Haiti and the Internet

[Duncan Edwards]

Please don't fall for some of the ridiculous internet rumors regarding aid to Haiti. UPS and FEDEX are NOT shipping things there for free. American Airlines and Jetblue are NOT taking doctors there for free. Not all of these "text money to Haiti" things are legitimate. One easy way to check some of them is to visit -

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/haiti.asp

Don't forward emails with great claims and URGENT headers. If its true it won't be passed around on the internet like CNN never heard of it.

[bbjohn]

That's good advice, Duncan. Any time there's a disaster, there are always those crooks willing to prey on the generosity of people to enrich themselves.

A good rule of thumb: if you wish to make a donation, deal with charities with good reputations. Legitimate charities will likely be registered with your state attorney general's office. There are also groups that regularly deal with disasters and are well-known around the world. These include groups like the Red Cross, UNICEF, and CARE. They have websites, so look them up. I know many churches and civic clubs will be collecting donations for Haiti, so that's another possibility.

Perhaps the best rule to follow is never give money to a charity that you've never heard of that contacts you and asks for money.

Haiii has suffered a horrific tragedy. Let's not let crooks take advantage of them and our generosity.

Big Bad John

[Mynock]

http://www.redcross.org is what i usually donate to.
Pony up everybody. There's a lot of people hurting real bad down there.

[kham]

The Salvation Army is also a good spot to send donations, and the folks there are going to need all they can get

Logistically, they are screwed ; the port has been destroyed, and would need rebuilding, not repairing before it could handle any shipping. There are several smaller ports that can handle smaller craft, such as LSTs and coastal freighters, but they have no shoreside unloading gear. This is going to be mostly an airlift deal, and the airport is not Berlin 1948, so its gonna be a real bear for a long time. As always, its going to come down to the USN and their capabilities; Vinson alone once she gets there will be huge, with the ability to produce all that fresh water.
Go Navy

[nachtjaeger]

Gonna need a floating dock, like at Omaha Beach. Given the logistics mess, we need every Helo they can spare to drop food and water.

The Salvation Army is also a good spot to send donations, and the folks there are going to need all they can get

Logistically, they are screwed ; the port has been destroyed, and would need rebuilding, not repairing before it could handle any shipping. There are several smaller ports that can handle smaller craft, such as LSTs and coastal freighters, but they have no shoreside unloading gear. This is going to be mostly an airlift deal, and the airport is not Berlin 1948, so its gonna be a real bear for a long time. As always, its going to come down to the USN and their capabilities; Vinson alone once she gets there will be huge, with the ability to produce all that fresh water.
Go Navy

[kham]

Word I got is that there were 2 fuel bowsers and 2 towbars at the whole bloody airfield And it gets worse; the useful idiots who just flew in there before the advance party of AF people , just parked their crates anywhere they pleased; so the ramp is a complete balls-up. Madhouse is putting it mildly. There is no way they can handle large amounts of cargo at the field, short of building a new airfield.
There are no modern equivalent to the Mulberries at all ; the closest thing would be the Navy's INLS but it's gonna take time, so be prepared for a lot of uninformed media whinage

[undergrain1]

...Moderators Edit - Sorry friend but we're not going to have rumors and misinformation fill up a thread about rumors and misinformation.

[Duncan Edwards]

Not the American Red Cross. They SELL the stuff you donate -- SELL it to people in need. Granted, they might give at first in this situation, but as soon as possible, they'll start selling your donations.

This will be deleted in the next few hours if you can't substantiate this with words from the Red Cross itself.

[bbjohn]

Not the American Red Cross. They SELL the stuff you donate -- SELL it to people in need. Granted, they might give at first in this situation, but as soon as possible, they'll start selling your donations.

I was a Red Cross volunteer some years ago, and I never heard of them doing anything like that. I know they prefer cash donations so they can purchase the items they need. This moves things along a lot faster than if they have to match many small donations of goods to what they need. That can take a lot of time and manpower that could be better used elsewhere. I also know that, following small-scale disasters like home fires, they prefer to give cash to victims. Again, this makes for less paperwork and trying to match donations with what people need. This also helps victims to recover psychologically, as they are allowed to make choices and become an active part of the recovery process.

As I said, I was a Red Cross volunteer, and I never heard of them selling donated items to people in need. It most definitely was not official policy when I was a volunteer.

Big Bad John

[water_bug_62208]

Word I got is that there were 2 fuel bowsers and 2 towbars at the whole bloody airfield And it gets worse; the useful idiots who just flew in there before the advance party of AF people , just parked their crates anywhere they pleased; so the ramp is a complete balls-up. Madhouse is putting it mildly. There is no way they can handle large amounts of cargo at the field, short of building a new airfield.
There are no modern equivalent to the Mulberries at all ; the closest thing would be the Navy's INLS but it's gonna take time, so be prepared for a lot of uninformed media whinage

Sounds like they may need to do what was done in Rwanda many years ago... bring their own K-loaders and front-end loaders to unload the aircraft since the airfields they landed at were woefully unadequate with means of cargo managament and storage.

I was a Red Cross volunteer some years ago, and I never heard of them doing anything like that. I know they prefer cash donations so they can purchase the items they need. This moves things along a lot faster than if they have to match many small donations of goods to what they need. That can take a lot of time and manpower that could be better used elsewhere. I also know that, following small-scale disasters like home fires, they prefer to give cash to victims. Again, this makes for less paperwork and trying to match donations with what people need. This also helps victims to recover psychologically, as they are allowed to make choices and become an active part of the recovery process.

As I said, I was a Red Cross volunteer, and I never heard of them selling donated items to people in need. It most definitely was not official policy when I was a volunteer.

bbjohn is correct about how agencies, such as the Red Cross, are experienced in situations such as this. While participating in an earthquake relief effort in the Philippines, there were tons of stuff coming in from the states from people who meant well. Problem was that a majority of the stuff that was donated was actually useless for the victims and the situation at hand. All this stuff did was take up what precious amount of storage space was available. It is far better to let people like the Red Cross and military who have experience in such things handle these matters. Too many uninformed "do gooders" can actually make a bad situation even worse.