Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Haiti relief efforts

When I saw pictures of the giant dust cloud hanging over Port-au-Prince because of all the collapsed buildings, I realized this was going to be even worse than I'd first envisioned. My God, so much of this city is going to be reduced to rubble. Beyond the deaths and the wounded and the people trapped in collapsed buildings, there are going to be so many survivors left with nothing.

I'm relieved to see how quickly governments and relief agencies are mobilizing responses. So many resources are going to be needed, though. We're talking about a country that has such incredibly limited resources and infrastructure of its own already.

Donate to the Red Cross

I'd have liked to provide links to either LDS Humanitarian Services or the Community of Christ's responses to the earthquake, but there's nothing up online yet, though I assume that some kind of mobilization is underway by both institutions. I'll check back later.

UPDATE: LDS Church response to Haiti earthquake

UPDATE: Community of Christ, Haiti earthquake relief

I know disasters happen all the time, and I know my sense of investment in this one has to do with my connections to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. But I hope Americans generally will be seized emotionally by this disaster, the way we were by the tsunami five years ago. This disaster is going to prove to be particularly bad, and it's happening at our doorstep!

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