Herald photographer sees spirit of volunteers, worry of Haitians
Twenty hours. Four thousand miles in the air. And it all started with a phone call from my office the night before, asking if I had a valid passport.
United Airlines gave the Daily Herald a last-minute opportunity to fly on their first relief trip from Chicago to Haiti Wednesday. We happily took them up on their offer. I happily took my boss up on his.
I arrived at O'Hare about 4 a.m. Not having a lot of time to plan, I kept things simple: Two still cameras, a small video camera, and a bunch of notebooks and pens were all I figured I would need to do the job. Add to that a couple of protein bars, some hand-sanitizer and six Snickers bars (more on that later), and I was packed.
United had everyone meet at their terminal. Most of the weight the plane could carry was in the cargo hold. About 20,000 pounds in donations of water and tents and other supplies. The passenger list was mostly made up of relief workers and United volunteers who would staff the flight. Since they don't fly into Port-au-Prince normally, a full ground and mechanical team came along with the flight crew. Other specialists, including the head of their medical team and those in charge of customs and charters, flew along.
I joined some other local news media folks on the tarmac at about 5:30 to take some pictures of the cargo hold being loaded with 14,000 pounds of water donated by Walgreens. I was able to upload a handful of pictures to the paper and then got on board.
I do my fair share of flying, but I've never been on a chartered plane. And this wasn't like most charters. The United crew had a real sense of appreciation for what these relief workers were about to do and tried to make their last hours before landing as comfortable as possible. Passengers and crew mingled about the cabin sharing stories and well-wishes. I took pictures and notes and did a couple of quick interviews.
The view of the island during our descent gave us just a glimpse of the destruction below. Looking south from my window I could see smoke from several fires burning in the distance. Thousands of people were in the streets. I don't know where they were going. I don't know if they knew where they were going. A pretty powerful aftershock had hit the area earlier that morning, causing even more chaos.
The Boeing 757 landed in Port-au-Prince at about 11:30 a.m. Chicago time. A Coast Guard SWAT team member guarded the plane as the relief workers made their way to meet security teams or whoever was taking them to their destinations.
The scene on the ground in the airport wasn't as bad as we were expecting. A United doctor had prepared the crew for what they might see, including severely injured children, and for a smell that can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there was a stiff wind that kept the stench away, and the condition of the people at the airport could probably best be described as beleaguered.
Most of the airport business happened outside on the tarmac, which amplified the 85-degree temperatures into some seriously uncomfortable heat. The airport was heavily damaged from the earthquake and tower operations were handled at a folding table in a field near the only runway.
The operations at the airport were largely run by the U.S. State Department and the military. Outside the fences of the airport, thousands of Haitians mostly stood and watched the action inside. I don't think they were looking to leave; I'm just not sure if they had anywhere else to go.
After shooting pictures of the crew unloading the supplies - which was over in a quick half-hour - and other scenes from the airport, I tried to contact my office. Not as easy as I had hoped. Neither of my cell phones had voice service, but one was able to send and receive some texts. I loaned it out to a few relief workers who wanted to let their families and friends know they arrived safely, and I went in search of a working phone. Fortunately, someone from the United crew was getting service and they kindly let me phone in my first draft of the story.
After about three hours on the ground, we finally received 79 evacuees cleared by the State Department and we headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to refuel and take on a new flight crew, as the first crew had reached their limit in flight hours.
The evacuees were both happy to be leaving but concerned over where they were headed. None of them hoped to end up in Chicago, with most trying to get to South Florida and New York. While the majority were U.S. citizens, almost none of them spoke much English. It took the two Creole-speaking members of the flight team a couple of hours to visit each person, assuage their fears and assure them they wouldn't just be abandoned in Chicago.
At one point, United was hoping to include about 30 Haitian orphans on the return trip, in hopes they would be placed in homes in the United States. That didn't happen, but the consensus on the plane was that if there had been orphans onboard, they wouldn't have been orphans by the time it landed in Chicago, as evidenced by the attention the crew gave the children who were on the flight. There were 10 to 12 children on the plane, traveling with adult relatives.
I was able to edit all my photos on the hourlong flight and the second we landed I was able to establish an Internet connection on my laptop. I sent about 35 captioned photos back to the office and phoned in an update for the story. Things were looking good.
After a quick turnaround, we left Puerto Rico (without being able to deplane, unfortunately for me and the rum industry). Being so busy for so long, we were all pretty beat. The only folks still on the plane from the morning were the United ground crew and support staff, Ben Bradley from ABC 7, and me.
With a little down time for the first time in 14 hours, I decided to eat. This is when six Snickers bars really come in handy. I only ate one, but the other five bought me some serious gratitude and future favors. Never underestimate the power of a Snickers in crisis situations.
The next four hours were interminably long for everyone. I worked on a few more pictures to queue up and send as soon as we landed. Word got out that Gov. Pat Quinn was going to meet the plane, which was great for the crew but meant a few more pictures for me.
After clearing customs, I shot a few frames of the governor sharing ideas with United employees and then sat down to send those pictures and call in one more update to the story.
By the time I found my car it was about midnight. I had shot more than 1,000 frames and about 15 minutes of video. I had pages of scribbles from the dozens of people I had talked to on the way there and back. And I had a much greater appreciation for the effort everyday people are making to do what they can to help after an such an unbelievable disaster.
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <!-- Start of Brightcove Player --> <div style="display:none"> </div> <!-- By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and C found at http://corp.brightcove.com/legal/terms_publisher.cfm. --> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script> <object id="myExperience62758952001" class="BrightcoveExperience"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="width" value="300" /> <param name="height" value="255" /> <param name="playerID" value="18011347001" /> <param name="publisherID" value="1659832549"/> <param name="isVid" value="true" /> <param name="@videoPlayer" value="62758952001" /> </object> <!-- End of Brightcove Player --> </ul> <h2>Photo Galleries</h2> <ul class="gallery"> <li><a href="/story/?id=352528">Images of Chicago to Haiti relief flight </a></li> </ul> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=352860">United's Haiti mission flights continue, groups provide relief <span class="date">[01/22/10]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=352358">Haiti relief flight departs O'Hare with local volunteers <span class="date">[01/20/10]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>