Port-au-Prince Earthquake Logistical Help

Andy, They feel like my friends also.

I have been following you for years and the way you write about people and their pictures you post make them real to me.

Good luck to you Andy, and to your friends in Haiti I will follow this closely.

Billy

Andy
Can you call me, or can I call you?
Frank Gray
The Journal Gazette
Fort Wayne
260-461-8376

Or we could swap some emails.
Frank Gray

TheButterflyTribeKhalifa from has written 22 comments

I immediately thought of you, and the others you've introduced us to, during your recent stay in Haiti! I am sending love, light, and rapid healing that way!

Khalifa

Andy,
I was glad to see ou were not injured and am saddened for any friends you may have lost. I will be praying for them and you as well.
Chris Peterson

e-greg from wrote 1 comment

Sending money ASAP to Medecins Sans Frontieres...

ash from has written 49 comments

Thanks for updating us, Andy. I have made a donation to the International Committee of the Red Cross, who have 68 staff working permanently in Haiti, and I believe one of the best organised NGOs in the world.

Others can donate via this link: http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/helpicrc

There are plenty of links on that page about the ICRC's work in Haiti, both about the Earthquake and day-to-day.

Thanks for making this personal to all of us, Andy. Best of luck!

has written 47 comments

Andy, glad you are OK. The devastation is terrible and I would not be able to understand just how much so, if not for your earlier on the ground reporting.

I hope the missionaries and the orphans made it without injuries. I also donated to Haiti relief.

hoz from has written 62 comments

First Typhoons in the Philippines, now an earthquake in Haiti. Disaster seems to be following the Hobo around these days.

This is your second chance Andy. You failed miserably in the Philippines. Will you roll up your sleeves, get dirty and help? Or are you afraid of a little dirt and dead bodies?

any word on TLC Barefoot School in Del Mar region of PAP? frequent prayerw for you and all the folks in PAP

Pato from has written 55 comments

Andy,

Good that you are well. Sorry for everyone you knew in Haiti.

Do you think you will return to see how everybody is?

Wade

hotspringfreak from has written 35 comments

Very glad the Spirit moved you to another place in time again. Consider yourself Evacuated. You were placed on the other side of the Thai peninsula just before the Tsunami: another example. Only first responders in a disaster zone could do much at all and wherever they've arrived they have been mobbed on the spot and are generally unable to reach their objective. Reports are that UN barracks in Port Au Prince collapsed and have read a report that half the 600 staff of Doctors Sans Frontiere in Haiti are casualties. Without a Sat phone (barring death or trauma) you would be out of communication and unable to inform the world through your travelogue. Your assessments are correct and thank God you are able to relay messages and attempt to help organize rescue and relief, recognizably your forte. You ARE doing what you can. Obviously an impossible situation. Again.

Inspect your place for earthquake damage and stock up on water and food. You're not out of the zone. Thank God..

Gracias El Senor y Dios,

- Chris Smith

Let me disabuse Hoz of a misconception you are attempting to portray in your statement "You failed miserably in the Philippines...."

Andy was NOT in the Philippines when the 2nd big (and most destructive) storm struck Luzon...he was on his way back to the states! He DID report on the early flooding in Manila prior to the big deluge! However, I personally met with Andy in both Baguio City and Bauang, La Union and during his stay there he both reported on and encouraged our work as an NGO in both areas. He was a regular at the VFW Post 9892 Canteen and also with the VFW members in Baguio City. Andy observed first hand, and offered EXACTLY what we needed from him...Support, Encouragement, Advice and Questions pertaining to the community needs of Baguio and La Union. He saw our efforts with the street kids, community projects, and Moma Amparo and her kids (The cinnamon roll lady) and spoke at length with the FilAm and American Expats who are the core of the VFW posts in Luzon. After the storm subsided in LaUnion, we donated many thousands of pesos in cash relief to families struck down in the aftermath of the flooding.

By his chosen profession as a journalist traveler and pathfinder, he did indeed "roll up his sleeves and get dirty"...all without becoming the focus of the story. He is a narrator, he is our eyes and ears at ground zero of this disaster!!

He did what a good journalist is supposed to do...He Reported the story ...he did not BECOME the story!!

Now that he is in Haiti and Dominica, he is doing what his readers hoped he would do....boots on the ground first person narrative of the terrible tragedy in that region.

Semper Fi!

JD

hoz from has written 62 comments

You're mistaken, Andy was in the Philippines during Ondoy. Check the archives if you need clarification.

All I saw from Andy in the Philippines was him complaining he was getting his new shoes wet. He waded around the pension house where he was staying peeking in peoples flooded houses with plastic bags on his shoes. He holed up in the lodge posting and reading books.

He complained about the Philippines, the rain, the flooding it's people, and the government. He said several times he was only waiting on his plane to leave. I don't call that helping out OR reporting.

Andy has made it clear many times he is not a journalist or a writer. He's a blogger who travels the world and his opinion is just that, his opinion. Like rear ends, everyone has one.

Unless he has had a change of heart I expect Andy to do as he always does. Skim the pages and get out of Dodge at the first opportunity.

