MAF-Haiti Disaster Response

I (Todd) have been back in the states for a few days, now. It has been so wonderful to see Jennifer and the kids. I didn’t realize how tired I was, but discovered that most of the nights spent here don’t seem to be long enough. I think I am beginning to catch up on my sleep now.

MAF’s involvement in the relief efforts in Haiti has been multi-faceted. Our initial response was more that of survivors. In the first days after the earthquake we were not sure how soon we would have access to things like groceries, fuel for vehicles & generators, water, propane for cooking, and school for our kids. The exterior security walls around the properties of two of our families’ houses had fallen. Each MAF family had various amounts of the staples needed to survive. It was decided that the wise decision would be to move most of the staff and families back to their home areas before we reached a crisis point. We kept enough personnel to fly our three aircraft out of the country if we felt they were endangered. I also stayed on in an I.T. role to handle any communication problems we might have with our internet satellite link, which was our only link to the U.S. in the first hours after the quake.

Our families flew out on Missionary Flights International’s (MFI) turbine DC-3. This flight kind of marked our transition from earthquake survivors to relief workers as that same plane brought in an initial wave of supplies and people responding to the earthquake. In partnership with MFI, we were soon coordinating flights, cargo, and people on the Haiti side of relief operations. Various businesses such as Hendrick’s Motorsports donated their aircraft to fly people in and out of Haiti. Airplanes ranging in size from Cessna Caravans to C-130’s brought thousands of pounds of cargo. By the time I left we had handled roughly 2500 passengers and 500,000 lbs of cargo

. With the start-up of the NASCAR racing season, we no longer have the use of the Hendrick’s and Joe Gibbs Racing aircraft, but the stream of cargo and passengers continues.

It was several days after the earthquake before avgas for our little MAF airplanes was available. The fact that some of the cargo aircraft that were coming in to Haiti are four-engine avgas burners (DC-3’s, DC-4, & DC-6) meant that the local supply of avgas was soon exhausted. We had been able to store some avgas in drums and flew a few drums in (very expensive), but this has meant limited operations for our Cessna 206 and 207’s. We have been able to respond to many requests for food, transportation of the injured, and movement of medical personal. Most of our flying for regular passengers has been very limited. Fortunately, MAF was able to loan us one of the new Quest Kodiaks that are just being integrated into the worldwide MAF fleet. This aircraft uses Jetfuel which is much more readily available. It also can haul significantly more cargo and people. From the day it arrived it has been invaluable for helping meet the demand for flights within the country of Haiti. Currently I am scheduled to rotate back to Haiti on February 22. The plan is that I will be working to support our in-country operations (Cessna and Kodiak flights).

I want to extend a huge thank you for the tremendous outpouring of concern and prayer, and the many other ways you have supported us over these last few weeks. We continue to see God’s hand at work.