MAF Communication Team-Disaster Response

I will be posting more information about the earthquake and response to that. This is a little report from the MAF Communications Team in Haiti, written yesterday, January 19, 2010.
Todd is fine. He is working with four of the other MAF Haiti guys and then a couple others from Nampa Headquarters to coordinate flights into Haiti and then around the country to distribute relief supplies.

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Today, David Hoffman and I removed the GATR system from the World Concern building and brought it back to the airport. The World Concern folks still as yet do not have an infrastructure in place to keep the VSAT system inflated for the night. With the price of gas reaching $10 a gallon in the city and even that is watered down, they don't have the finances to keep the generator going. Each time the GATR system deflates, it must be reinflated and recalibrated which is up to an hour process.

But more importantly, there are more pressing needs of the VSAT system elsewhere. We positioned the system today in the midst of the Search and Rescue groups and are working with Instedd (www.instedd.org). Some of their information about what they are doing is on their webpage. But in a nutshell, they are receiving information in from the Haitians via SMS messages or literally by workers who are roaming the streets and typing in messages. These messages are then encoded onto electronic maps for the UN Disaster Assistance and Coordination (UNDAC) group who then sends out the necessary relief or
Search and Rescue (SAR) teams to the neighborhoods.

Miraculously, two more people were pulled from the rubble today. However, even as I write this, the majority of SAR teams are packing it up tonight and heading back to their respective countries. In the morning, Dave and I will move the VSAT system over to the UNDAC area as they have an urgent need with their Map Action group. Hi resolution satellite images have been collected of the area that they need to download to help plan for the transition from rescue over to relief. We plan on being stationed in the UN compound for the next few days until their own systems can be flown in. We hope that at that time, we can then move back to the World Concern office to assist with the "internet cafe" for other NGOs.