Moving Ahead in Cange 1-16-10

Consolidated Field Reports
Anderson, South Carolina

I heard from Cange twice today. It would seem that people are already showing up in substantial numbers. The church has been made into general wards and the school is closed and it has been proposed to adapt it as a post-op recovery facility. Fifty orthopedic cases are expected almost at once. It is within a hundred yards of the hospital and will work rather well for this. It would seem a very different kind of learning is going to take place for a good while.

Our region (Cange) of Haiti is probably going to become ever more important as people figure out we have a fine intact hospital with intact air conditioned operating rooms, good staffing, and supplies at present. People and resources are getting in through the back door via the Dominican Republic. Two orthopedic surgeons are en rout this way. I would think they might be on site sometime Saturday night or early Sunday. The port and air field at PAP are totally clogged up.

I specifically had asked about the infrastructure in Cange. The dam and extensive staircase down to it are intact. The water turbine is operating and the roadside pipes are intact. At present there is good water available. The storage cisterns appear to be in good condition. The art center does have some ‘ominous’ cracks in it. I was not told if there was any structural risk associated with these. The bridges at Mirablais midway between Cange and Port au Prince are apparently useable. This is all important as that road is the national Highway #3 and is going to be most strategic now.

Father Lefontant’s house in PAP is still standing but not considered safe. He and Mamito were sleeping outdoors but both have made it back to Cange.

The accountant Poteau in Cange lost his sister. Willie (the Cange computer guru) lost his uncle, the one who saw him through university and if read right all his children were lost. Dr. Thierry lost his aunt & uncle and the little cousin is being treated in Cange.

It is suggested by some of those in Cange that Partners in Health is getting wide support for national level response and that support of the Bread and Water campaign through the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina is perhaps most needed. Intermediate and long term, the patency of the water infrastructure in Cange is going to be mission critical to the sustaining of operations in the hospital compound. The already very fragile water infrastructure is now at increased risk due to the recent geological insults and to the increasing demands that will come from the influx of people from Port au Prince. The Bread and Water initiative is intended to replumb the entirety of Cange including a new dam (already in place), re-lay high pressure pipe from a new pump house to the town some eight hundred feet above and a mile behind the dam. New cisterns and eight public taps are included in the project. This process needs to be fast-tracked to an earlier completion to insure safe water for the ten thousand or more present at and around the hospital compound. Without water, everything else is moot.

Blessings,

Craig C. Johnson

Checks (marked Bread and Water - Cange Rescue) can be sent to:

The Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina
115 Marion Street
Columbia, South Carolina 29201

One can obtain a view of the ground level conditions in Haiti at EDUSC.org