from the walls of main floor fell inwards. As the arrows on the chart show, the main floor on that side of the house consisting of the dining room and kitchen simply disappeared and its looks as if the left side of the house consists of two stories, where originally it was three.
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These are scans of pictures we took while posted in Haiti. The top left photo is one of my absolute favorites. It shows how concrete is poured there....bucket brigade! Also, gives insight into why so many buildings collapsed. Next to the left is a "Gingerbread" House. This one was a few blocks from our house. Judith said that even in the main quake area, they held up well because they were more sturdily constructed than many other homes. Continuing to the right is the pool and house in happier times. This section of the house is where the master bedroom is. Underneath is a den where we spent much of our time. The upper master bedroom area collapsed down onto the den during the quake. Of course that's Myles as a puppy doing the famous Vizsla leap into the pool. On the bottom left is a nice view in the hills up above the city. Finally on the right is a picture of Union School; a school for well-to-do Haitian, expat and diplomat kids. Jon went there for a semester before he started at Randolph Macon Academy in Virginia. Union School was destroyed in the quake.
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Next is a before and after shot of the street market down near the port, just down from the old embassy location. Judith said it really hadn't changed...nasty, dirty and chaotic as ever. Back when we were posted there, this market was absolutely off limits. The large cart-looking thing is called a Broutte and they and their operators thoroughly amused me when I was there. One would see every possible imaginable thing being hauled on these things. I even once saw an entire small compact car being carted around on one.
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I have to close with a positive image.......our house as it was when we lived there...........Both Judith and I will never forget our two years in Haiti during 1998-2000. As I conclude this post, I just want to say that I have immeasurable pride in Judith for stepping forward and volunteering to go there some ten years later.

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