PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

AS POSTED ON THE NEW YORK TIMES ONLINE SITE

This horrible event represents perhaps the best opportunity in a hundred years to rebuild Haiti in a way that makes sense. Thousands of Haitians can be employed putting up buildings meant to survive hurricanes and earthquakes. As for the problems of over population, those are very real and will have to be addressed in time. The notion of borders, which people can never cross or only a few at a time, comes into question when you have a disaster of this size and when over population makes a full life almost impossible.

RIGHT NOW, the focus has to be on getting the living out from the rubble and providing medical care for all who need it. We need a truly massive, military style response to this situation. Big helicopters to take large numbers of people to hospitals in the D.R. and elsewhere. Jamaica is 300 hundred miles away, which is too far for some helicopters, but fixed wing aircraft can ferry dozens at a time to Kingston. Likewise, the Turks and Caicos are not that far. The Bahamas and Miami should be the next stops for the injured who cannot be cared for on the ground.

How many doctors, nurses and portable hospitals are required? Right now, it seems that just about anything that can get there within 24 to 48 hours would be needed. Is anyone, any agency, taking the lead in providing assessments and coordinating those who should go in?

We should have learned from Katrina, and recent two wars, how to respond to a situation of this size. If not, shame on us.

Doug Terry

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