LDS relief: Medical team finally reaches Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — First, on the island of Hispaniola. Then, onto Haitian soil. And, then, running on pure adrenaline.

After a time-consuming trip from Salt Lake City that began late Sunday afternoon, the LDS Church's medical team finally reached its destination Tuesday morning: earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The 14 volunteer doctors and nurses and two emotional-health specialists were brought to the island by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to provide much-needed medical care in the wake of the massive 7.0-magnitude quake that has blanketed this island nation with death and despair.

The Associated Press said the latest casualty report, from the European Commission citing Haitian government figures, doubled previous estimates of the dead to approximately 200,000. Another estimated 250,000 people were injured and 1.5 million were left homeless.

The LDS Church is reporting that 20 of its Haitian members have been confirmed dead, while about 4,000 people — members and nonmembers alike — continue to gather each night at the half-dozen chapels in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

Lynn A. Samsel, the church's director of humanitarian emergency response and community services, told the medical team he was leading into Haiti that an estimated 25 percent of that 4,000 are in need of some sort of medical care.

He made that announcement as a small tour bus crammed with medical-team members crossed the Haiti-Dominican Republic border at dawn Tuesday.

The crossing drew some exclamations, as well as some sighs of relief.

Efforts to fly directly Monday into Port-au-Prince proved unsuccessful, and the team scrambled to fly into the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo late Monday, arriving just before midnight.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic are located on the island of Hispaniola. The two capitals are about 200 miles apart.

The delays and rerouting were not unique to the LDS medical group, as several other relief teams were on the same flight out of Miami, planning to use ground transportation into Port-au-Prince.

From the Santo Domingo airport, the LDS medical team loaded into two small buses, able to comfortably transport about 15 people each.

The team's 50-plus bags — including "survival bags" to sustain members for a week's stay and others packed with pharmaceuticals and medical supplies — went into one bus and a small trailer.

With the medical team's contingent numbering nearly two dozen en route to Haiti (a couple of additional members joined them for the ride), the people loaded into the other bus, wedged into the tightly spaced seats and spilling into the aisles.

The multi-lane highway through, and out of, Santo Domingo soon gave way to a narrow asphalt road connecting numerous small villages every few miles.

At the border, the medical team's buses passed long lines of idle trucks waiting to bring fuel, goods and heavy equipment into Haiti. The team's buses were waved through military checkpoints, with guards forgoing the usual passport checks, when they learned medical personnel were aboard.

e-mail: taylor@desnews.com