More suffering (updated)

Tonight, my heart is hurting for a country I love. I was in Haiti for most of the month of May--I came back to the U.S. on 5/31. I'll be here in the U.S. for most of the summer before heading back to Haiti in August. Tonight I am feeling helpless as I read Twitter and Facebook status updates such as these:

Michel Martelly: (Haiti's new president):
"Prezidan an ak tout ekip ijans li an ap travay tout lannwit pou vini an èd a moun ki viktim nan gwo lapli aswè a."
Translation: "The president with all of his emergency teams are working all night to come to the aid of the victims of the heavy rains tonight"

P.J. Pitts (pharmacist currently living in Port):
"Massive mudslide between Petionville and Rou Frere, homes buried with people inside. First corpse found minutes ago. *sighing* it's going to be a LONG night..."

"got a call from Billy's girl - houses collapsed in a mudslide from the storm, she hears screams from inside. Our guys are on their way to check it out. Hoping the screaming is from the thunder and lightning, not people trapped."

"recovered 3 bodies, no signs of survivors. Hand clearing ruble from a steep ravine, no way to get machinery in there..."

"just got word that a woman was pulled out of the slide - being transported to the hospital now - first news of a survivor to be pulled from the rubble and debris!"

"Normally rain washes things away; the air smells clean and fresh when it rains. Not this morning. This morning it smells putrid - like the sludge that forms at the bottom of a pond as living matter is decaying - it's as if the rain and mud slides is dredging up more than just memories of the earthquake."

"two women (late teens/early 20s) taken to the hospital with injuries sustained from the landslide - one with a 5-7" laceration approx. 1" deep on her leg and the other was hit pretty badly in the back of the head by falling debris. No survivors pulled out of the slide itself thus far. Time for a nap, then back to hopefully change that."

"Back at the house - guys are passed out, I'm tracking down a few leads on cadaver dogs. The area we were at was very unstable - the guys had to use climbing gear and repel down the mudslide to dig and recover bodies. I'm not sure how they're going to manage body recovery... The area is a freaking death trap. Areas of mud covered concrete, you take a step, then you're knee deep in quick-sand-mud."

MMRC Haiti:
"We are currently responding to a mudslide between Petionville & Rou Frere"

"So far much body recovery, still keeping hope we will find some survivors."

"Our crew is rappelling down the hill to find survivors @ the mudslide. If u are in PaP and can help please call 34387073"

"At daylight we found 2 injured girls, took them to @medishare4haiti."

"Our crew rappelled from house pile to house pile on the hill checking for survivors."

"Many people trapped in their homes, not many survivors."



I also received a forwarded e-mail from someone who has lived in Haiti for much of her life, saying these are the heaviest rains she has ever seen.

I have been in Port au Prince during massive rains. It is crazy how fast severe flooding occurs in that city. Port au Prince is almost completely deforested, has essentially no functioning storm sewer system, and has hundreds of thousands of people living right at sea level, with the city rising sharply upwards from the sea (meaning the floods roll downhill). Not to mention the hundreds of thousands still living in tents, many precariously placed on steep hillsides.

I try not to be a pessimist when it comes to progress in Haiti, and I try to focus on the positive things that are happening there (though I'm not sure I always do a great job at this). And I know that like so many other challenges, the people of Haiti will get through this somehow.

But I am sad and I am so worried about friends and former patients who I am sure are wet and cold and scared right now. And as my friend Terri just wrote, "how much suffering can one little country bear?"