Unloading relief supplies in Port-au-Prince
\nIn response to last month\u2019s devastating hurricane that ravaged the southern coast of Haiti, a consortium of logistics-based relief groups have partnered with their respective industries to implement a complete delivery chain, including last-mile solutions to remote and inaccessible disaster zones such as Haiti\u2019s Grand\u2019Anse and Sud departments, where Hurricane Matthew struck hardest.
\nAir Cargo World spent the better part of this week in Haiti covering relief efforts by the three non-profits behind this week\u2019s airlift \u2013 Airlink, which links airlines with pre-qualified nonprofits, along with LIFT and the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). Airlink also brought Western Global and Bell Helicopters on board to join in the relief effort.
\nLIFT is well connected to the forwarder community, connecting disaster responders with general aviation aircraft, heavy jets, helicopters, small and large maritime vessels, and ground transportation to bring people and cargo to disaster sites. The third partner organization, ALAN, brought U.S. trucking and warehousing companies on board, and is comprised of hundreds of supply-chain businesses who provide expertise in transportation, warehousing, cold storage, and distribution. ALAN worked with charities to consolidate and move goods from suppliers to the hardest hit zones in Haiti.
\nMakeshift medical and housing space in Beaumont, Haiti.
\nRelief organizations in Haiti operate in a challenging environment in the best of times \u2013 in relative terms \u2013 but the current political climate has thrown up additional obstacles that make it hard to deliver the sort of supplies and personnel that NGOs are calling for.
\nTo start with, the hurricane postponed a critical election in Haiti, and while Brad Barker, Airlink\u2019s in-country country team leader, was clear that the local government had been, \u201cgreat to work with,\u201d the country is ostensibly leaderless and that in turn has postponed important decisions about the kind of aid that will be allowed and the extent to which the U.N. is involved.
\nHaiti has been burned by bungled relief efforts in the past, and locals are rightfully wary. In addition, affected regions are designated \u201cdisaster recovery\u201d zones, even though tens of thousands are more realistically still living in extant \u201cdisaster\u201d zones. Seen from above, the damage is extensive \u2013 In some areas most of the roofs on buildings are still missing, weeks after the storm hit on Oct. 4.
\nResidents in these regions are more concerned with keeping the rain out than the poor visuals generated by their living conditions. The perceptions of inaction and corruption are fueling discontent \u2013 on my first day on the ground, a chopper mission to evacuate a medical team from Les Cayes, on Haiti\u2019s southern coast had to be called back because burning road blocks prevented the passengers from making it to the landing strip.
\nThe local mayor was also kidnapped that day, and the team of volunteers from from Les Cayes were visibly burned out and relieved when they arrived on the tarmac at Toussaint Louverture International Airport 24 hours later, when Airlink was finally able to get them out.
\nStringent restrictions on the deployment of tents and tarps is an especially contentious example of the bureaucratic impediments to relief efforts. NGO workers grumble about it in airport waiting rooms, while roofless Haitians scramble to find alternatives. However, the government has limited their use due to the poor visibility generated by their prominence years after the 2010 earthquake.
\nHaiti\u2019s government wants to avoid \u201ctemporary shelters\u201d turning into permanent ones, however on the ground in Grand\u2019Anse, thousands of displaced Haitians are crowded into a school that should reasonably house a few hundred at most, with entire families packed into\u00a0broom-closet-sized rooms. Meanwhile, emergency shelters are stacking up in warehouses in Port-au-Prince while the limited number of tarps that make it to the periphery are being sold along the roadside due to high demand.
\nHere is a short video show the relief supplies loading onto\u00a0the Western Global MD-11:<\/p>\n
\u00a0
\nSource: aircargoworld<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unloading relief supplies in Port-au-Prince In response to last month\u2019s devastating hurricane that ravaged the southern coast of Haiti, a consortium of logistics-based relief groups have partnered with their respective industries to implement a complete delivery chain, including last-mile solutions to remote and inaccessible disaster zones such as Haiti\u2019s Grand\u2019Anse and Sud departments, where Hurricane[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1942,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-1941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-airport-code"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/kr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/kr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/kr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/kr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/kr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/kr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/kr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/kr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/kr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/kr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}