Earthquake in Haiti

[JPhillips]

Don't have much to say about this tragedy, but I thought I'd post an easy way to donate to the Red Cross relief efforts.

The State Department said those interested in helping immediately may text 'HAITI' to '90999' and a donation of $10 will be made automatically to the Red Cross for relief efforts. The donation will be charged to your cellphone bill.

[DaddyTorgo]

that's pretty cool of the state department/cellphone companies.

looks like a massive tragedy down there...and the population was barely at a subsistence level anyways...it could be real ugly

[claphamsa]

weve been waiting for the shoe to drop here... not sure if they havent asked for help, or what!

[Noop]

Terrible. I have them in my prayers.

[DaddyTorgo]

weve been waiting for the shoe to drop here... not sure if they havent asked for help, or what!

oh that's right - you're in the govt -- didn't realize you worked on that type of thing though.

i always thought about doing that type of thing...disaster relief or humanitarian type work (for US or UN), just never really...followed-through on it.

i'm karmically-jealous.

[claphamsa]

eh, I push paper, but yes, i work disaster relief.

[DaddyTorgo]

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) --

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in Haiti's earthquake, the prime minister told CNN Wednesday.

Haitian authorities said the powerful quake destroyed most of the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

A top envoy called it a "major catastrophe."
Haiti's first lady, Elisabeth Debrosse Delatour, reported that "most of Port-au-Prince is destroyed" and that many government buildings had collapsed, Haiti's ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph, told CNN Wednesday morning. Delatour said President René Préval was all right, Joseph reported.

Rescue crews were racing Wednesday morning to fully assess the damage in the teeming hillside city, where toppled buildings killed and injured an untold number of people and trapped others in the rubble.

The U.S. State Department has been told to expect "serious loss of life," spokesman P.J. Crowley said, though precise casualty estimates were not immediately available.

About 3 million people -- one-third of Haiti's population -- were affected by the quake, the Red Cross estimated.

[DaddyTorgo]

chilling numbers

[Schmidty]

Rush Limbaugh already using the situation for political purposes. I usually think he's funny even though I disagree with him a lot, but this is disgusting. I won't be listening to him again. Scumball.

We're really worried right now, because 2 close friends of ours are in Haiti as missionaries, and we haven't heard anything yet. They were in Port Au Prince recently, but they're in and out quite often.

Our church is going to get together for prayer this afternoon. Things happen for a reason, but God really pisses me off sometimes.

God bless Haiti.

[DaddyTorgo]

Rush Limbaugh already using the situation for political purposes. I usually think he's funny even though I disagree with him a lot, but this is disgusting. I won't be listening to him again. Scumball.

We're really worried right now, because 2 close friends of ours are in Haiti as missionaries, and we haven't heard anything yet. They were in Port Au Prince recently, but they're in and out quite often.

Our church is going to get together for prayer this afternoon. Things happen for a reason, but God really pisses me off sometimes. Oh, and shut the fuck up atheists with any snotty comments.

God bless Haiti.

what's the scumball doing? how do you turn an earthquake to political purposes? because we don't already have relief forces on the ground? we've flown recon flights to asses the situation, ensured the airport is open, and there's already aid supplies moving from the UN...not like any other country has gotten help there yet either. and the president of hati already said the US was the first to offer aid...not sure how scumball can turn it into a political thing.

wish i could say i was surprised by that...we'll see how FOX handles it later.

(i'm not even going to bring up the response to katrina)

[Schmidty]

what's the scumball doing? how do you turn an earthquake to political purposes? because we don't already have relief forces on the ground? we've flown recon flights to asses the situation, ensured the airport is open, and there's already aid supplies moving from the UN...not like any other country has gotten help there yet either. and the president of hati already said the US was the first to offer aid...not sure how scumball can turn it into a political thing.

wish i could say i was surprised by that...we'll see how FOX handles it later.

(i'm not even going to bring up the response to katrina)

He played a soundbite from some female Democrat who said that it was wrong for us not to help Haiti even before the quake. Then he said he would wait 2 hours into his show to be cynical about the situation.

I can't believe I ever liked that fuck. If he were in the same room as me now, I'd fucking choke his fat ass.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm just waiting for it all to be blamed on Bush.

[Schmidty]

I'm just waiting for it all to be blamed on Bush.

Shut the fuck up, asshole.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Shut the fuck up, asshole.

