CF IN HAITI: CF Flying Canadians Outta HTI, Ships are On Their Way

Some updates:

• A new page is now available via the CF containing background information on OP Hestia here.
• CanWest says, “The federal government has begun airlifting Canadians from Haiti, and may institute a humanitarian immigration program to allow hundreds or thousands of Haitians into Canada ….  The first 100 Canadians removed from Haiti by Canadian military are en route to Montreal via the Dominican Republic and are scheduled to arrive at 10:05 PM. ET Thursday at Pierre Trudeau International airport.” (More on that from CBC.ca here)
• The CF says HMCS Halifax and HMCS Athabaskan are now on their way south to Haiti.
• Last night, Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh expressed his opinion on the relief effort via Twitter: “Canada should be in Haiti faster and more than we are. Time to speed up, Mr Harper.”  Today, he’s refined his position:  “i understand Harper is responding well to the needs in Haiti.”  More discussion on that here at Milnet.ca.

For more news, check out these sites:

• European Commision News Brief aggregator (you can even pick the language of the feed)
• Google News search “Haiti+earthquake”
• Yahoo News search “Haiti+earthquake”
• NewsNow aggregator on Haiti earthquake
• Milnet.ca Discussion Forum (where military members and those interested share news/information about the work being done)

Any other good places to keep track of what’s happening?  Don’t be afraid to share.

HAITI: How’s Canada’s Military Helping?

You’ve heard about the earthquake in Haiti.  Before I go into how the CF is helping, here’s some links to good news resources to keep track of what’d happening in Haiti:

• European Commision News Brief aggregator (you can even pick the language of the feed)
• Google News search “Haiti+earthquake”
• Yahoo News search “Haiti+earthquake”
• NewsNow aggregator on Haiti earthquake
• Milnet.ca Discussion Forum (where military members and those interested share news/information about the work being done)

If you know any other resources, PLEASE let us know via comments below – always happy to share.

As for the CF presence, it’s already got a name:  Operation HESTIA (reportedly named for the Greek godess of the hearth fire or fireplace).  They even have a web page to follow the military support.

Media and other open sources indicate the following:

• “A C-130 (Hercules)  military transport plane arrived in Haiti on Wednesday with a reconnaissance team that will assess what military personnel and equipment is needed.” This would likely involve people with engineering (building/rebuilding as well as purifying water), medical and logistical expertise to decide how best to deploy Canada’s Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART).
• Another larger plane – a CC-177 Globemaster - is to have left tonight (Wednesday) “with humanitarian assistance that will be provided to the people of Haiti on behalf of the Canadian Government (including) components of the Canadian Forces Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART).”
• There are also reports that “a (Globemaster) transport plane and two Griffon search-and-rescue helicopters have been assigned to help with the relief efforts in Haiti.”  Canada has four Globemasters, so this suggests that if one has already left, one more may be getting ready to go.
• Two CF ships – HMCS Halifax and HMCS Athabaskan – are headed to Halifax to load up on “medical supplies, food, water purification tablets, construction materials and other equipment” to bring to Haiti.  “The two ships are expected to leave Thursday morning and will take about five days to reach Haiti, arriving Jan. 18 or 19.”

Safe travels to all the folks headed to Haiti to help out.

More, as I have time to plug it in.