Text Message From Chris Rudd in Haiti

Chris Rudd, an attorney and Board member, sends us a text message of his impressions from within Haiti.

“We arrived to Port-au-Prince late Wednesday with doctors, nurses, a former 82nd airborne medic, and about 3 tons of supplies.  The US troops made us feel right at home at a campsite for the few hours until dawn.  By early AM, we split into 2 groups.  One joined Scott Stapp of Creed, who came days earlier and volunteered himself into setting up an ad hoc hospital some distance from Port-au-Prince.  Jeff and Glen joined Scott.

The other group, myself included, got in touch with the 82nd airborne which escorted us in delivering supplies and medical personnel at three sites around Port-au-Prince.  I cannot describe the devastation we saw adequately with just words, but footage taken by the DC3 crew who helped organize the trip will do a better job.  Both groups worked almost 20 hours after landing, then met to drive together to a small hotel still standing about an hour from the airport. 

Today, some doctors worked at the makeshift University of Miami hospital at Port-au-Prince airport.  However, word had spread that we were here with chairs, doctors, and supplies at Port-au-Prince airport.  So we set up a makeshift aid station inside the airport and brought patients to it, as well as going out to aid stations and clinics where we learned wheelchairs, doctors, or supplies were needed.

Downtown Port-au-Prince is surreal.  Some buildings seem okay while one next door was flattened.  The smell of sewage and rotting bodies is overpowering in some areas.

Thank you to the doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals who dropped everything to come here where needed most.  Thanks to the US Military men and women here keeping order.  Thanks to Scott Stapp of Creed who saw a need and raced to fill it.  Thanks to Ben Drew of John Muir and Dr. Barry Latner of Concord Hospital who like Scott, raced to go where the need was by getting us supplies.”