United States Government Haiti Earthquake Disaster Response

I’ve directed my administration to launch a swift, coordinated, and aggressive effort to save lives and support the recovery in Haiti.  The losses that have been suffered in Haiti are nothing less than devastating, and responding to a disaster of this magnitude will require every element of our national capacity – our diplomacy and development assistance; the power of our military; and, most importantly, the compassion of our country.

President Obama
January 14, 2010

In response to the President’s direction, a whole of government effort has been launched to support the people of Haiti.  More than 20,000 U.S. civilian and military personnel have been directly engaged in carrying out activities from search and rescue to restoring airports and seaports to providing live saving health and medical service to helping meet the basic food, water, and shelter needs of the Haitian people.  They have also engaged in efforts to evacuate more than 21,000 U.S. citizens and provide for the respectful return of remains of U.S. citizens who perished as a result of the January 12 earthquake.

SEARCH & RESCUE

• U.S. urban search and rescue teams from Fairfax County, Los Angeles County, Miami, Miami-Dade, Virginia Beach, and New York City were deployed and, with rescue teams from other countries, pulled a total of 136 survivors from the rubble.
• The Coast Guard transported 696 Urban Search and Rescue team members into Haiti in the immediate days after the earthquake.

AIRPORTS & PORTS

Elements of the U.S. Air Force 1st Special Operations Wing restored flight operations to the Port au Prince airport within 48 hours of the earthquake and facilitated 3,842 flights, delivering 18,040 tons of commodities in the following 34 days, with as many as 162 flights in one day, more than ten times the pre-earthquake capacity at the airport.
Coast Guard and Navy combined team assessed port damage, installed aids to navigation, began interim port repairs and conducted site surveys for temporary joint over the shore logistics package (JLOTS) that was used to move cargo while more permanent pier repairs were completed.
Using interim capabilities, the capacity of the main port in Port Au Prince was doubled from pre-earthquake standards; 8,867 twenty foot equivalent container units (TEU), with 103,000 tons of commodities were offloaded while the permanent repairs to the south pier were completed.

HEALTH/MEDICAL

Disaster Medical Assistance Teams and International Medical Surgical Response Teams from the Department of Health and Human Services conducted 31,365 patient visits, performed 167 surgeries, and delivered 45 babies.
U.S. military medical professionals treated 9,800 patients, admitted 1,464 patient admissions, performed 1,025 surgeries, 2,200 patient transfers and carried out 255 MEDEVACS.  Coast Guard aircraft conducted an additional 240 MEDEVACS.
HHS activated two Federal Coordinating Centers in Atlanta and Tampa as part of the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS).  These centers processed medical evacuation flights from Haiti and arranged ground transport to appropriate hospitals in the U.S.  In total, NDMS evacuated 79 Haitian nationals and 10 U