Ecuador 7.8 Earthquake: Community Leader Emeritus Seeks Help

firetender

firetender

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Hi, compadres, from Russ Reina, that firetender guy.

As some of you know, I moved to Ecuador about three years ago. It is what’s now called a “Developing Nation”. Ecuador is about the size of Colorado with a population of about 14,000,000. On April 16th, the coastal area was rocked by a 7.8 earthquake. That was two days ago and we’re just now finding out how devastating it was. The seaside city of Pedernales at the epicenter, with about 50,000 people, has been pretty much decimated. Reports of the dead are just starting to trickle in. https://imgur.com/a/Cj2P8 and http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/t...her-after-272-killed-ecuadorian-quake-n557436

Ecuador’s poverty rate is at about 25%; a high proportion of the poor live on the coast. Although it has made incredible strides in improving the standard of life for the people and building sustainable infrastructure in recent years, because of the recent oil price fiasco – Ecuador is dependent on its oil income -- its services are already stretched to the limit. EMS is at about a 1965 level of sophistication nationwide.

Now, the country’s people are in crisis. This event is likely to easily match Hurricane Katrina in its impact. I haven’t seen the coverage this event deserves in North America and at this early date I’m uncertain who, if anyone is implementing aid efforts.

So I’m turning to my peers in EMS.

Many of you have been involved in disaster relief in other nations. Personally, I don’t have a clue how to go about organizing a group from the U.S./Canada to provide much needed medical assistance, but I do know that a few of you do. Also, many of you have connections with larger organizations and providers of emergency supplies and equipment of which the area is in desperate need.

I am a Moderator on the Facebook Page called ECUADOR EMERGENCY. We are now trying to help coordinate contacts between affected expats and their kin. I’m hearing a lot of offers from EMS qualified folks in the U.S. to come down and help. I want to be able to send them somewhere.

A lot of you have the experience to make it a productive effort that is safe and secure for the participants. I’d like to spend less time educating inquirers about the dangers of going it alone and more time actually helping. I’d like to get some pros there to assist Ecuadorian relief efforts.

Ecuador Emergency is also building connections with appropriate organizations down here and my hope is to learn how to help coordinate you, as a resource, with them. You can help spearhead an effort if you so choose.

I do not see major relief efforts being implemented based in the U.S., though this just happened yesterday! I’m hoping that this will start opening some doors so interested members of EMTlife have the opportunity to contribute to the relief of suffering that will be going on for quite some time.

I’m open for any and all serious ideas you may have to help out in this crisis. (And, yes, I'm fine; I live up in the Andes, 150 miles away, but it rocked my socks!)

I can also be reached at firetender@firetender.org. In community, Russ
 
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A lot of concerns for proving aid press int themselves: supplies, language issues, Infrastructure (take a patient to the hospital? Is the hospital still able to be used?). Thank you for the work you're doing. Stay safe.

The NBC News link doesn't work anymore.
 
I would make sure that at bear MINIMUM, the people going have experience in foreign travel, wide area search training, at least awareness level for all rescue types, at least hazmat ops (because huge disasters like this produce major secondary disaster areas from hazardous substances like leaking gas). I'd want translators from Ecuador who have military experience. I'd ideally want, but not require people who have disaster relief experience and certification, SAR experience and certification and training in damage assessment. Even if you only put people in a field hospital, things get messy, people run to the field hospital and ask for people to help remove someone who is trapped.

The best/easiest thing to do would be to get major funding from 1-3 major corporations/donors (like $10 mil dollars) and then start contacting teams out there that already have that training and ask for volunteers. Use the money to pay for their flights, food and housing in country.

I know a lot of people who would volunteer to miss out on their paid jobs to go, but would need expenses covered, who have that sort of training. I work with a group called the Ohio Special Response Team that is part of the State of Ohio's Emergency Plan to provide similar services for Ohio in similar circumstances. If you have funding, I would contact groups like that, and the FEMA USAR teams and ask for volunteers. All of those people will have a lot of "on the ground" experience with this type of stuff and many have already done it at Katrina, Haiti, 9/11 and similar. The first step is funding, though.
 
My goal is to get the ball, ANY ball rolling. For now, please feed me with site or e-mail links to organizations that have experience in this stuff so I can at least make initial contacts and request coordination help. THANKS!

joshrunkle35 said:
I would make sure that at bear MINIMUM, the people going have experience in foreign travel, wide area search training, at least awareness level for all rescue types, at least hazmat ops (because huge disasters like this produce major secondary disaster areas from hazardous substances like leaking gas). I'd want translators from Ecuador who have military experience. I'd ideally want, but not require people who have disaster relief experience and certification, SAR experience and certification and training in damage assessment. Even if you only put people in a field hospital, things get messy, people run to the field hospital and ask for people to help remove someone who is trapped.

The best/easiest thing to do would be to get major funding from 1-3 major corporations/donors (like $10 mil dollars) and then start contacting teams out there that already have that training and ask for volunteers. Use the money to pay for their flights, food and housing in country.

I know a lot of people who would volunteer to miss out on their paid jobs to go, but would need expenses covered, who have that sort of training. I work with a group called the Ohio Special Response Team that is part of the State of Ohio's Emergency Plan to provide similar services for Ohio in similar circumstances. If you have funding, I would contact groups like that, and the FEMA USAR teams and ask for volunteers. All of those people will have a lot of "on the ground" experience with this type of stuff and many have already done it at Katrina, Haiti, 9/11 and similar. The first step is funding, though.
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If I have some time later I will. I would also ask for volunteers from FEMA DMAT and DMORT. Those organizations won't go themselves, but they can put the word out to their people.
 
In an ideal world we could find a Sponsoring Organization with a track record to mobilize their resources so we could funnel interested Disaster Relief personnel (from here) into the project.
 
firetender said:
In an ideal world we could find a Sponsoring Organization with a track record to mobilize their resources so we could funnel interested Disaster Relief personnel (from here) into the project.
Click to expand...

Did you reach out to EMPACT? That's what they do.
 
Yes, I did DE, and a couple others. I'm learning on the fly everything I can; Keep feeding me, compadres!
 
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