Inne
Almost immediately after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on January 13, donations began to pour in to the already poverty-stricken Caribbean nation.
But one big roadblock existed: getting the life-saving supplies to the people desperate for help.
Because of the island's infrastructure and the damage it sustained from the quake, it is nearly impossible to access some areas of the island, leaving thousands to die or suffer for lack of basics -- food, water, medical attention.
An Oxford-based charter service is helping move those supplies and medical personnel, stationing a portion of its fleet in Haiti and making multiple trips a day to one of the hardest hit spots, carrying thousands of pounds of supplies to some of the world's poorest.
Tradewind Aviation normally ferries vacationers to destinations such as St. Bart, Anguilla and St. Martin. But since the quake hit, two of its planes -- each manned with two pilots -- have made three trips a day each from the Dominican Republic, which is serving as the headquarters for the donations coming in from around the globe, into Leogane, one of the hardest hit Haitian cities.
"We are unique because of the type of aircraft we fly," said Eric Zipkin, who with his brother, David, owns Tradewind Aviation. The small, eight-person crafts can land in tight spots and carry as much as a ton of supplies, he said. "They can get in where big military transports can't," he said.
During the winter, many of their planes are stationed in the Dominican Republic, so it was easy to quickly arrange for the missions, Zipkin said. And they didn't hesitate to pitch in, he said, just as they did when Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. in 2005.
"After Katrina we donated our aircraft to move supplies," he said. But this is much more difficult than that was, he said. "Here, we had functioning airports," he said. In Haiti, that's not the case, he said, so the planes use whatever space is available to land, such as the roads that are, for the most part now, closed due to the quake.
And Leogane's proximity to the center of the quake means that it is in dire need of help. Zipkin said the planes are using one of the city's main roads as a runway, but it is still difficult to access the area because of the amount of damage there.
"The most urgent needs are food, water and medicine," he said, and many need medical attention that can't be found there.
Zipkin said his pilots are reporting desperate conditions on the ground. "It's pretty extraordinary," he said.
On Wednesday, Eric Zipkin flew down to Haiti to bring medical crews down while brother, David, remained in Oxford, running the rest of the firm's business. The nonprofit organization Doctors without Borders is in Leogane, where they have found a disastrous situation, according to reports, with thousands dead and thousands more dying.
"It's pretty hairy down there," David Zipkin said. Security has become an important factor in continuing to be able to provide the help, he said.
"We have pretty good support in terms of security with the U.N. troops," he said, referring to forces the United Nations is providing in the relief effort. "Each time we go in there, its security set up." The areas they are delivering to are isolated and some of the people haven't had anything to eat or drink for days, he said, which causes tempers to flare and outbursts of violence.
"The people are starving; some haven't eaten in a week, so we are trying to get it to them as soon as possible," David said. "Some of them will see us flying in and they will hang around trying to get as close to the planes as possible.
"It's not a mob, but it easily could get out of control if there was no security," he said.
Leogane is nearest to the epicenter of the quake, David said, so the damage is severe.
"If Port-au-Prince lost 50 percent (of its infrastructure), then this area lost 85 to 90 percent," he said, which is why it is so difficult to reach the population there.
It's not that there aren't enough supplies -- it's getting them out to the people that is the problem, he said.
"The airports (in the Dominican Republic) are filling up with supplies but the cities are not getting the stuff," he said. "It's a distribution problem."
In some places, the only way to get the supplies in is to drop them from a plane, he said. "But when you drop the stuff in, it causes riots" because of the people's desperation to get to the items, he said.
"During Katrina, at least there were real working airports and there were aid groups on the ground taking the supplies," David said. "Here we can't get the stuff to the centers of towns."
The planes will be part of the rescue effort for the foreseeable future, David said. "We will be rotating crews," he said, "but we are going to stay there as long as we can."
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