User blog:Bzero/The Coast Guard in Haiti: First Responders, in for the Long Haul

From [http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100122/wl_time/02880419533791953494195603400 Yahoo! News] --


 * When the U.S. Coast Guard arrived in Haiti on Day 3 of the Jan. 12 earthquake, they were overwhelmed by people needing medical attention. Their supplies were low and their equipment rudimentary. As first responders to the disaster they had a lot of improvising to do. "The first few days we were taking tree branches and breaking them for splints," says OS1 James Sweetman, who originally was assigned to help out with security at a makeshift medical clinic at the Admiral Killick Naval Base in the capital's Carrefour district. "We cut wool blankets for slings and made backboards out of doors."

( More... )