Short thread about my experiences in the aftermath of the #HaitiEarthquake , 10 years ago to the day. Quake hit at 16.53 local time, 21.53 GMT, and lasted less than 30 seconds. I worked as a logistics advisor for @Concern at the time and flew out the next day. 
I’d worked in #Haiti in 2008 (loved it, such a beautiful place, such friendly people) so I knew the team of 100 staff. Miraculously only 1 had died. Nearly all had lost their homes tho. And all were severely traumatised.
I had to fly into Santo Domingo cos Port au Prince airport was shut down. I managed to hitchhike into P au P on some random private jet I flagged down on the runway in SD. Don’t know who any of these people are in the photo with me. There’s me smiling nervously.
Arrived just before dawn. Airport was creepy quiet. Fissures fissures everywhere. Outside, everyone trying to get in. Soldiers holding people at bay. Chaos all around. The signs were ominous. (Excuse the crappy photos. They do get better!)
Eventually picked up by old friend & colleague Brian. Big inspiration in my working life, always such a rock under pressure. Something was wrong tho. Brian was frenetic. Driver tore off like a lunatic. Had to tell them to slow down. If B was freaked, knew this was going to be bad
On the drive, buildings were collapsed everywhere. Multi-stories pancaked. I remember a valley covered in white houses, one side completely intact, the other decimated. Nothing but rubble. The tremor had simply passed down one side, not the other. Carnage.
Straight to work. First issue was water. Broken pipes throughout the city had people desperate. Cheesy photo of me giving out water purification tablets. We hired water trucks and distributed by the side of IDP camps straight into whatever containers people happened to have.
Next step accommodation. We’d flown tents in from Dublin & the home office were working around the clock to source more globally and fly them out. Staff first so we could operate properly then into the slums where @Concern had been working on Peace Building initiatives for years
Aside: Haiti had been a country on the up. In 2008 there was an horrendous problem with kidnappings in P au P. 40 per month. This had been reduced down to 5 /month. Still 5 too many, but the initiatives @Concern had been implementing were working. Peace was starting to take hold
Then, out of the blue, the sky caved in. IDP camps everywhere. 12k people were living on the golf course (no buildings there to fall on you). The trauma was all consuming. Everyone, I mean everyone, had lost people. Tens of thousands just disappeared, buried in the rubble.
Story of one guy I knew, his brother had been at Uni that day so he ran up there to find him straight after the quake. He knew his brother had been wearing an @AFCAjax top that day (a pressie from Brian actually). He searched for ages until eventually he saw the jersey...
..on a lifeless arm sticking out of the rubble. Couldn’t lift the concrete off tho. Begged for help but everyone too busy with the injured. Eventually someone suggested he come back next day and they’d all help. Next day it had all been bulldozed away tho. Never saw his bro again
Government collapsed (literally). Ports all blocked by fallen containers. Presidential Palace collapsed. Cathedral collapsed. Felt like all the pillars of society had abandoned the place. And so, so many schools. The kids had been in school at the time. So many children, gone
TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY *THOUSAND* DEAD
Morgues were obviously overwhelmed. Tens of thousands had to be buried in mass graves. And fast, to avoid the spread of disease which would only end up killing more.
Morgues were obviously overwhelmed. Tens of thousands had to be buried in mass graves. And fast, to avoid the spread of disease which would only end up killing more.
Next distributions, plastic sheeting and hygiene kits. US Army supporting. The odd riot, gun shots regular enough. Such amazing colleagues - Tamara, Yves, Jean Francois, Jimmy O’Connor, Sgt James Malone, led by the irrepressible @aidwkr Dominic McSorley – legends, the lot of them
Another aside: Jimmy's dad holds the world record for the fastest hat trick in world football:
#Nationaltreasures
#Nationaltreasures
This was my home for 3 months. We couldn’t sleep inside because we needed a quantity surveyor to review the apartment block. We could use the toilets and fridge tho, and we were also getting thrown loads of MRE’s from the US Army lads. Chocolate pudding in a bag. Grim!
