Haiti

I just don’t know what to say about Haiti…   At one point, I read an estimate that there may be as many as 500,000 40,000 – 50,000 dead!  I can’t fathom that number of casualties and the level of destruction that would cause such a death toll.  All too often, I think we forget how good we have it in America, where for most of us, the dangers we face each day are largely self-induced; take for instance our insistence to drive most places, it’s far more dangerous than riding public transit.  Almost everything I’ve faced in my life pales in comparison to what people in Haiti must be going through now.

If you happen to be trying to find information about someone in Haiti, it can be particularly frustrating when the infrastructure is so badly damaged.  I want to make sure that every knows about the Salvation Army Team Emergency Network’s (SATERN)  health and welfare information request service.  This is a group of Amateur (HAM) radio operators in contact with other ham radio operators in a disaster zone, who specifically try and locate people in the disaster zone.  While most agencies are focused on the needs of people in the disaster zone, SATERN tries to offer a service for those who are affected by the disaster zone.

A few years back, I packed away much of my radio gear.  A disaster like this is a reminder of why I got into the hobby and has me longing to get everything setup again so I could actually help out.