Downtown Jacmel. The San Francisco earthquake in 1989 was similar in scale and strength to the Haitian Earthquake in early January. Sixty-three people died in the San Francisco quake and over a hundred-thousand perished in southern Haiti. Why? Buildings in California are designed to withstand earthquakes and are built to strict codes. Haiti’s constant poverty means stretching your funds as far as possible. Their is very little oversight during construction and minimal building codes or inspectors to enforce them. Many of Haiti’s buildings pancaked because the concrete was stretched with too much sand. A concrete block in North America on average weighs eight times more than a standard Haitian building block. When the quake hit, the stressed concrete disintegrated.

Dr. Swati Agarwal, an Pediatric Critical Care physician for Inova Fairfax attending a young man who was beaten severely and left for dead on a Jacmel beach. He was carried into the courtyard and left on a stretcher. I found him and a young interpreter named Elvis summoned Larry Walker from Inova and another physician to carry him onto our makeshift tables, a collection of desks set-up in the courtyard underneath blue tarps to ward off the sun. The young man was severely dehydrated and suffered from multiple injuries.

Mass confusion reigns near the entrance to Hospital Saint Michelle in Jacmel. Bill Allard once said to find the place and wait for the moment. I sat on the steps of a church overlooking the entrance to the hospital and into a courtyard that swelled with doctors from CCH, plus Haitian-American nurses from New York City, a Cuban medical team and a group from Delaware. I shot a few frames and waited. I was looking for the moment when disorganization and chaos presented itself. Everyone was trying so hard: we were short on supplies, not enough time, hundreds of patients were lying in beds underneath makeshift tents and it all came together in a flurry that passed by in a few seconds.

The Washington Post embedded reporter Susie Kenzie with the first CCH team to enter Jacmel. They flew to Santa Domingo in the Dominican Republic and drove from the DR to Pignon, Haiti and then flew into Jacmel. Her video was published on the Washington Post website.