LDS relief: Logistics prove challenging in dispersing aid from Mormon Church

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Emergency response and humanitarian relief supplies have slowly trickled in to Haiti from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the first full week after Tuesday's devastating earthquake.

But the lack of speed hasn't been for a lack of desire or effort, or not having the supplies or manpower available on demand.

The LDS Church's emergency response leaders have been scrambling to get supplies and personnel into Port-au-Prince and areas surrounding the Haitian capital for several days — both from the church headquarters in Salt Lake City and from its Caribbean Area offices in Santo Domingo, in the neighboring nation of the Dominican Republic.

But chartering aircraft has been challenging and ground access into Haiti has been nearly impossible with quake-damaged roads cluttered with debris and dead bodies.

The early delays actually have benefitted the church's large-scale relief plans, said Nate Leishman, manager of humanitarian emergency response.

Haiti's first few post-quake days focused on search-and-rescue efforts and the necessary establishing of a controlling military presence, with Haiti's own supplemented by international forces.

"Security is an issue," said Leishman, acknowledging the reports of looting throughout the neighborhoods as well as the long lines and sometimes panicked rushes of starving, thirsty Haitians when other organizations have dispersed relief supplies.

"We're very careful," he added. "We're trying to keep a somewhat low profile."

Still, the LDS meetinghouses in and around Port-au-Prince — which have escaped relatively unscathed from the quake — have become the temporary homes to more than 2,000 homeless, hurting Haitians, sometimes in excess of 500 people per building.

The LDS Church's relief supplies and medical personnel finally en route from the United States complements the assistance already provided to Haiti from the Caribbean Area offices, according to church emergency response reports.

Saturday, the first container load of food, water, mattresses, tarps and medical supplies arrived in Port-au-Prince from the Dominican Republic, with a second container — loaded primarily with food — arriving Sunday.

In preceding days, cash from church fast offering funds were used to purchase much-needed food at premium costs from street markets.