Chis asked me to share a press release I wrote for my organization. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Sunday evening, as real-time engagement with in disaster response management while we are going through Module 1. I sent along the DRMC chart to our colleagues in Haiti.
7.2 Earthquake strikes Haiti, 6 miles depth, 14 August, 2021, 8:30 am local time.
Early Saturday morning Haiti was struck by a powerful 7.2 earthquake, just 75 miles west of the 2010 earthquake region. This earthquake was twice as powerful as the magnitude 7.0 quake in 2010. This quake was shallow, at only 6 miles deep, which makes the shake impact even greater on the earth’s surface than deeper fault-line ruptures. Media reports at least 307 were killed and over 1,800 injured, but those figures will likely climb dramatically in the days ahead.
CBF Field Personnel, Jenny Jenkins, felt the quake quite strongly at her ministry site in Grand Guave, Haiti, but she reports that there is not significant damage in her region, almost 60 miles from the epicenter. Sunday morning, an assessment team from a coalition of ministry partners will travel to the region to bring water filtration systems and emergency food supplies to the survivors. The team will also assess the damage and needs as they meet with church-based partners in the area. This is an evolving situation. After such events, it generally takes days and weeks to accurately assess the number of casualties and property destruction. Tropical storm Grace threatens to pass over the impacted area Tuesday morning, bringing high winds and heavy rain, which could cause flooding and trigger landslides. This could become a quadruple disaster, as Haiti is already reeling in political and security disarray following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise just over a month ago. Haiti only received its first batch of Covid vaccines on July 14th as the pandemic spreads unabated.
Jenny, an oncology nurse, was commissioned by CBF in 2010 to assist CBF’s partnership with the Haiti Baptist Convention (Fall 2018 Fellowship Magazine) to address the urgent medical and housing needs of earthquake survivors in the highly impacted Grand Guave region. The surrounding mountainous region of subsistence farmers has very little access to essential health care services. Jenny’s eleven-year commitment in Haiti is a testament to CBF’s disaster response model, which is one of deep commitment to communities and building relationships through a long-term presence that leads to sustainable transformational development. Through these relationships built over the past decade with her staff and national partners, Jenny is uniquely positioned to assist the Haiti Baptist Convention and help coordinate a relief effort in this latest disaster to strike Haiti. Due to the pandemic and a tenuously unsafe security climate in Port-au-Prince, CBF will not facilitate volunteer teams to assist in Haiti, but will work with and empower the local church and Haitians to respond to these critical needs in their country. Funds are essential for the immediate needs of water filtration, food, and shelter, for those who have survived this disaster, but also for the long-term rebuilding of communities and livelihoods. Please give generously to CBF’s disaster response fund.