On Tuesday, January 12, 2010 the tiny island nation of Haiti was stuck with an earthquake that measured magnitude 7.0 - the most powerful earthquake to hit the country in a hundred years. The quake struck just before 5pm EST. The epicenter was roughly 10 miles south of the capital of Port-au-Prince.
Living in California for most of my life, I’m very familiar with earthquakes, but none of the earthquakes I’ve experienced could compare to the damage and devastation that Tuesdays’ quake caused in Haiti. Within moments CNN was on the air reporting and the Twitterverse was all abuzz. Pictures started rolling in on social networking sites and that made the tragedy all the more real.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words but the pictures coming out of Haiti leave you speechless and all you can do is weep. Bodies are piled in the streets. The living sleeps and eats among the dead. The streets of Haiti are now home to its citizens whose homes lay in ruin. There are still an unknown number of people trapped beneath the rubble some are still alive. Time is running out and more help needs to be sent to get the people out.
The roads need to be cleared. This is a Murphy's Law situation – Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Haiti is the worst possible place in the world for something like this to happen. The infrastructure was virtually non-existent prior to the quake and what little infrastructure that did exist has been completely obliterated. At this point all we can do is pray that hope arrives to save some of the people that can still be saved and that the necessary supplies are delivered and that more casualties aren't created as a result
Who will care for Haiti’s children, the thousands that were orphaned prior to and the thousands more that are now orphaned because of the earthquake? There are so many people in need of help and the help is not coming soon enough or in the amount necessary to prevent further death. I was watching CNN this morning and Dr.Sanjay Gupta had to perform brain surgery on a young Haitian girl because there were no other neurosurgeons. The basic needs of the earthquake victims are not being met and this is appalling. No person in any country should have to endure what the Haitian people are enduring.
Enough is not being done. Anderson Cooper is rescuing people and Sanjay is performing surgery. Where is all the help? It needs to get there immediately. If you cannot donate any money please pray.
If you would like to help please see below and do whatever you can
Text "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10.00 to the Red Cross
You can visit http://www.cnn.com/impact for a list of aid organization and relief agencies.
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