Fuck you too Schmidty, I figure it's only a matter of time until Katrina (i.e. another natural disaster) gets brought up & that can't be mentioned without Bush being blamed.

[Schmidty]

Fuck you too Schmidty, I figure it's only a matter of time until Katrina (i.e. another natural disaster) gets brought up & that can't be mentioned without Bush being blamed.

Jon. I have great friends down there. I'm going crazy here. Why does everything have to be political????

Can't we just be humans for once instead of party soldiers? You're a Christian right? Can't there be at least a short-term political break? Just caring about people for once????

[DaddyTorgo]

seriously. is this going to be another thing (like katrina) where we have 2 threads, one for the politics of it and one for the human side of it?

[Schmidty]

I do want to publicly apologize to Jon. I shouldn't have attacked him like that.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Jon. I have great friends down there. I'm going crazy here. Why does everything have to be political????

Can't we just be humans for once instead of party soldiers? You're a Christian right? Can't there be at least a short-term political break? Just caring about people for once????

It's not as though I'm without concern either. There's a church group from a small town nearby that happened to be in Haiti doing construction work as a mission trip when the quake struck. Odds are pretty good I'm no more than one degree of separation from quite a few people on that trip. As far as I know no one has heard anything about them one way or another but given the level of destruction there's obviously reason for serious concern about their safety as well (point being that there's likely people I know in harm's way same as you, not that their lives are any more or less valuable than the local residents)

That said, I tend to be both a realist & brutally honest. And the potential for somebody with an agenda to try to somehow link this to Bush & Katrina hit me this afternoon while watching NBC footage of Port Au Prince just a few minutes before I opened the thread here for the first time ... so it was top of mind while I was in here.

But the black humor of that doesn't mean that I
a) do not care and b) don't/haven't/won't be praying for those affected by this

More simply, the two things aren't mutually exclusive.

[Schmidty]

seriously. is this going to be another thing (like katrina) where we have 2 threads, one for the politics of it and one for the human side of it?

I probably started it with my Limbaugh comment. I was just pissed because I was driving home from dropping my kid off at school. I got home and vented.

[DaddyTorgo]

i'm sure it will inevitably be linked, but to be honest i'd be surprised if (from a national media standpoint, not here on this board) if it was linked first by a democrat saying "hey look what we did better." I think the odds are FAR greater that the US response is used against obama by a pundit on the right, and that then in response a pundit on the left will counter with katrina.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I do want to publicly apologize to Jon. I shouldn't have attacked him like that.

We're cool on this afaic.

The situation was closer to home for you than I had any realization of and I probably struck a classic FOFC "too soon" moment that literally was "too soon".

I'm genuinely sorry if I added to your load during the stress of this.

[JonInMiddleGA]

i'm sure it will inevitably be linked, but to be honest i'd be surprised if (from a national media standpoint, not here on this board) if it was linked first by a democrat saying "hey look what we did better."

I've got a different scenario that I think is likely, but under the circumstances I'm inclined to just leave it be as far as FOFC is concerned & deal with it at a later date when/if/however it comes up.

[lungs]

My sister is in the Dominican Republic right now. Some in her group may go to Haiti to help.

[molson]

The state department text message thing is a very cool idea. I've heard that number everywhere today and it will surely get a lot a money to the Red Cross in a hurry.

[claphamsa]

well, ill keep quiet on Katrina then :)

[whomario]

@ daddyTorgo : Having the same "regrets", although i did work for a local guy/family that brought in kids with medical issues from eastern europe to spend time here in german while getting medical help.

long-time friend of my father is getting ready to go there any day now ... The "THW" (Federal Agency for Technical Relief) where he´s working for has allready sent a first team to get a picture of what is needed and acording to their reports they´ll get help over there ASAP and are basically ready to go as soon as there´s any indication what is needed (sound stupid, but it´s a logistic nightmare reaching a plaxce this remote and then recognize you haven´t brought everthing you need) .

Mainly offering technical assistance and knowledge (setting up electricity, building water wells, moving debris) as well as equipment, like ready-to-go machines for producing drinking water.

sorry for getting technical here ...

Made a donation today allready and we at our library allready designed a paper/flyer with information on acounts for the major relief organisations to alert our customers, fully expect the people here to be giving a lot of money and help.

Also, i allready saw a shitload of blogs and what not publishing information on how to donate asking to do so, it´s also during desasters like this that the Internet becomes a wonderfull tool that realy gets people to help others.

this catastrophe has an unbelivable dimension, tough to swallow ...

