I am near the airport at the U.N. security base. CARE’s country director in Haiti, Sophie Perez, and our emergency response leader, David Gazashvili, are here meeting with the heads of all the relief agencies. We are coordinating how best to get help to those in urgent need.

Haiti – 3pm local time, 15th January 2010 - by Rick Perera, CARE International relief team member

Driving here, we saw evidence of the global response to this crisis, including heavy earth-moving equipment, fire and rescue teams, water tankers and trucks carrying supplies. But clearly, far more is needed than what is here so far.

As we pass the many collapsed buildings, we can see a few people trying with few or no tools trying to dig out anyone who might still be alive. There are many makeshift tent cities scattered throughout the city and groups of people waiting outside the compounds of relief agencies waiting for any help they can get.

Right now I am at a helicopter base that I remember from the last time I was in Haiti. That was five years ago, when I came here during the Hurricane Jeanne relief effort. Back then, I never could have imagined that I would be back here under such circumstances. Even though the need is so much greater now, there are far fewer helicopters in the air now than there were then. It really speaks to the immense difficulty in getting resources into Haiti.

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