Team Rubicon JANUARY 12, 2010. IT WAS 4.53PM WHEN THE EARTHQUAKE HIT THE ISLAND OF HISPANIOLA In the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince – 25km to the north-east of the epicentre – people were going about their business. Suddenly the ground shook, buildings cracked to their foundations, and the entire world was turned inside out. By the time the 7.0 magnitude earthquake had subsided, almost 300,000 buildings had collapsed or been severely damaged. It was a disaster that, according to various government estimates, claimed between 230,000 and 316,000 lives. Alongside the many thousands dead were embassy staff, the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, and 32 members of the Haitian Football Federation. A further 1.5 million people were made homeless, among them then-President René Préval, who found himself dispossessed after both his home and the presidential palace were destroyed. In the nights following the quake, many Haitians slept in cars, doorways and makeshift shanty towns. By January 14, the city’s morgues were full, meaning that many bodies were left in the streets as crews trucked thousands more to mass graves. Meanwhile, the thousands of unrecovered bodies buried in rubble began to decompose in the heat and humidity. With five hospitals in Portau-Prince destroyed or damaged, and roads blocked by debris, the situation in this, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was desperate. While the international community organised relief operations, former US Marine Jake Wood watched events unfold on the news. With a four-year tour in the Middle East under his belt, including counter-insurgency missions in Iraq’s bloody Anbar Province and eight months on a sniper team in Afghanistan, he felt compelled to help. Just 60 days out of the military, Wood was fit, experienced at operating in destabilised countries, and had many transferable skills. Wood, then 27, called a local disaster relief organisation to offer his services, but was turned down. Determined to get to Haiti under his own steam, he posted on Facebook, asking if anyone wanted to join him. Former Marine intelligence officer William McNulty, a 33-year-old friend of a friend, answered the call. <strong>The</strong> pair flew to the Dominican Republic – Haiti’s neighbour on Hispaniola – meeting up with another marine, and a mate of Wood’s who happened to be a firefighter. En route, they met a former special forces medic and two doctors, one of whom was a Vietnam veteran. <strong>The</strong> motley group touched down in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, and were transferred to the Haitian border, arriving four days after the quake. “It was total chaos,” remembers Wood. “<strong>The</strong>re was this dust cloud in the air from all the rubble. People were digging for survivors. <strong>The</strong>re weren’t enough aid workers on the planet to adequately address the needs there.” Determined to prove themselves and help as many people as possible, Wood’s team set out to transport doctors and nurses to hard-hit areas, establish mobile triage clinics, and get critical patients to hospital. “Organisations usually focus on hospitals and setting up static clinics,” ALAMY 50 THE RED BULLETIN
Torn apart: the 2010 earthquake in Haiti flattened thousands of buildings, killed as many as 316,000 people, and made many more homeless THE RED BULLETIN 51
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