Stuff about me
My name is Keith Michaud and this is “Letters From Away,” a blog written by a Mainer living outside the comfortable and sane confines of New England. The blog is intended for Mainers, whether they live in the Pine Tree State or beyond, and for anyone who has loved ’em, been baffled by ’em or both. Ayuh, I am “from away.” Worse still, I live on the Left Coast – in California. Enjoy! Or not. Your choice.
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Tag Archives: earthquake
At last, Maine vessel Sea Hunter offloading Haiti relief supplies | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram
Students collecting 1 million vitamins for Haiti | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram
Students collecting 1 million vitamins for Haiti | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.
Tagged aid, donations, earthquake, Haiti, Haitians, relief, Seeds of Independence, students, vitamins
Sea Hunter awaits OK to dock in Haiti | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram
Tagged aid, Bill Nemitz, earthquake, Greg Brooks, Haiti, Haitians, Hope Village, Les Cayes, Miragoane Harbor, relief, Sea Hunter
Local missionaries heading to Haiti to help children
PERU, Maine – Marilee Colpitts and Jamie Dennett had planned a missionary trip to Haiti long before the devastating earthquake on that island nation in January.
Their trip now will include their original goals, as well as helping some of the many children who have fled the capital of Port-au-Prince for Terrier Rouge, a city in the northwestern section of the country.
“We want to bring money for food and other things for the people who are fleeing Port-au-Prince,” said Dennett, who is making her fourth trip to Haiti. “Here, in this country, people go to the state. There, they go to the pastors.”
She and Colpitts, who is making her second trip, are among 14 people, mostly from Maine, who are representing His Hands for Haiti, a nonprofit Christian group based in New Vineyard that finds sponsors for some of the thousands of children who do not have enough food or cannot go to school.
Click on the link to the rest of today’s story by Eileen M. Adams of the Lewiston Sun Journal.
Tagged aid, Chrisitan group, donations, earthquake, food, Haiti, Haitians, Hands for Haiti, Lewiston, missionary, New Vinyard, nonprofit, Peru, Port-au-Prince, relief, school, Terrier Rouge
‘Here we go, boys. We’re going to Haiti!’ | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram
Maine shipmaster says aye to Sea Hunter mission | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram
Concern over captain’s health tempers crew’s excitement
MIAMI — Preparations shifted into high gear in Haiti on Monday to receive the estimated 200 tons of donated relief supplies aboard the Maine ship Sea Hunter, while hopes rose aboard the ship that its five days in limbo here could finally end today.
But even as the crew lashed down cargo and looked forward to this morning’s arrival of a shipmaster who has volunteered to sail the rest of the humanitarian mission, new worries arose about the health of Sea Hunter owner Greg Brooks of Gorham.
Brooks said he spoke at length Monday morning with Dr. William Lynders, a Connecticut physician who has sailed with Brooks’s Sub Sea Research Inc. on several of the company’s treasure-salvage voyages.
The cell phone consultation followed a call to Lynders by Brian Ryder, the Sea Hunter’s chief engineer and shipboard medic. Ryder said he was worried about Brooks’ physical condition, including what appears to be a lung infection.
“I thought I was a strong guy, I still think I am,” Brooks said. “But it’s been a month of overwhelming things.”
Brooks said he would decide by this morning whether to continue on to Haiti or fly home to Maine after seeing the Sea Hunter off. Either way, he said, the decision will not be easy.
Click on the link for the rest of this column by Bill Nemitz of the Portland Press Herald.
Mr. Nemitz also added a Reporter’s Notebook about the Sea Hunter. A notebook typically are bits and pieces a reporter gathers, but never seems to find place in the main story or column. Here’s a link to the notebook by Mr. Nemitz.
North Berwick concert to benefit Haitian orphans, amputees
Below is the text from a press release I received via e-mail from Susan Ropars of the Higher Ground Singers. It is pretty much the same information I passed along yesterday from the Portland Press Herald, but it doesn’t hurt to pass it along again.
Benefit Concert for Haiti: Higher Ground Singers, directed by Michelle Lessard, is excited to be hosting “Spirit and Song United for Haiti” at 1PM on Sunday, March 7th at Noble High School in North Berwick, Maine.
Featuring a wide variety of Seacoast Area musicians and talents, this event is sure to appeal to all ages. Helen Ksypka, aka Extreme Helen, will emcee the benefit, which includes such local legends as Sharon Jones, Barbara London, Salt River, Rock My Soul, The Digbees, Lesley Smith & Sammie Snail, and Women Singing Out! Other performers include Barb Whitney, Michael Tero, The Dover First Parish Praise Team and Sweet Willie D & The North Shore Gospel Ambassadors.
Donations from the heart will graciously be accepted at the door, and 100% of the proceeds will be given to the following organizations:
Hands and Feet Project: a nonprofit organization which is a children’s orphanage/village in Jacmel, Haiti. They are currently rebuilding the homes that were destroyed in the orphanage and providing medical care to the injured children. (www.handsandfeetproject.org)
NEBCO Foundation – Haiti Amputee Rehab Team (HART): a New Hampshire-based team of doctors, working with the New England Brace Co. to provide prosthetics to children who lost limbs as a result of the earthquake. This team of doctors will be making their first trip to Haiti in early March. (www.nebcofoundation.org)
As always, do your homework before giving to any organization. The Better Business Bureau is always a great place to start to check out a charity.
