KENT NEWS: A charity worker who helped locate victims of the devastating Haitian earthquake says she is confident the nation will recover from the disaster.
Naomi Morris, 26, from Sandgate, near Folkestone, was a passenger on the first British aid plane to reach the crisis-hit Caribbean country, which was rocked by the catastrophic quake on January 11.
She was part of the MapAction team that uses mapping and satellite technology – as well as information from text messages, emails and other sources – to provide aid agencies and search-and-rescue teams with up-to-date information about blocked roads or collapsed buildings and bridges.
Miss Morris said: “The city of Port-au-Prince itself is devastated and there has been huge destruction of buildings.
“There are lots of big piles of ash with body parts in them where people have had to burn their loved ones, so it’s been very hard and everyone has had to be as resilient as they can.
“But I’ve been impressed with how the country as a whole is getting on with things. While it will take years to rebuild the place, I think the people themselves will be able to turn things around very quickly.”
Within hours of the magnitude seven earthquake hitting Haiti, MapAction had set up two teams to help with the recovery effort.
One helped organise the search-and-rescue teams while the other co-ordinated the humanitarian aid operation, including the locating of IDP (internally displaced persons) camps.
Miss Morris spent almost three weeks in Port-au-Prince before returning to the UK last weekend, but spent just three days at home before returning to the Caribbean on Wednesday for a further three-month stint.
Miss Morris said: “We get the information by any means possible. Some of it was coming in through emails and text messages, and some was from the families of people actually trapped beneath the rubble.
“Unfortunately many of them would have died because it was a week until the phone lines were up and running and therefore a week until all the texts came through.
“It’s frustrating because you really want to do everything you can to help but sometimes technology goes against you, like it did when everything was knocked out by the earthquake.”
Since 2004, MapAction has helped in 20 emergencies including the Asian tsunami, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods and tropical storms.
Miss Morris has been a volunteer with the charity for more than two years. In that time she has been involved in operations in the west African nation of Burkina Faso – which suffered from heavy flooding in September, 2009 – and Papua New Guinea.
She said: “The support network and teamwork that goes on in disaster areas is invaluable, with everyone supporting and keeping an eye on one another.
“I’ve been OK, but I’ve not had much time to think about things. It’s probably a good thing that we’re so busy so that we don’t have to.
“MapAction has given me the opportunity to be involved and I’m just doing everything I can now to help the recovery effort.”
• Visit www.mapaction.org.uk to find out how you can help support the charity.
POSTED: 07/02/2010 16:00:00
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