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Listening to the news...
Jan. 14th, 2010 01:08 pmHaiti is well and truly hosed.
Lots of people want to fly in aid. But there's one major airport - it is clogged and has no more fuel to help planes take off again.
You'd think, well, it is an island - just bring things in by ship. Well, aside from being slower - the ports are equally hosed. Piers are submerged, roads into the ports are buckled so they cannot pass trucks.
Same thing for flying into the Dominican Republic - impassible roads into the population centers in Haiti.
They need heavy machinery to make these facilities usable again, but the heavy machinery must be flown or shipped in. There's no way to bootstrap the facilities fast enough to get aid in in the 24-48 critical hours. It is a situation where all the goodwill and effort in the world simply doesn't hack it - practical reality has things getting worse for them before it gets better.
Lots of people want to fly in aid. But there's one major airport - it is clogged and has no more fuel to help planes take off again.
You'd think, well, it is an island - just bring things in by ship. Well, aside from being slower - the ports are equally hosed. Piers are submerged, roads into the ports are buckled so they cannot pass trucks.
Same thing for flying into the Dominican Republic - impassible roads into the population centers in Haiti.
They need heavy machinery to make these facilities usable again, but the heavy machinery must be flown or shipped in. There's no way to bootstrap the facilities fast enough to get aid in in the 24-48 critical hours. It is a situation where all the goodwill and effort in the world simply doesn't hack it - practical reality has things getting worse for them before it gets better.