Tagged aid, amputees, Barb Whitney, Barbara London, Better Business Bureau, doctors, earthquake, Haiti, Haitians, Hands and Feet Project, Helen Ksypka, Higher Ground Singers, Lesley Smith & Sammie Snail, medical care, Michael Tero, NEBCO, New England Brace Co., Noble High School, North Berwick, orphanage, orphans, Portland Press Herald, prosthetics, relief, Rock My Soul, Salt River, Sharon Jones, Spirit and Song United for Haiti, Sweet Willie D & The North Shore Gospel Ambassadors, The Digbees, The Dover First Parish Praise Team, Women Singing Out
Maine medical team describes conditions in Haiti
The young woman had been pinned in the earthquake, her right leg freshly amputated below the knee. Her left leg was a mess, femur shattered. When Ron Chicoine saw her at (Hospital) Immaculee Conception, she’d been sitting for two weeks waiting for help.
“She was just amazing,” Chicoine said, even positioning herself onto the operating room table when surgeons were ready.
Mona Theriault remembers one 5-year-old boy who’d broken his wrist in a fall and sat in the waiting room, quiet, dripping blood on the floor, bone sticking out.
“There were a lot of stoic people there,” she said.
Chicoine and Theriault, both from St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, and the other half of their volunteer medical team returned from a trip to Les Cayes, Haiti, last week. The team’s organizer, Cynthia DeSoi, got back Thursday.
They performed roughly 40 surgeries in six days, many on bones that had been broken and crushed in the earthquake that claimed nearly a quarter-million lives. Conditions were sparse. Surgeons wore head lamps when the hospital’s electricity cut out. Tools were soaked in buckets of bleach when the water cut out.
Click on the link for the rest of today’s story by Kathryn Skelton of the Lewiston Sun-Journal.
Posted in Disaster
Tagged aid, amputation, conditions, earthquake, Haiti, Haitian, Immaculee Conception, Les Cayes, medical care, relief, St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, surgeons
Stymied ship unsnarls sticky knot in red tape
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Click on the link for the rest of today’s column by Bill Nemitz of the Portland Press Herald.
Captain volunteers for relief mission
Click for the latest update: Captain volunteers for relief mission
Tagged aid, Boston, Capt. Richard Devins, Coast Guard, Cross International, duty, earthquake, food, Gorham, Greg Brooks, Haiti, Haitians, hold order, licensed captain, Maine Maritime Academy, medicine, Miami, MMA, Orlando, Port of Miami, Portland, relief, Sea Hunter, State of Maine, supplies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, unlimited master
Haiti mayor at Bates College to describe horrors
LEWISTON — Wilson Louis, mayor of the Haitian district of Cité Soleil was at Bates College on Thursday night and he had plenty to say. But Louis speaks only French and relies on translators to convey his remarks while in the United States.
That’s not much of a problem in Lewiston.
A half-dozen local people — including Lewiston’s mayor and several Bates students — were able to bridge the gap between Louis’ native tongue and the non-French in the audience.
For an hour, Louis described horrendous conditions in his earthquake-battered country.
In Cité Soleil, a city of a half-million people, many have lost their homes and are living on the streets, he said. There are children who have lost fingers and toes. Many don’t have access to medical care, in spite of a massive global effort to help them.
“The situation is really terrible,” Louis said. “Those people need food. They need water; they need medical supplies.”
Click on the link for the rest of today’s story by Mark LaFlamme of the Lewiston Sun-Journal.
Tagged aid, Bates College, Cité Soleil, conditions, earthquake, French, Haiti, Haitian, Lewiston, relief, Wilson Louis
Sea Hunter racing the clock
Owner, crew of the vessel scramble
to address the Coast Guard’s safety,
licensing requirements as deadline looms
Updated at 1:25 p.m. EST
MIAMI — Negotiations between the owner of the Sea Hunter and the local Coast Guard station progressed this morning toward a possible compromise that would allow the Maine-based ship to continue its relief mission to an orphanage in Haiti.
“We’re continuing to talk,” said Greg Brooks of Gorham, the Sea Hunter’s owner, after speaking to Coast Guard officials repeatedly both in person and by cell phone.
“I’m hoping there’s a solution in sight,” Brooks said.
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Michael Lingaitis visited the Sea Hunter late in the morning to deliver a “hold order” which would prevent the Sea Hunter from departing for Les Cayes, Haiti, before safety and licensing issues have been resolved.
“We’re willing to work with you,” Lingaitis told Brooks during a conference in the ship’s galley. “Let’s keep discussing this.”
The Sea Hunter, loaded with relief supplies donated by people and businesses through Maine and New England, sailed here from Portland without a licensed ship master, first mate and engineer as required by Coast Guard regulations.
Click on the link for the rest of today’s column by Bill Nemitz of the Portland Press Herald.
Mainer’s voyage to Haiti now uncertain
Coast Guard officials question
the qualifications of Greg Brooks’
crew as he tries to deliver relief supplies
MIAMI — A Maine ship bound for Haiti with relief supplies may be prevented by the U.S. Coast Guard from proceeding beyond the port of Miami, its owner learned Wednesday evening.
Greg Brooks, owner of the 220-foot Sea Hunter, was told by Coast Guard officials by telephone that he cannot sail the ship to Haiti without a licensed captain and first mate aboard.
Brooks, who usually uses the ship to search for sunken shipwreck treasures, said he has sailed without licensed personnel on past voyages because the Sea Hunter is documented as a noncommercial vessel and he understood that no such licenses were required.
That changed Thursday, when Coast Guard officials in Miami contacted their counterparts in South Portland to inquire about the qualifications of the crew.
“My heart feels like it’s been ripped right out of me,” said Brooks, who flew to Miami ahead of the ship late last week to arrange for the loading of additional relief supplies from a Florida-based relief organization.
Click on the link for the rest of today’s column by Bill Nemitz of the Portland Press Herald.
Here’s a link to an earlier dispatch about the problems:
Letters From Away 