A few weeks later, Jimmy says his back is killing him from sleeping in a tent, decides to head back into the apartment for a decent kip. Middle of the night, I wake up in the tent with my feet in the air above me, thrown upside down by an aftershock.
Thought process whilst being thrown about my tent: FUCK, Jimmy. I better run and get him. No, can’t go in, ring him. No, phone’s inside charging, run in, get phone, run out, ring Jimmy, tell him to get the fuck out. By the time I knew what the fuck was going on, quake was over
Moral of the story – you don’t get time to react. Instinct kicks in but who the fuck knows what it’s going to do. Fight or flight but there’s nothing to fight. The world is shaking you about like a rag doll. After each aftershock - the sound of dogs barking and women screaming
This (I think) was the big supermarket right behind our compound. I forget how many people died in here. Some survived tho. Vague recollection of a story where someone survived the collapse by hiding under bags of potatoes
The smell of decomposing bodies was hard to block out
The smell of decomposing bodies was hard to block out
Non-stop jitters. Downtown to buy some tools. Hundreds milling about, maybe 6 weeks after the quake. People getting back to their lives. Women cutting hair on the curb, tea being served, shops reopening. Around the corner, out of sight, a stack of enormous steel pipes...
For whatever reason this stack collapsed, creating a tremble in the ground & almighty din. Panic. Absolute panic. People running everywhere screaming (fuck me the screams) but no matter where you turned the buildings were too tall. If they collapsed, everyone, to a man, was dead
Driving was manic. Each week we’d go to the @UN logs cluster meetings out by the airport & it was bedlam trying to get there. Half the roads blocked with rubble, the other half jammed with traffic. 20 min journey would take 90. Choppers overhead, sweltering hot the whole time too
All radio stations only played classical music, all of them. And this is Haiti, home of Kompa! @wyclef and President Sweet Micky Martelli! After 1 month, there were mass funeral processions held for the lost. Tens of thousands out on the streets, the anguish silent & terrible
@wyclef Which bring me to why I’m writing this. Gardi. I lived with Gardi & another friend Djani in Goma, Congo in 2009 for a few months. Work was tough but we had fun when we’d get back to Goma. Handsome bastid, Papa Dja -
Gardi was Haitian but @Concern had asked him to come to Goma to oversee their ICT Systems (smart cookie). My defining memory of Gardi will always be of his deep, braying, contagious laugh. We watched a lot of @DaveChappelle at the time, Charlie Murphy stories in particular...
Even though we’d just watched them the day before, I remember lying in a hammock on the veranda in our compound on a Sunday evening and hearing Gardi’s laugh come booming out from the living room as he watched the same vids over again. You couldn’t help but laugh along.
Gardi was at home in Haiti when the earthquake hit. I don’t know the exact details, but as far as I’m aware, he died saving his baby daughter. Apparently he threw her out the window as the roof of his own home collapsed down upon them
Thankfully his wife wasn’t home, wasn’t killed and both she and their daughter survived.
I don’t know if the 2nd last tweet, the way he saved his kid, is accurate. It seems improbable to me & the last thing I’d ever want is to be disrespectful to him, but it’s what I was told at the time. As far as I know Gardi died an absolute hero.
Regardless of whether it’s accurate or not, he’ll always be a hero to me and today I’m going to remember that hero. I’m going to remember his laughter and try to laugh along. If I can get a few others laughing along throughout the day too, all the better. I will.
RIP Gardi. Rest in peace, buddy
PS As I was leaving Congo, Gardi and Djani went to a local artist and asked him to paint my face on an image of @DaveChappelle’s Rick James to give me a portrait as a going away present. I think you can see for yourselves, he got the likeness spot on.
PPS Just stumbled across this: concernusa.org/story/2010-hai… Some stunning photos in here
Fair play @eokenney for the savage photography 👆
Thanks for the help in the midst of the madness 👍
Thanks for the help in the midst of the madness 👍
RIP amigo xx
