.....Megan was in the neighbor’s front yard playing with their daughter Abby. Kyle was out sliding on the slippery cement around the pool. Jennifer was in the kitchen. I was up an extension ladder at a power pole installing split-bolts to improve our Program Manager’s electrical connection to his house. A neighbor grabbed Abby and Megan and hugged them tightly. Kyle started into the house but met Jennifer as she exited. I swayed like an inverted pendulum along with the transformer next to me. Fortunately I had a good, strong hand-hold before the shake started, and with Mark and Amber Williams holding the ladder I was able to climb down without falling (although I was afraid Mark was going to rip me off the ladder when I got down within his reach J).
The Damage.......and the Decision
The aftershocks were frequent and strong. Most people slept in the street or their yards for the next several nights. Damage to our house was minimal. A structural engineer is supposed to come and look at the MAF houses tonight. Damage to the contents of our house was also quite minimal. Books fell off shelves and stuff fell off counters. Our TV fell to the ground but seems to
be functioning. Water sloshed out of all the toilet tanks. The only glass to clean up turned out to be a poor ceramic snowman in Megan’s room who hadn’t been put away from the holidays yet. The kids were troopers, very helpful, very flexible, and very well behaved as we sorted out the situation and tried to form a plan of action. The MAF staff took stock of our situation, the food on hand, water in cisterns, fuel in the vehicles, fuel for generators, propane gas for cooking. Unsure of how long it might take to open a supply line, and how quickly the stability of the general population could deteriorate, the decision was made Wednesday evening to “drawn down” our staff to just enough to fly out our aircraft if need be. I also was selected to stay behind to help make sure our communications system stayed open. Our satellite internet link remained online throughout the crisis, which was initially our only form to communicate with the outside world. It was so comforting to know that family had been notified quickly that everyone was okay.Leaving Port
We reserved space with Missionary Flights International for 23 people to leave Port-au-Prince on Thursday afternoon. Because of the massive amount of air traffic that had begun to arrive, there was very limited space to park airplanes and the MFI aircraft was not permitted to finish its flight into 
Haiti. Those coming in on the aircraft spent the night in Turks and Caicos. MFI was given a new “slot” for Thursday morning. By the time we arrived at the airport, their slot had again been denied and they landed in the northern Haiti city of Cap Hatien. After talking our situation over with the tower, they agree to let us park in the general aviation area.Open Doors
This began what has been a pretty good system for getting MFI relief flights (workers and cargo) in and US Citizens out. Hendrick Motorsports (NASCAR) has b
een a phenomenal help as they have partnered with MFI to bring relief workers in and so many people out. Today they will complete their 12th and 13th flights into Haiti with their 45 passenger aircraft. Besides MFI’s own DC-3’s, we have unloaded a DC-6, a DC-4, and a C-130. Lots of supplies are coming in. It is gratifying to see our staging area pretty much empty at the end of the day as partner organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse and Operation Blessing keep the distribution going. With MFI’s consent we have held back a small amount of food and water which we distribute to the many people inside the airport who have approached us for food to eat. We also have been able to provide MRE’s (the military’s Meals Ready to Eat) to some of the police and security around the airport. Hopefully this has allowed them to do their jobs better, especially since these were the first meals some had been able to find following the earthquake.Todd's Role
My initial role in the operations has been as the MAF liaison with the
Air Force personnel in the tower. As our system has become more finely tuned, that role is no longer very time consuming. I have today off so that I can start up with MAF aircraft maintenance tomorrow. We’ve not done as much MAF flying as we might normally, since our staff has been pulled in a lot of different directions coordinating all of the relief flights coming in. 
We are trying to ramp that up, however. Avgas, the type of fuel that our airplanes use is in short supply, so our flying may continue to be limited. We are hoping to fly in some barrels of avgas with MFI. We are also expecting the arrival today of one of the new MAF Kodiak airplanes, which uses the plentiful Jet Fuel. As I type, they have arrived at MFI in Fort Pierce.As someone “on the ground” in Haiti, I’ve been able to be the eyes and ears for several people trying to contact others here in Haiti. A friend from my years living in Ecuador works with HCJB Global, which offers consultation and technical assistance to Christian radio stations around the world. They had an engineer here helping out with Radio Luminere’s Stereo92, and had limited contact with him. My friend was able to give me the location of this engineer and the two people from Taylor University who were also working with him. I met up with them and was able to leave them some water and a bit of food in case they ran out. They eventually got back up the mountain to stay with their host family. Over the next few days they were able to coordinate the departure of their engineer on one of the MFI flights, thanks to the help of Baptist Haiti Mission and a medical team from HCJB Global. Taylor University also recommended that their two people (a professor who had previously lived in Haiti and a student who had come with him) exit as soon as they could safely and practically do so. When they were able to get back down to the radio station, MAF connected up with them and gave them a ride down to catch an MFI-coordinated (Hendrick) flight out.
God's Timing
The other people that I’ve been in contact with are a couple who are with the Navy, living in Italy. They’ve been in the process of adopting two Haitian siblings for a long time. The adoption was finalized but they had not yet received the passports. I met the family back in
November when they were visiting the children, after Jennifer sat next to the sister of one of the adoptive parents on the airplane while flying up for Hannah’s wedding (Jennifer’s sister). Two days ago Julie, the adopting mother, was able to get into the country and I saw her at the airport. The last I’d heard around noon yesterday she still had been unable to actually connect up with the children. Keep praying for her as she finds/comforts the children and tries to get the necessary permission to take the kids back to the U.S. She mentioned to me that it has been exciting to see God work out the details for her to even get to Haiti. She was proceeding with boldness, knowing that God is in control.*Picture captions:
1 A home ripped apart--not ours!!!
2 The four of us together as we were waiting to leave on MFI's flight that did not come in....nice to have a little more time together
3 The 23 MAF staff/families who came back to the US for a time, standing in front of the Hobe Sound Bible College bus after going through customs in FL
4 A Hendrick Motorsports flight crew gets ready to depart Port-au-Prince
5 MFI chartered a DC-6 to bring supplies in for Samaritan’s Purse
6 Will White taxis for departure to La Gonave carrying food
7 Food for an orphanage is loaded onto a pickup. We met the gentleman in the foreground while on deputation in Alum Bank, PA
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