[DaddyTorgo]

@ daddyTorgo : Having the same "regrets", although i did work for a local guy/family that brought in kids with medical issues from eastern europe to spend time here in german while getting medical help.

long-time friend of my father is getting ready to go there any day now ... The "THW" (Federal Agency for Technical Relief) where he´s working for has allready sent a first team to get a picture of what is needed and acording to their reports they´ll get help over there ASAP and are basically ready to go as soon as there´s any indication what is needed (sound stupid, but it´s a logistic nightmare reaching a plaxce this remote and then recognize you haven´t brought everthing you need) .

Mainly offering technical assistance and knowledge (setting up electricity, building water wells, moving debris) as well as equipment, like ready-to-go machines for producing drinking water.

sorry for getting technical here ...

Made a donation today allready and we at our library allready designed a paper/flyer with information on acounts for the major relief organisations to alert our customers, fully expect the people here to be giving a lot of money and help.

this catastrophe has an unbelivable dimension, tough to swallow ...

i'd always wanted to do something like that, and it was never about money the reasons why i didn't or anything. i think it's just because it was tough to figure out where to start/how to get one's foot in the door.

[whomario]

i'd always wanted to do something like that, and it was never about money the reasons why i didn't or anything. i think it's just because it was tough to figure out where to start/how to get one's foot in the door.

yeah it is. I mean, i just got into it because i knew the guy doing it. After school i tried to set up sth to replace my military-service (you do either 9 months military or 12 months civil service, normally in germany but also abroad) and needed months to find sth i could actually do and that felt like i could actually help (would have been in Israel), but then i got a an aplication for a trainingship accepted and really couldn´t afford to throw that away at that time (i also could push the service back that way, then got mustered in a lower group and was dismissed from it alltogether 2 years ago) ...

And by now (25 now) you don´t get in the basic stuff as there´s the kids finishing school getting the places first and you don´t get in specialised stuff because you have no experience...

Definitely will do sth on a local level one of these years again once i have a solid contract (my current one is ending in september, which means i might have to move a 3rd time in as many years) and thus time to get into a project again.

[SirFozzie]

Funny, I thought it was the Westboro Baptist Church who was going to be the "God is punishing them" folks. Instead..

PAT ROBERTSON: And, you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, "We will serve you if you will get us free from the French." True story. And so, the devil said, "OK, it's a deal."

And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other. Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It's cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti; on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, et cetera. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I'm optimistic something good may come. But right now, we're helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.

KRISTI WATTS (co-host): Absolutely, Pat.

Fucking sick. 100,000 dead, and he wants to blame "Deals with the devil".

(Yes, I know, he doesn't speak for all christians, just for a percentage that buys everything he says, which is why he's so visible, etcetera)..

[DaddyTorgo]

yep - Robertson (and Watts for not coming back at him) and Limbaugh are fucking disgusting pieces of shit.

[Noop]

Pat Robertson can go suck a cold dick in hell.

[Buccaneer]

I donated to a local relief agency who has medical supplies on the way. I also have some friends that know of missionaries there. We haven't heard from them either. :(

It does become somewhat political. Does anyone remember the devastating earthquake in China in 1976? 250,000 dead (officially) but realistically as high as 650,000? I wonder how we would react to something like that now? Would it be different because it's China? Or even Sumatra in 2004 and its 250,000 deaths.

[BYU 14]

Pat Robertson can go suck a cold dick in hell.

+1 what a fucking douchbag. How could anybody say what he said, not very christian like in my book.

[BYU 14]

My sons unit is deploying to Haiti to assist in aid, security and corpse recovery tomorrow. He won't be going right away as his first child is due Saturday and his Chief allowed him to stay behind to be there for the birth, which I thought was extremely cool.

He told me today when they were briefed a few in his unit were visibly shaken by some of the details and he is anxious to join them after his son is born.

Thoughts and prayers for the people of Haiti and all those going to help.

[JPhillips]

I donated to a local relief agency who has medical supplies on the way. I also have some friends that know of missionaries there. We haven't heard from them either. :(

It does become somewhat political. Does anyone remember the devastating earthquake in China in 1976? 250,000 dead (officially) but realistically as high as 650,000? I wonder how we would react to something like that now? Would it be different because it's China? Or even Sumatra in 2004 and its 250,000 deaths.

Don't think you can compare 70s China, even during the recent earthquake it was hard to get free information. The best comparison is the tsunami and it seems similar to what I remember. The U.S. can be an amazingly generous nation when we want to.

