Community Mobilizing to Help Haiti Survivors

Mayor Jody McLeod has put out an urgent call for donations of money and supplies for the survivors of Tuesday's massive earthquake in Haiti, including four Clayton residents who are there on a medical mission.

The Mayor said community leaders are working to secure a plane that he hopes will be given permission to fly directly to the devastated area to deliver as much as it can carry.

"Fly the plane in, and fly the plane out, that's what we want to do," McLeod said. "We're looking at a 48-hour deadline."

Though officials fear the quake may have killed hundreds of thousands, the four from Clayton and those traveling with them from other area churches, survived, including former Clayton Citizen-of-the-Year Helen Little, who described the devastation in an email to her church home at Horne Memorial United Methodist Church.

Pastor Alan Swartz said volunteers are using the Carolina Graphics Press building on Atkinson Street to store and prepare donated supplies. Donations can also be left at the church, he said.

"Any little bit of help we can offer there will be appreciated," Swartz said.

He said Little was making her 47th mission to the country when the earthquake hit.

"It's a place very close to her heart," he said.

Karen Thorsen, another area resident on the mission, described the scene in Haiti as "pretty unbelievable" in an email to friends in the Triangle area.

"We are all working hour by hour," she said. "People came with horrible wounds, broken bones, multiple lacerations, five children dead pulled from the rubble just outside our walls. People are covered with soot much like you saw at 911, only here it is the dust from the concrete block houses. Last night, over 200 people came and stayed at our doorstep. Many were brought in and cared for with the medical team and those like me who wash wounds, hold hands, bring water, tear sheets for bandages. We all dragged our mattresses outside and slept on the lawn…feeling aftershocks all night long."

She said her team is "feeling so blessed that we have been able to help."

Immediate medical supplies requested from physicians on the team are:

Plastic or Fiberglass Casting
Suture 3-0,4-0 Nylon
Suture Instrument Kits
Betadine
4×4 Dressing
Roll Gauze
Web Roll for Casting
Saline IV and Irrigation
Injectible Pain Medication
Injectible Antibiotics IV and IM Rocephin, Ancef, Kflex
External Fixture
Tools to put them in (tool boxes)
Traction Bows and Pins

Non-medical needs include:

Blankets
Sheets
Towels
Wash Clothes
Health Kits*
Food
Tarps

*A Health Kit contains specific items:

1 hand towel (15" x 25" up to 17" x 27")
1 wash cloth
1 comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized)
1 nail file or fingernail clippers (no emery boards or toenail clippers)
1 bath-size bar of soap (3 oz and up)
1 toothbrush (single brush only in original wrapper; no child-sized brushes)
1 large tube of toothpaste
6 adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages

All items should be placed inside a sealed one-gallon plastic bag. No other items should be included in the Health Kit.