Gadget from has written 831 comments

Hmm, confusion is the devils only friend.

Both sides are correct, people are referring to different Typhoons. What is burning Hoz up is because I made a video during Odnoy. It was a very happy moment for me, I was going to return to a location close to the Yasmin Apartelle. A happy spot, where I watched this boy in this link playing in the water a couple years before.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/197_45_Philippines-Flood.shtml

I walked from the Duck Inn, I was going to make a video of many children having a great time playing in at the same intersection. I went walking, and for some reason, that I did not understand at the time, the water was exceptionally high.

I just had my parents send me Gym Shoes, I have a back problem, I need good shoes, well these videos are real, not staged.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wpzU96uOgs

Well, I went to make a video of children playing, did not work, but it was video, I had Internet, nothing to do, so I published it.

Little did I know at the time, I learned later, this was a horrible Typhoon that killed people. My intention was to relive a moment when I watch children playing. I did not get to perform the title of of the youtube video, I accidentally recorded a horrible typhoon. Not all typhoons are horrible, most are just fly overs, this one did damage.

Hoz has a hard on, because I make a real comment, about me wanting to save my shoes.

Hoz is from the Philippines, I think maybe he had friends die, lose their house, or something bad. Whatever happened, he does not want to say how he felt. In the context of Hoz mind, I was callous, non-caring, and on hindsight it appears this way.

JD saw me making videos, walking around in horrible storms, trying to do something to explain, while everyone else in the VA was eating breakfast.

Two real perspectives, Hoz on the hand wishes to remain very angry at me, hoping he can destroy me or something, I am not sure, do not really care, it is his baggage to carry.

The Moral of the story:

Real time reports, real time Blogging is full of inconsistency, that lead to confusion. True life is ambiguous in the real moment, only after time has past, do we understand the situation. If I remove them, the truly smart readers would figure it out,Editing is a lie, it always is, it is not reality.

I have made the decision to explain my thoughts as they are real, not edited, not manufactured to cover the blemishes. I did nothing wrong, I was celebrating a happy moment in the Philippines wherby children played in the water. This water is full of crap, I mean ugly, to find happiness, in water so bad, it makes Haiti look clean.

The Philippines is as a country in worst shape than Haiti, this is known, but the Filipino people want to deny it. Hoz wants me to make it really bad, but never talk about it, he has some baggage.

I think he went to the USA and forever remember, he deserted the people and country he loved.

Why did I write this, to stop JD from going again.

Who is correct? Both are, the conclusions and inferences is Hoz doing the work of the devil, to cause confusion.

Hoz, get a life, you have helped me find Rodney for backpacks, get a life, you said you would stop reading my blog after I left the Philippines. Your working on a dysfunctional need, an addictive circle or cycle, just say goodbye Andy. Remove the bookmark, the RSS feed, and go on with life.

Asiabill from has written 253 comments

Well Put Andy! I responded to one of my yahoogroup members questions about typhoon ONDOY by down playing the seriousness from my personal experience at my location near the airports in manila. The flood water going down in 8 hours and 18 hours later the power came back with the sun shining and everything back to normal. Another member attacked me in a similar to what Hoz did to you about this very thorough detailed post above. Andy, YOU are WHO you ARE and this blog is YOUR gig so why don't such complainers create their own blog to voice their complaints and negative views about human nature. The FIRST thought I had was, Andy you chose perfect timing and was rewarded by your past good karma to escape injury and chaos in Haiti, lucking out as you have done many times over the years. In fact, your existence after 11+ years is proof enough of choosing your paths in life and the world wisely. There so much weirdness about the way people react to pain and suffering that judging or blaming anyone personally is complicated and nearly impossible.

I prefer to look at such disasters anywhere in the world or with individuals' lives NOT as problematic but as a future solution being clarified. By the sound of your experiences in Haiti the majority of their population is undereducated and lack basic skills and already are thinning out their poorest of the poor families by sending their children to the cities for a childhood lifetime of servitude. I noticed your negative comparison to the Philippines and I live here also but realize that most "normal" citizens of the G20 Wealthiest countries like yourself find poverty ugly, deserving of pity and often blame the rich, the political leaders or other factors for their pain and suffering. I maintain a more practical view blaming each individual for their own demise and also open minded to know that the poorest of the poor enjoy similar freedom in life as the rich since they are SO FREE of responsibilities and stress. That's why when I was a teenager I wanted to be a BUM or a MILLIONAIRE to be free of middle class drudgery morality and duality / hypocrisy.

The majority of Haitians will survive and the 100,000 estimated dead, killed by the earthquake will be mourned by their families and friends and life will go on. I find the third world citizens MUCH MORE ABLE to cope with such disasters than people in the richest countries.

Hello. My name is Bernardo, and I speak fluent Creole, good French and Spanish, and I have executive-level English language skills. I'm a US-educated engineer.

I am on my way to Haiti this week, and I'm looking forward to connecting to anyone who wants. I do have a comfortable home in suburban PaP that was not damaged, so if you need somewhere to stay, let's discuss your options and needs.

Please call me at 678.267.6012 or pbdelice@aol.com