Haiti Relief News Conference with US Response Leaders

February 17, 2010 | USAID Joint Task Force News Conference on CSPAN

Ambassador Lewis Lucke and Army Lt. General P.K. Keen, leading the U.S. relief efforts in Haiti, say signif­i­cant progress has been made by cooper­at­ing with a number of inter­na­tional response partners, but much work remains.

Transitioning into the relief phase now, the focus will be on provid­ing shelter, sanita­tion, rubble removal, recon­struc­tion, medical services, and jobs.

Ambassador Lucke is the former US Ambassador to the Kingdom of Swaziland, served the US Agency for International Development for over 30 years and is the Haiti US Response Coordinator.

Army Lt. Gen. P.K. Keen is the Deputy Commander of US Southern Command in Miami and is currently serving as the Commander of Joint Task Force Unified Response in Haiti.

Télécoms Sans Frontières - Communications for Life

We applaud the work of Télécoms Sans Frontières …

Their Origin: During missions respond­ing to the crisis in the Balkans and in Kurdistan during the 1^st Gulf War, Télécoms Sans Frontières’ (TSF) founders realized that, in addition to medical and food aid, there was a criti­cal need for reliable emergency telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions services. Conflicts and emergen­cies often led to massive civil­ian displace­ment and separated families. And affected popula­tions are often left with no commu­ni­ca­tions infra­struc­ture in place to find assis­tance and loved ones. To address this need, TSF bought its first satel­lite phone eleven years ago and the organi­za­tion was born. For all missions today, TSF offers a 3-minute call to any affected family.

TSF soon found that the inter­na­tional response teams that deploy to emergen­cies also had a criti­cal need for reliable telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions services in the first days after an emergency. TSF, there­fore, expanded its opera­tions, improved its technol­ogy, and began to estab­lish rapidly deploy­able emergency telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions centers to serve UN, govern­ment, and NGO human­i­tar­ian workers, and devel­oped a reputa­tion for being among the first to arrive after disasters.

Mission Haiti 2010: Deployed in Haiti the day follow­ing the terri­ble earth­quake that struck the country, TSF teams remain mobilized, day after day, support­ing the human­i­tar­ian commu­nity and the affected popula­tion. Three calling centers have been estab­lished in Port-au-Prince, Carrefour and Jacmel that are open for the people of Haiti: Union School in Port-au-Prince, Adventistes in Carrefour and Rue Febrile in Jacmel.

Everyone should know more about the work of this organization!

Disaster Strikes When You Least Expect It

The night­mare in Haiti once again hammers home this age-old axiom.

How many more people will die in the future because of our compla­cency — in this country and elsewhere?

How many times do we have to witness such disas­ters only to find that once again lack of commu­ni­ca­tions is the great­est hindrance to rapid and accurate assess­ment of the impact? How many people could have been saved if commu­ni­ca­tions were avail­able to quickly obtain accurate situa­tional aware­ness and better coordi­nate the resources for search and rescue?

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Special Rates on Satellite Phones for Haiti Response

Iridium 9555 satel­lite phones with discounted airtime rates for Haiti response teams.

For organi­za­tions respond­ing to the earth­quake in Haiti, we can off the follow­ing discounted rates. Order by 3:00 PM Eastern for same-day shipping.

Iridium 9555 to Buy  -  $1,995 with 500-minute bundle
Iridium 9555 to Rent  -  $295/week + airtime (2-week minimum)

Other airtime options are avail­able. Contact us to order or for more details.

More details on the phone: Iridium 9555.

No Portable Satcom in Haiti? How are They? What do They Need?

Watching CNN’s cover­age of the devas­tat­ing 7.0 earth­quake that hit Haiti early this evening, I found myself gasping at the thought that key relief agencies and media outlets still find themselves strug­gling to commu­ni­cate years after Katrina and 9/11.

The Miami Herald was not Connected

When asked in the early hours after the quake hit, on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” what The Miami Herald knew of the devel­op­ing situa­tion, their Carribean corre­spon­dent Jacquie Charles essen­tially said they didn’t know because they couldn’t connect with anyone there.

“Well, we’re still trying to get through because all the commu­ni­ca­tions is down … We have people en route to Haiti right now and we also have a ‘stringer’ on the ground, but because the commu­ni­ca­tions are all down, we cannot get through to anyone at this moment.”

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