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The DART and Op HESTIA
Canadian Forces: Helping in Haiti |
Major Dave McQueen
Commanding Officer, 1st Canadian Division Headquarters |
7.03 MB |
The Disaster Assistance Response
Team (DART) and Operation HESTIA
By: Larry Pearce
On October 15th 2010, EPICC
was very pleased to be able to provide its members with a special briefing
by Major Dave McQueen, the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART)
Commanding Officer, 1st Canadian Division, Headquarters.
The following is a summary of Major McQueen’s presentation.
DART was formed as a high readiness unit
for Canada – not just to respond to disasters. The role of DART is
to provide a quick response to stabilize the situation, to render first-aid,
provide potable water, light engineering, to provide protection, support
the community and to assist Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and
other International aid. DART is self-sufficient and brings its own
command and control communication equipment.
It was founded in 1996 and since then
it has responded five times to Honduras in 1998 (hurricane); Turkey
in 1999 (earthquake); Sri Lanka in 2005 (tsunami/earthquake); to Pakistan
in 2005 (earthquake); and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. DART was prepositioned
to assist in Myanmar; however, the Myanmar government did not allow
outside assistance to enter the country and so it was never actually
deployed.
The Earthquake
The 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck
at 1653 hrs on January 12, 2010. The epicentre was located close to
Port-au-Prince and the city was severely damaged. Most of Haiti’s
nine million people live close to Port-Au-Prince. (80% of the Haitian
population live below the poverty line.)
Port facilities were destroyed, the airport
was non-functioning and there was no air traffic control. The UN HQ
was destroyed and the Head of the UN in Haiti was killed along with
200,000 Haitians There was a poor road network to start with and now
many parts were destroyed; land lines were almost non-existent (however,
they had cellular communications), and the power grid was severely impacted
This had a horrendous impact on Haiti,
where many buildings were of poor construction. Haiti had not experienced
a major earthquake since 1770 and
Within hours of the earthquake DART members
were on alert and by 2100 hrs the orders came for deployment. By 1620
hrs, January 13th,, DART was on the ground, less than 24
hours since the earthquake struck. DART consisted of 45 personnel: doctors,
nurses, pharmacists, engineers and light search and rescue personnel
plus a protection force. By 2300 hrs the team had made their way to
the Canadian Embassy in Port-Au-Prince. One of their first tasks was
to evacuate Canadian citizens back to Canada - they successfully evacuated
4,600 Canadians.
Following their arrival, DART was deployed
7 kilometres east of Jacmel (see map above). The distance between Jacmel
and Port-au-Prince is only 45 kilometres long (the road was not direct
but followed a westerly/southern route.) However, due to the existing
poor road network, compounded by the earthquake damage, the trip took
4.5 hours. The easterly route took 12.5 hours (the road ended prior
to Jacmel and troops had to follow a dirt trail). Jacmel was also severely
hit by the earthquake: 40,000 lived in the city but another 173,000
lived in the region around the city. In and around Jacmel, 400 were
killed, 3,000 homes were destroyed, 7,500 homes were damaged and the
hospital was destroyed.
The living conditions for DART members
were austere - they faced heat, humidity, insects, and rain but ultimately
provided and incredible service to the Haitians. Fortunately they were
able to situate their camp in an undamaged area - the land was owned
by an American who gave full access to use his land as DART saw fit,
and did not charge any rent. DART ate only Canadian Forces rations and
drank their own water. The weather was very humid and hot (rained mostly
at night). Communications were provided by a good cell network and BlackBerry
and satellite phone.
Ultimately, Operation HESTIA deployed
2,046 Canadian forces personnel; provided 1,000,000 pounds of relief
supplies, treated 22,000 patients, produced nearly 3, 000,000 litres
of potable water and re-opened the highway between Port-Au-Prince and
Jacmel. Local people often refused to drink the purified water produced
by DART because they didn’t like the taste and thus preferred the
contaminated water, which they were used to (note that there is currently
a cholera outbreak in Haiti). The medical platoon of 45 persons (three
teams) treated 10,000 patients - 7,500 at the clinic and 2,500 were
transported via helicopter to hospitals.
Other Canadian government departments
that were in Haiti included: Department of Foreign Affairs and International
Trade, Canadian International Development Agency, Citizenship and Immigration
Canada, Canada Border Services Agency, RCMP, Public Safety Canada, Canadian
Forces and Search and Rescue. The Joint Task Force included land support,
including a field hospital, maritime support (i.e., HMCS Athabaska and
HMCS Halifax), and air support (helicopters, C-130, C-114).
The security platoon of forty soldiers
was deployed to protect the DART team, VIP visits (including the visit
of the Governor-General of Canada), food distribution at camps and the
mobile DART members. The engineering section consisted of 35 soldiers
who were responsible for water purification, assisting in reestablishing
the electrical grid and sewage system. The engineers super-chlorinated
the city wells, built 45 latrines (135 seats), and built two orphanage
shelters - employing local Haitians while providing cash for work completed.
“Cluster” meetings were held to help
coordinate the various international governmental and aid agencies and
NGOs. These meetings included Canadians, UN personnel, representatives
from Cuba, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, as well as Doctors
without Borders and locals. The airfield was overwhelmed with air traffic
– no air traffic control was in place, as a result planes often circled
for hours before they could land. The US finally established air traffic
control on the third day.
Currency was the Haitian gourde but US
dollars were accepted everywhere. One major problem was that the banks
were closed because there was no power. However, power couldn’t be
restored because there wasn’t access to funds to pay for the restoration!
There was a very weak local government in place and as a result decisions
by local government took a very long time.
Finally – why was it so bad? There
were no building codes; construction techniques were questionable (e.g.,
the concrete was poor quality – coarse aggregate and no rebar); there
was no ambulance or fire capacity and a substandard hospital capacity.
DART left 60 days after they arrived
having helped thousands and leaving a local population sad to see them
leave. Well done Canadian Forces.