[MizzouRah]

Sad, sad news.. :(

[MizzouRah]

Don't have much to say about this tragedy, but I thought I'd post an easy way to donate to the Red Cross relief efforts.

Done, thanks.

[RainMaker]

Funny, I thought it was the Westboro Baptist Church who was going to be the "God is punishing them" folks. Instead..

PAT ROBERTSON: And, you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, "We will serve you if you will get us free from the French." True story. And so, the devil said, "OK, it's a deal."

And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other. Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It's cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti; on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, et cetera. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I'm optimistic something good may come. But right now, we're helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.

KRISTI WATTS (co-host): Absolutely, Pat.

Fucking sick. 100,000 dead, and he wants to blame "Deals with the devil".

(Yes, I know, he doesn't speak for all christians, just for a percentage that buys everything he says, which is why he's so visible, etcetera)..
He's blamed other natural disasters on people not believing in Christianity and so on.

Odd thing about the Haiti thing is that they were basically slaves of the French and were simply fighting for independence. Much worse situation than we were in with the British (except for blacks). The reason they are so impoverished is because the French demanded so much money from them that it took up until like 1950 to pay it off. They were literally pumping all their revenues straight off to France to pay for their freedom from slavery. The "devil" is really the French.

[Neuqua]

Raised over $1,000,000 just through text messages alone, great news.

[RainMaker]

Some of the pictures are heartbreaking. I mean it looks like total devestation. Made a donation to the Red Cross today and hope they are able to help. I just watched a documentary about the Tsunami and the devestation and was glad we had not seen a disaster like that since. Unfortunately it looks like this is another disaster on that scale.

Hoping everyone's friends over there are safe. I know a lot of Christian missionaries go to Haiti and have an ex-gf who just got back from there last month. She has been a mess since hearing the news as she made a lot of friends down there.

[DaddyTorgo]

love the Hatian ambassador's response to Robertson, it was essentially "because of us you got the Louisiana Purchase land for 3 cents an acre. you're welcome."

[Lathum]

love the Hatian ambassador's response to Robertson, it was essentially "because of us you got the Louisiana Purchase land for 3 cents an acre. you're welcome."

Did he really say something along those lines? If so that's great. Yay for Hatian slave uprisings.

[DaddyTorgo]

Did he really say something along those lines? If so that's great. Yay for Hatian slave uprisings.

yep. he said essentially "because of our slave revolt and defeating them they decided to leave the americas and sold you the louisiana territory state for $15m, that's 3 cents an acre for 15 states in the western half of the united states."

i'm sure the clip will be online if it's not already. it was awesome.

the slave revolt was truly amazing really. changed the world in a very real sense. touissaint l'ouverture was a fascinating and very historically-underrated figure

[Lathum]

Completely. IIRC the French had sent 30,000 soldiers to help colonize the Louisiana territories. They were to stop in Haiti on the way and squash the slave rebellion, then move on to the US. Obviously they never made it and that course greatly changed the face on the US.

[RainMaker]

CNN has been showing corpses left and right tonight. Just had the corpse of an infant. Really disturbing. Not sure I can watch this footage, it's just devestating.

[ISiddiqui]

It is just heartbreaking stuff all around :(

[BishopMVP]

yep. he said essentially "because of our slave revolt and defeating them they decided to leave the americas and sold you the louisiana territory state for $15m, that's 3 cents an acre for 15 states in the western half of the united states."Well, if we ignore yellow fever, the British, Napoleon's eastern ambitions and L'Ouverture selling out his countrymen. But, yeah, all those "preachers" who use natural disasters to propogate their religious beliefs are douches who will hopefully be ridiculed so much they aren't listened to anymore.

[DrAFTjunkie]

Catastrophe. We live in a town that has a large Haitian population and the effect has been devastating here. There's no traffic, everyone is at home by the phone, glued to the television or at church 27/7. My wife is a nurse for a Haitian immigration doctor and said that that they saw 5 patients yesterday instead of the normal 20-30. My friend/bandmate Markenson put it best: "For every Haitian you see, there's at least half a family still in Haiti." He himself has 8 people--grandmother, aunt, cousins, childhood friends--unaccounted for...3 of which we scheduled to come to the US in mid-February. I can't even imagine. This disaster has crushed the Haitian spirit and set a country which needs and deserves a break back a decade at least.

