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AEL’s Director Of Safety Dave Hardin Assists With
Haiti Earthquake Relief Operations
With trembling hands and a heavy heart, the man delivered his precious cargo to the refugee camp workers with a clear message: Please give my daughter a life. Kitsy, a seven-year-old Haitian girl, was suffering from the physical effects of malnutrition and scurvy, and her father was determined to save her.
“I give her to you,” he said in broken English. “Please take her to the United States so she will have a life. Here, in Haiti, she will die.” He then turned and quickly walked away, leaving Kitsy instantly orphaned as the newest member of a refugee camp assisting children after the catastrophic earthquake that rocked the Caribbean nation January 12.
Kitsy, like thousands of other Haitian children, serves as a microcosm of the human suffering caused by Mother Nature and her 7.0 magnitude temblor. Her story is just one of many passed along to Dave Hardin, Director of Safety for Air Evac Lifeteam, who spent 16 days in the Dominican Republic assisting AeroAmbulancia in its efforts to provide Helicopter EMS (HEMS) and resupply missions into Haiti. AeroAmbulancia, which is part of the Helidosa Aviation Group, is based in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.
Hardin points to Kitsy as a reason why the international community should not forget the devastation of January 12. “Things are changing quite a bit in Haiti, especially since it’s no longer front page news,” he said. “Now the real tragedy begins as many of the relief organizations and medical personnel who came to help are headed back home. The military still has a strong presence and are passing out some food and water regionally, but it’s going to be a real challenge to rebuild an infrastructure that was already pretty fragile even before the earthquake.”
HEMS: Front and Center
Even for experienced HEMS professionals, the logistical challenges after January 12 were immense. At one point, Hardin witnessed more than 50 airplanes and 25 helicopters on a single runway airport, all with the same laudable goal of providing assistance to some of the approximately three million people affected by the quake. With organizations and countries across the world sending humanitarian aid, including launching airplanes and helicopters for the recovery effort, there were no shortages of aircraft available to help. This presented its own set of unique challenges: Namely, airspace that was completely saturated, so much so that the Haitian government closed the airspace entirely around the Port-au-Prince Airport.
“But it was the way it was closed that was most interesting,” explained Hardin. “The tower operator simply announced the airspace was closed and then turned off the radio, leaving dozens of aircraft uncontrolled and in close proximity.” Hardin and the Helidosa professionals eventually put a standardized schedule in place, with fixed-wing aircraft put on standard routes, helicopters given structured routing in and out of the Port-au-Prince Airport, and safety measures such as load manifests and weight/balance calculations were enacted.
Aside from coordinating crowded air space, rescue workers also had to navigate difficult terrain ranging from mountains to deserts and sandy beaches to dense forestation, the lack of first responders to provide assistance on the ground, and the inability to communicate with the pilot once crossing into Haiti. “There was no power in the Caribbean, so therefore we lacked the traditional long-distance forms of communications,” he said. Not to mention the dangers inherent to such utter devastation, including ground convoys suspected of having food and water being attacked.
“That’s what makes this so different from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for instance,” said Hardin. “Everything has to be done through the air in Haiti. Because of the danger, we were forced to establish a series of five designated safe landing zones, and a curfew of nightfall was enacted by the government. We travelled in flights of two or more so that if one aircraft went down, a communication relay could be established.” Safely moving patients, passengers and cargo into a country with such massive devastation proved to be “immensely challenging,” Hardin said.
Children’s International Lifeline
Hardin’s initial eight-day trip was spent providing logistical coordination for HEMS; his return trip was more humanitarian in nature. Hardin met with the AeroAmbulancia Board of Directors about contributing directly to the humanitarian efforts already underway, and with the recommendation of a company called Air Calvary, the Helidosa Aviation Group decided on a cause that was not receiving aid from the international community: The Children’s International Lifeline (www.childrenslifeline.net).
Operating an orphanage/refugee camp in Haiti 25 miles northwest of Port-Au-Prince, the organization feeds approximately 1,300 children a day, including Kitsy. “A large number of orphans live inside the compound,” said Hardin. “But there are hundreds more children that live in a surrounding village, and they all need the basic requirements to sustain life – food and water.” Hardin said that feeding such a large number of children was a challenge before the earthquake; now they are encountering a flood of refugees that swell the village population daily.
Upon taking his initial flight into the camp, Hardin was struck by the sights and sounds of the devastation in Port-au-Prince. “The stench from the decay and devastation of the city was just overpowering,” he said. “We had to close the aircraft windows.” Upon arrival he was also struck by the dedication of the camp operators – Indiana natives Don and Pat Curtis, and their son Donald, Jr., – and was duly impressed by the compound itself. According to Hardin, the camp was “clean and tidy,” and housed a small school, a medical clinic, a large kitchen/dining facility, and a non-denominational church complete with musical instruments and a full-time Padre. The camp is also home to a large flock of wild turkeys, a dozen chickens, and a mini-herd of baby pigs who, as Hardin stated, “comprise the outdoor clean-up crew.”
Hardin was also impressed by the dedication of the local villagers. Upon his descent Hardin noticed a perfectly level and rectangular soccer field, and surmised that only a bulldozer could carve such a smooth and evenly cut field out of the mountain. Not so, he was told. “It was dug by hand, one shovel at a time, by the people of the village, in 100-degree temperatures in some of the most rocky and inhospitable terrain I have ever seen,” said Hardin.
From the relative comfort of the compound, the picture changed remarkably once Hardin and Don Curtis left the grounds to survey the damage done by the January 12 quake. Despite the nearby village being only 25 miles from the epicenter, the earthquake opened up a 200-foot, quarter-mile wide ditch that extended from Port-au-Prince to within several hundred feet of the compound. Don Curtis happened to be looking on at the time of the quake, and saw the fault line headed for a collision course with the village and compound. However, the fault line passed serendipitously in a perfect circle around the north side of the buildings and huts, sparing both the camp and village utter devastation.. “They received a bit of damage, but nothing as bad as it would have been if it had sustained a direct hit,” said Hardin.
That bit of good luck aside, the camp’s biggest problem is now the daily influx of refugees fleeing the devastation of Port-au-Prince. The ever-increasing flood of children needing food and water grows steadily each day, and the camp supplies food to 10 feeding stations each day. Food shortages mean only children seven years old and under can be fed, and is the only meal these children will receive each day.
In response, Helidosa flew in approximately 1,600 pounds of rice, beans and pasta, which drew tears from Pat Curtis. “She explained that without that help, they only had enough food for a couple more days,” she said. “You would have thought it was Christmas morning, as everyone wanted to line up and be a part of unloading the food that would allow them to stay in operation just a little while longer.”
Hardin said his time spent in Haiti has offered him perspective, particularly his up-close view of a country in utter ruins. “This is a mass-casualty disaster of epic proportions, and the recovery and relief efforts are going to take a long, long time,” he said. Hardin then noted the dichotomy between the suffering in Haiti and the relative prosperity in the upper 48 states. “It’s hard to imagine that this situation exists only a three-hour flight from Florida.”
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