Savvy-Boomers

The recent earthquake that devastated the Island nation of Haiti brought death and destruction to what is said to be one of the poorest nations in the world.  Highways buckled, hospitals collapsed, many buildings were reduced to piles of rubble only three or four feet high.  Unbelievably the runways at the airport were not badly damaged but the control tower sustained severe damage and communications were none existent.  As planes started bringing in supplies to the beleaguered nation it was soon realized that there were no people to take charge of relief operations at the airport and there were no reserves of jet fuel available for the planes that did arrive.

 Haitian and US officials entered into an agreement of understanding that allowed communications to be reestablished and the administration of the airport facility was taken over by the US officials. Relief efforts can now be coordinated with military support beginning at the airport where a huge bottleneck had been developing.  Planes were arriving from around the world and were forced to circle for hours as there was no place to file flight plans and therefore no arrival schedules.

 The US Air Force has now begun to schedule landings and departures for relief flights and many planes are being diverted to airports on other Caribbean islands and into Florida.  Haitian airspace is now off limits to planes arriving with little or no advance notification because of the overcrowding of the limited airspace. Nearly 200 flights arrived at the Haitian airport bringing in both military personnel and all types of food and emergency aid.

 Armed forces commanders have stated that it is their job to oversee the orderly distribution of food and emergency supplies and no one has said any thing about the US making plans to take over the administration of the nation of Haiti.