[RainMaker]

CNN has done a remarkable job on the story. They've been on the street for days now and have been showing some dramatic rescues and the civil uncertainty. It's been tough to watch at times but they've captured the devestation like no one else. It's heartbreaking to watch lives and families completely destroyed.

NBC has been reporting on it but doesn't seem to have much access to the areas hit. I don't think Fox knows there was an Earthquake in Haiti yet.

[Scoobz0202]

CNN has done a great job. Their coverage on the streets of Haiti has just been unreal. They were just showing a little girl who was trapped for forty-eight hours. They rescued her and they brought the reporter who was on the scene on and he updated saying she passed away. Was just terrible to watch the rescue footage only to find out she died. She is just one of thousands of children :(

Her final words were, " Mama, please don't let me die. "

[Scoobz0202]

dola-

I haven't seen him much before, but Anderson Cooper is fucking terrible interviewer.

[Edward64]

I get teary eyed watching/hearing terror in the kids.

Some really sad shit.

[DrAFTjunkie]

Irony at it's finest

My best friend's fiancee's family lives in a village outside of Port Au Prince. When the quake hit, the village was demolished, but they're so poor, they could only afford to build with plywood and that Ruffles chips looking aluminum, so they we're easily able to push their way out, suffering only cuts and bruises.

[RainMaker]

Beward of Wyclef Jean's Charity.

Wyclef Jean Charity's Funny Money - January 14, 2010 (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0114102wyclef1.html)

[JPhillips]

The 60 Minutes story was extremely hard to get through.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Somewhat randomly, I see where syndicated radio host Bubba the Love Sponge has been suspended indefinitely by TNA Wrestling (who hired him a week ago) for his comments about Haiti. Seems he took a 180 degree p.o.v. from TNA president Dixie Carter with a brief commentary that mades Limbaugh & the others criticized up the thread look downright saintly by comparison.

[Young Drachma]

Beward of Wyclef Jean's Charity.

Wyclef Jean Charity's Funny Money - January 14, 2010 (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0114102wyclef1.html)

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[Danny]

First off, I hope all those with friends/loved ones in Haiti are alright.

My wife and I would like to give a decent sized donation to helping in Haiti, but we want this to be a Christian/Church based charity or organization. I'm not really sure where to start or look for finding this, but does anyone have any information on any charities like this?

[Flasch186]

Nope.

This is just so awful and there seems to be no turning the corner for some time ahead. We have a long road to hoe just to get back to the devastating place Haiti was before this tragedy struck. So terrible.

[JPhillips]

Danny: At this point I think giving to the Red Cross or the Clinton/Bush fund is the best way to support disaster relief. If you're more interested in specifically religious charities it's probably best to wait for a while and give to a rebuilding effort. As Flasch says it's going to be years.

[Young Drachma]

First off, I hope all those with friends/loved ones in Haiti are alright.

My wife and I would like to give a decent sized donation to helping in Haiti, but we want this to be a Christian/Church based charity or organization. I'm not really sure where to start or look for finding this, but does anyone have any information on any charities like this?

Not right now, because so much of the situation right now is triage. Maybe down the road there will be those who are on the ground who are able to do more of the sorts of outreach that'll require folks once there's a semblance of an infrastructure and so forth.

But for right, the circumstances are akin to a war zone and so, most religious groups and others from the outside would effectively be getting in the way right now, save for the ones that are already there and even then, a lot of those folks are leaving, because there's no where to really stage anyone who isn't actively saving lives or working on the refugee situation.

That said, Partners in Health (http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti) is one of the best places for donations. They are partnered with Haitian organizations, 98% of their in-country staff are Haitian, they are working in concert with the Haitian Ministry of Health not trying to set up their own little NGO empire or sitting on bundles of cash to fund their other operations like some of the other orgs out there.

[k0ruptr]

Wyclef's charity is fine to give to, don't believe the warning and bullshit.


here is some amazing, yet scary pictures

Haiti six days later - The Big Picture - Boston.com (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/haiti_six_days_later.html)

[RainMaker]

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[RainMaker]

here is some amazing, yet scary pictures

Haiti six days later - The Big Picture - Boston.com (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/haiti_six_days_later.html)
The guy pulling the person out of a casket to steal it is unreal.

They were showing giant construction plows scooping up bodies and dumping them into these mass graves. Just stuff that I've never seen before.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

First off, I hope all those with friends/loved ones in Haiti are alright.

