We have now heard from Port-au-Prince that our staff are all alive – Dalebrun Esther and our 4 plumbers.
Dalebrun reports his family is OK and he is hard at work distributing clean water in the neighborhoods which he can reach with our truck.
We have also been told that our office building where chlorine and chlorinators are stored is somewhat damaged, but far from destroyed.
From our Washington office, we have provided many US military and US Aid groups, the Haitian embassy and government, and Pan American Health Organization with our maps of Port-au-Prince streets, the water pipe system in the city, location of water tanks, all with geographic coordinates, water volume and population served. We think these will aid in the US Task Force locating and rehabing the water system. There is no way to bring into Haiti enough water for 3,000,000 displaced people. Water must be found locally and our maps of springs, rivers, wells etc. are therefore vital.
Little did we know when we sent Dalebrun a GPS system two years ago how important the coordinates he developed would be. The list with coordinates are in the hands of most officials going to Haiti today. This is only one result of your gifts. Your help will be deeply appreciated by us and many Haitians.
All the best,
Lindsay Mattison and Youngmin Chang