When I am home, I have been sticking to news channels. I watch local news in the evening and switch to CNN at prime time, and all day during the weekend. I keep hearing the same remarks from Sanjay, Anderson, Evan, etc. That the supplies are not flowing quickly enough. Over the past week, in the foreign press, I was seeing accusations of what I guess you might call "disaster imperialism" against the United States. Has it only been a week since Hillary Clinton flew down there to Port-au-Prince, met with President Preval, and formalized the Haitian-American agreement that the U.S. military would command the Toussaint L'Ouverture Airport? Yes, only a week.The logistics involved in commanding this airport are staggering. It is a one-airstrip airport. Haiti was never the tourist attraction that Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados have been. There was never before a NEED for more than one airstrip. But now, the entire global village of humanity is trying to send relief to Haiti on every kind of plane imaginable, which is admirable and heart-warming, but also problematic from a logistical standpoint. It seems certain types of bodies require certain types of off-loading equipment, and also certain wide-body planes present other kinds of problems for those running the airport. A post at Dipnote, Airfield Support in Haiti by Colonel Buck Elton, Commander of the Joint Special Operations in Haiti, goes a long way toward explaining the challenges involved in moving people and supplies, not to mention the air traffic of this enormous relief armada.
Here is some of what Colonel Elton has to say:
"We developed a ground plan and we made an offload plan to assist the Haitian material handling equipment personnel in offloading all the supplies that started coming in on Wednesday."
"We are operating out of an airfield that does not have electricity, phones or computers or anything other than what we brought in with us when we arrived that first day. I want to emphasize the point that we are still operating that way. We have combat controllers who work 12 hours shifts in the sun and the grass...."
"...this airfield is 10,000 feet long. It has one taxiway in the middle of the airfield. It’s a single in/single out operation. You cannot take off and land aircraft at the same time. It’s one and one."
"We have a ramp that is very small and it will only hold up to 12 aircraft of varying sizes. We can only handle one wide-body aircraft at a time. We’re limited primarily by our civilian material handling equipment that offloads the cargo. It takes up to five hours to offload a 747 or an AirBus 330 because we don’t have enough [equipment] to offload it.
"Approximately three medium sized aircraft, 737 type, and we have again, limited equipment to offload it. C-17 aircraft, although they’re a large category, their wing span is not quite as wide as some of the wide bodies, and they are specifically designed for rapid offload of cargo which we can use military equipment for."
This post, and I encourage you to read the whole thing, gives a very clear explanation of the challenges involved in moving this effort on a daily basis. Even as I am writing this, Zbigniew Brzezinski is talking to Fareed Zakaria as if we ARE the only country helping, and while denying it (sort of) somehow also implying that we are occupying Haiti.
How many times does it have to be said? We are commandeering the flow of air traffic in Port-au-Prince, not in Jacmel, by the way - I believe Canada is in charge there, and not in Cap Haitien. We are not, repeat NOT occupying Haiti. The Haitian government is in charge. Given the challenges of Toussaint L'Ouverture Airport, it's a thankless task that our guys and gals are doing with all their hearts. So let's all back off on this supply bottleneck complaint. There is no magic wand for this.
