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Mon Sep 15 16:12:00 BST 2008

I used to live in the Dominican Republic until two weeks ago. Because I was relocating back to Puerto Rico during Ike, I haven't kept contact with "locals" or read anything about it.

Stilll, statistics are largely mismanaged. For example, many Haitians living in the Dominican Republic have absolutely no official IDs. The government has no way to figure out their existence. 

During Noel, I participated as member of the PR USAR Task Force deployed for assistance. Local villagers told us about many houses on a given street whose occupants (5-8 sometimes) were still missing. Yet official statistics completely ignored this.

Another "official" version for the mismatch was to avoid emotional unrest among the population...although everybody knew well.

Areas in Haiti remained inaccessible for long.

During the 2004 flooding in the DR and Haiti we were also deployed to go to a village in Haiti called Mapou. Only way to access was via helicopter. Upon assessing the situation, our plans were changed. I never knew what was the fate of the village, but it was completely submerged at the time.

Again, statistics may or may not have taken this into account.
Gustavo E. Flores, MD EMT-P :.
www.emergencyteam.net
787-525-8075

-----Original Message-----

From:  "Bjorn, Pret" <pbjorn at emh.org>

Surely there must someone in the Caribbean who can help us all understand the culture, the politics, the infrastructure, and the impact of these storms, that we might all suggest and discuss systematic responses.

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