PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - About 40 members of a Massachusetts medical brigade arrived in the devastated heart of this city late last night to begin erecting a field hospital.
The Massachusetts-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team pulled in about 10 p.m. to establish a tent hospital in a school courtyard. Just beyond the school, hundreds of people huddled in a tent city. As the medical workers’ convoy of white dumptrucks laden with supplies pulled into a parking lot, the displaced throngs looked on passively.
The medical workers arrived after a five-hour odyssey that began at the US Embassy. Over the course of the day they encountered a series of delays, much as they have since landing in Haiti on Friday. The team spent Saturday at the airport in Port-au-Prince expecting to be dispatched with supplies that appeared that morning. Instead, delays in arranging a security escort forced them to head to the embassy.
Yesterday, with six trucks filled with medical supplies and equipment sitting in a dusty parking lot, the disaster response squad again whiled away the day as they waited, and again security was the issue. It was not until almost 5 p.m. that they got word that the 82d Airborne would provide protection for them.
Last night, as they prepared to assemble the hospital, they were watched over by 30 soldiers.
(Boston Globe)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment