TULSA--Tulsans joined a flood of government agencies, churches and other organizations to rush aid to earthquake ravaged Haiti, while others waited to hear from loved ones.Nearly every major religious organization America mobilized members to help victims of the earthquake.
Efforts to get medical help, food, clean water and rescue teams to Haiti were hampered by the nation’s badly damaged infrastructure.
A medical team from In His Image family medicine residency program affiliated with Hillcrest Medical Center left recently for Haiti, said Michelle Couture, who coordinates international missions trips for the group.
“It’s all still coming together,” she said.
Drs. Nick Carroll, Valentina Augustin and Sujan Joshi left on the trip, as well as Rev. Joel Leitch, a counselor.
The Tulsans are working with teams from Michigan and Florida.
They will carry a large supply of casting material for broken bones, sutures and other medical supplies, provided by Blessings International in Tulsa, Mrs. Couture said.
The team is expected to be in Haiti seven to 10 days, she noted.
Harold Harder, founder and president of Blessings International, said requests for medicines are starting to come in from medical teams are heading to Haiti, and orders are being prepared.
Mr. Harder said he is dealing with horrific logistical problems in a country that even before the earthquake had poor infrastructure.
If supplies pile up at the airport and cannot be delivered, they will be quickly pilfered, he said, and anyone going into the area must be prepared to be self-sufficient, with food, water purification, shelter and security.
“These are the realities,” he said. “This is a great case for the U.S. military.”
Last year, Blessings International provided missionaries with medical supplies valued at $50 million on the wholesale market, Mr. Harder said.
Kids Against Hunger, a Tulsa organization with 23 satellites around the country, is getting calls from Tulsa schools whose students want to help pack food for Haiti relief, said Sherry Horn, who runs the organization with her husband, Marshall Horn.
“We have one container ready to ship right now,” she said. Each 40-ft. container holds 285,000 meals.
“We’re talking to the navy about shipping it. They’ve done that for us before.”
Last year the ministry sent about 60 million high-protein, high-vitamin meals to poor areas, including Haiti.
Mr. Horn said she received an e-mail from Renee Edme, the director of an orphanage that receives their food.
“That first tremor seemed to last forever and it was so-o-o-o-o violent,” Mrs. Edme’s e-mail said.
“It was certainly the most terrifying moment of my life and I am so grateful that the peace of God rules my heart and mind.”
Mrs. Horn said she would leave as soon as possible to help with food distribution. Only medical and search and rescue teams are getting in now, she said.
Rotary District 6110 Medical Supply Network ordered 50 water boxes to be shipped immediately to Haiti.
Those 50 boxes should be enough to purify 250,000 16-ounce bottles of water. Each water box costs $150, and more will be ordered as funds come in.
Meanwhile, an Oklahoma City man said he was fortunate to survive the earthquake when so many others in the impoverished country did not.
Other Oklahomans with family and friends in Haiti were waiting for word that they were all right.
George Altidor, a Haitian working Center in Broken Arrow, learned that his stepmother died of a head injury, and a broken arm and leg.
He is concerned about his two brothers and a sister living in Port-au-Prince.
“We had a third party call us who talked to someone who said they are OK, but we can’t confirm it,” Mr. Altidor said. “I am definitely worried.”
Valerie Henegar’s daughter, Liberty Henegar, a senior at Claremore High School, was on a church mission trip at an orphanage when the quake hit.
The girl said in a text message: “Mom, there was just an earthquake. Pray hard. I think everyone is O.K. though it was bad.”
A nearby school collapsed.
Mrs. Henegar said her daughter and three others from Westside Holiness Church in Claremore are fine and staying with two missionaries, David and Alicia Lloyd. But she said she doesn’t know when they will be able to return home.
An Oklahoma Baptist University music professor, Louima Lilite, and his family were visiting his native Haiti during the earthquake, but they were several hours north of Port-au-Prince.
OBU’s spokesman, Julie McGowan, said Mr. Lilite was not injured but is worried about his sister, who lives in Port-au-Prince.
Mr. Lilite helps with a music camp in northern Haiti.
