Haiti; Immediate Health Priorities

The severe earthquake that has struck Haiti and the Dominican Republic has inflicted large-scale damage, including on hospitals and health facilities, and large numbers of casualties are feared.

Immediate health priorities are:

- search and rescue of survivors trapped underneath rubble;
- treatment of people with major trauma injuries;
- preventing the infection of wounds; and
- ensuring breast-feeding is continued.

Communicable disease control will be another major concern in coming days. WHO is working with local authorities, United Nations agencies and humanitarian partners to respond to the emergency. More specifically, WHO is supporting the government to best coordinate the international health assistance to the country. WHO is also collecting data on the health impact of the earthquake to disseminate to other humanitarian aid providers. In addition, WHO is deploying an initial 12-member team of health and logistics experts to the affected locations. The WHO experts being sent include specialists in the management of dead bodies, mass casualty management, specialist in health services and coordination of emergency health response. The WHO experts being sent include specialists in the management of dead bodies, mass casualty management, specialist in health services and coordination of emergency health response. UN buildings, including the WHO premises, have suffered damage in the magnitude 7.0 earthquake, which struck on 12 January, the main force of which being felt 17 kilometres south-west of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. Haiti is a country that has already suffered from years of humanitarian crisis and natural disasters, including a series of hurricanes that battered the country in 2008.

Paul Garwood
Communications Officer
Health Action in Crises
World Health Organization

Earthquake Net Frequencies

Earthquake net frequencies - 7045, 3720 kHz - Please keep clear

All radio amateurs are requested to keep 7045 kHz and 3720 kHz clear for possible emergency traffic related to today's major earthquake in Haiti.

International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region II Area C Emergency Coordinator Arnie Coro, CO2KK, reports that as of 0245 UTC on January 13, nothing had been heard from radio amateurs in Haiti, but that the above frequencies were being kept active in case any Haitian hams manage to get on the air, and in case of other related events in surrounding areas, including aftershocks and a possible tsunami.

The following is from an e-mail from CO2KK:

A few minutes after the earthquake was felt in eastern Cuba's cities, the Cuban Federation of Radio Amateurs Emergency Net was activated, with net control stations CO8WM and CO8RP located in the city of Santiago de Cuba, and in permanent contact with the National Seismology Center of Cuba located in that city.

Stations in the city of Baracoa, in Guantanamo province, were also activated immediately as the earth movements were felt even stronger there, due to its proximity to Haiti. CO8AZ and CO8AW went on the air immediately, with CM8WAL following. At the early phase of the emergency, the population of the city of Baracoa was evacuated far away from the coast, as there was a primary alert of a possible tsunami event or of a heavy wave trains sequence impacting the coast line at the city's sea wall ...

Baracoa could not contact Santiago de Cuba stations on 40 meters due to long skip after 5 PM local time, so several stations in western Cuba and one in the US State of Florida provided relays. CO2KK as IARU Region II Area C Emergency Coordinator, helped to organize the nets, on 7045 kHz and also on 3720 kHz, while local nets in Santiago de Cuba and Baracoa operated on 2 meters.

As late as 9,45 PM local time 0245 UTC we have not been able to contact any amateur or emergency services stations in Haiti.

Amateurs from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela were monitoring the 40 meter band frequency, that I notified to the IARU Region II executive Ramon Santoyo XE1KK as in use for the emergency, requesting that 7045 kHz be kept as clear as possible..

We are still keeping watch on 7045 kHz hoping that someone in Haiti may have access to a transceiver and at least a car battery to run it.

All information that has so far come from the Cuban seismologists tell us of a very intense earthquake, and also of the possibility of other events following.

Following the advice of the geophysicists, we are keeping the 7045 and 3720 kiloHertz frequencies active until further notice.