The Haitian government and supporting nations may want to also consider floating dormitories like they use for the coastguard, or like the Queen Mary floating hotel.  This would allow families to stay together, create jobs potentially and would alleviate immigration back logs which are sure to happen as long as Haiti is being rebuilt.  I realize this would not house all displaced haitians who have lost their home, but a little bit goes a long way.

Now that we’re done with the intro, let’s move on to the real matter at hand: the crisis in Haiti.

I’ve been scouring the Internet and making calls to different people to gather assistance for the people of Haiti.

I’m very pleased to hear that additional crisis response personnel are being deployed. That’s what’s needed right now – more doctors and a lot of medical supplies (especially antibiotics) - not well-intentioned volunteers that can’t treat patients and would, themselves, require food, security and shelter. After some level of stability is achieved, I don’t think there could be enough volunteers to assist with the rebuild and other humanitarian efforts.

Important links with regard to Haiti and the current crisis:

• Livesay [Haiti] (blog) – a very, very good blog from someone living/working in Haiti: http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/
• Reuters News Alert: “Who’s Running Haiti?” http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14205092.htm
• Charity Navigator (not specific to Haiti, but very useful in this case as well as others): http://charitynavigator.org/
• UN News Centre: 2006 – Haiti’s First Census in 24 Years: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=18421&Cr=haiti&Cr1 (alarming findings about the country)
• Haiti Earthquake Situation Report: http://www.voipwx.net/node/284
• CIA World Fact Book (Haiti): https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ha.html

Family Locator Resources and Tools:

• International Red Cross Family Locator: http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/WFL_HTI.NSF/DocIndex/locate_eng?opendocument
• Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network: http://qso.com/satern/emailfrm.htm

Security information regarding fraudsters attempting to leverage the current crisis:

• SC Magazine: “Haiti quake expected to lead to fraud and spread malware” http://www.scmagazineus.com/haiti-quake-expected-to-perpetrate-fraud-and-spread-malware/article/161218/
• FBI: Haitian Earthquake Fraud Alert http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm

I will continue to monitor the situation and report back here since email has been overwhelming. Please feel free to reply and update as well. Also, a big “thank you” to Roger Fraumann who has been offering his assistance, some of the above links, and will be putting me in touch with the personnel that can pave the way for me to directly assist in-country.

The global response to the crisis has been nothing short of phenomenal. My personal thanks to every government and citizen that has provided support – both in-person and monetarily.

Jeff

p.s. My family is still attempting to locate my father, Raoul Guillame who lives in Bizoton (not too far from Port-Au-Prince). If anyone has news of his status, that would be a great relief!