My wife and I would like to give a decent sized donation to helping in Haiti, but we want this to be a Christian/Church based charity or organization. I'm not really sure where to start or look for finding this, but does anyone have any information on any charities like this?

Salvation Army has done a great job mobilizing and getting people to Haiti quickly. They're a faith-based charity and do great work. You can donate at their website.

[JPhillips]

Catholic Relief also seems to be involved early.

[Young Drachma]

Some fascinating proposals on how to help Haiti:

Marginal Revolution: Other ways to help Haiti (http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/01/other-ways-to-help-haiti.html)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Some fascinating proposals on how to help Haiti:

Marginal Revolution: Other ways to help Haiti (http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/01/other-ways-to-help-haiti.html)

Y'know, after reading that I'm not entirely clear on what was serious, what was parody, and what was just batshit crazy.

[Thomkal]

watching CNN and they just pulled an elderly lady out of the rubble alive and there may be two others alive in the same wreckage. She had no food or water for a week and a broken femur amongst other injuries. Of course the closest place they brought her too for treatment doesn't have a surgical suite that she needs and they don't know where to bring her.

[RainMaker]

Yeah, 70-years old. Amazing she was able to survive that long.

[Flasch186]

which I always am amazed by when the experts switch from 'search and rescue' to 'recovery' and then we find people hanging on to dear life. I figured we wouldve learned by now that whatever that moment is, add say 72 hours to it and get those fuckers out!

[JPhillips]

I know there's no political benefit, but it's getting frustrating to not hear any discussion of how Haiti plays out for the US over the next year or two. How long are we going to stay and how are we going to restore basic services to the capital? What's the post rescue mission?

[RainMaker]

Does anyone know what those aluminum looking sheets they place over people do? I've seen it a lot here and even in the U.S. Does it retain heat or something? It is paper thin and shiny but never knew what the benefit of it was.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Does anyone know what those aluminum looking sheets they place over people do? I've seen it a lot here and even in the U.S. Does it retain heat or something? It is paper thin and shiny but never knew what the benefit of it was.

Thermal blankets, or "space blankets", are usually made of mylar & retain up to 90% of body heat. Based on NASA technology, one of those inventions/discoveries kind of like Tang ;)

[cartman]

They pulled a guy out of the wreckage of one of the hotels that up until recently was a preacher at a local Methodist church. He was there on a mission with a few other people. He was buried for almost 72 hours, and had to have both of his legs amputated at the knees to be freed from the rubble. His first medical stop was Guantanmo Bay, then to a hospital in Florida. But he passed away Sunday evening from the accumulated shock and stresses.

[RainMaker]

Thermal blankets, or "space blankets", are usually made of mylar & retain up to 90% of body heat. Based on NASA technology, one of those inventions/discoveries kind of like Tang ;)
Thanks. Ran a search on thermal blankets and they appear pretty cheap. Might pick up a set and throw it in my car.

Amazon.com: Emergency Thermal Blankets (4 Pack): Sports & Outdoors (http://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Thermal-Blankets-4-Pack/dp/B0007N0XDO)

[dervack]

For those of you in or near western suburbs in Illinois, a friend of mine's family owns a clothing store in Downtown Downers Grove named Boll Weevil. They are taking donations of clothing, towels, diapers, medical supplies, etc till next wednesday when the Haitian Congress from Evanston is coming to pick up.

[tucker rocky]

Magnitude 6.0 aftershock hits Haiti

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34928950/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

[Thomkal]

well amid the wonderful news that they pulled yet another person out alive from the rubble today, there's the wacky to go with it. You see, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has revealed the real cause of the earthquake....

The US government/military caused the earthquake because they wanted to test an experiment to see if it could be used on Iran...I kid you not.

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9QtZkT8OBQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9QtZkT8OBQ)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Politically incorrect commentary on Haiti gets Paul Shirley fired from his ESPN blogging gig

ESPN axes blogger Shirley for comments about Haiti *| ajc.com (http://www.ajc.com/sports/espn-axes-blogger-shirley-284722.html?cxntlid=thbz_hm)

[Scoobz0202]

CNN is reporting that a man was rescued today and that he may have been trapped since the initial earthquake. If that is true then I can't imagine... Wow.

Doctors: Haitian may have survived 4 weeks in rubble - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/08/haiti.rescue/index.html?hpt=T2)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Ouch.......

Records show dubious spending from Wyclef Jean charity - NYPOST.com (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/quandered_million_hBeqPFQ6KfrdETKp0CjKII)