Deseret News in Haiti: Haiti roads complicate LDS Church relief effort

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Richard Long has managed on-site emergency-relief efforts after tsunamis in Indonesia, Samoa and Tonga and earthquakes in Peru. He arrived at massive California and Utah wildfires before the ashes cooled. And he knew hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike and Gustav on a first-name basis.

As he scrambles to deliver relief in the wake of the most recent major disaster, Long says efforts following the deadly Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti have proved to be the most challenging.

"This by far has been the most difficult one," said the field operations manager for Bishop's Storehouse Services of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. as he watched supplies from three large trailers being unloaded Sunday into Third World-quality warehouses made of cinder block, cement and corrugated-metal roofs.

No worry about security, though — all supplies are carefully inventoried upon arrival and departure, and the premises are carefully watched by shotgun-toting guards.

Long has been in Port-au-Prince 10 days and counting, as emergency-response officials from the church work with the Red Cross, non-governmental organizations and reputable international relief agencies to provide relief in a Caribbean nation where the death toll has now reached an estimated 150,000, the Haitian communications minister told the BBC Sunday.

The three long trailers carrying 80,000 pounds of supplies — mostly food and water — arrived Sunday from the LDS Church with a welcome assist from Islamic Relief USA, which covered the $65,000 cost for chartered air transportation.

"It's very expensive to move freight," Long said.

It was the second such shipment via Miami that the church had arranged.

Those supplies join an initial 80,000 pounds of supplies purchased by the church in the neighboring Dominican Republic and trucked across the island to the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and some 30,000 pounds the church has been able to place on United Air Cargo flights into Port-au-Prince whenever space has been available over the past few days.

LDS Church workers have willingly collected surplus relief supplies other organizations have left unclaimed or available following airlifts to Haiti, adding a handful of palettes here and there of extra items to its own growing supply.

The church will send another 80,000 pounds of supplies on Tuesday — mostly tents, blankets, hygiene kits, rice and beans. Another shipment is planned for Friday.