Joint Task Force-Haiti
U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) established Joint Task Force-Haiti 15 August 2021 to conduct U.S. military operations in support of U.S. foreign disaster assistance to the people of Haiti. The U.S. Navy utilized its ScanEagle unmanned air system and P-8 Poseidon aircraft to provide aerial images of earthquake devastated areas. The images will be used by experienced disaster relief planners to determine what relief capabilities and supplies are needed immediately and where.
Haiti was struck by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake on 14 August 2021. The earthquake occurred 78 miles (125 km) west of the capital city of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers). Perceived shaking for today’s earthquake was very strong to severe at the epicenter and weak to light in Port-au-Prince. More aftershocks than usual will continue to occur in the southern peninsula of Haiti. Aftershocks will decrease in frequency in the days, months, and years after the magnitude 7.2 main seismic event. During the first weeks there were hundreds of aftershocks large enough to be felt in this area.
Haiti’s earthquake event on August 14 was centered 13 kilometers (just over eight miles) south-southeast of Petit Troup de Nippes, and was widely felt across the region including all of Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic) and the islands of Jamaica, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, with estimates of over 1 million people exposed to very strong or severe shaking levels.
Landslides triggered by this earthquake are estimated to be significant in number and over a wide area, and there are a significant number of people living near areas that could have produced landslides. Preliminary landslide mapping from post-event satellite imagery revealed at least 150 landslides west of the town of L’Asile in Département des Nippes and hundreds of landslides in the mountains and south of Beaumont in Department de la Grand'Anse. Cloud cover obscured much of the satellite imagery, limiting the review area.
On 18 August 2021, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) dispatched a convoy transporting 3,000 hygiene kits, 2,500 blankets, 500 plastic sheets, 400 shelter repair kits, and safe drinking water. It left from Port-au-Prince and arrived in Les Cayes on Thursday. International aid workers began to distribute food at the Freres Unis school in Camp Perrin, a rural town where some 3,000 people displaced by the earthquake are taking refuge. The humanitarian assistance operation got a bit out of control as people wanted to quickly access the school to get rice, beans, and oil. As soon as the chaos began, however, armed policemen calmed the spirits of the people and took them out of the schoolyard. There was no violence in this action.
By 22 August 2021 the death toll from the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Haiti had climbed to 2,207, with 344 people missing, according to the country’s civil defence agency. The government said 12,268 people were injured and nearly 53,000 houses were destroyed by the earthquake. The increase in the death toll was the first since 18 August when the government put it at 2,189.
The death toll increased at a time when relief operations are expanding, and authorities were struggling with security at distribution points. Gangs hijacked aid trucks and even ambulances, forcing relief workers to transport supplies by helicopter. Recovery efforts had also been impeded by flooding and damage to access roads, feeding tensions in some of the hardest-hit areas. In places, desperate crowds scuffled over bags of food.
On 22 August, one of the capital’s most notorious gangsters announced in a social media video that his allied gangs had reached a truce and would assist in relief efforts. If that proved to be true, it might allow an acceleration of relief efforts. Jimmy Cherizier, alias “Barbecue”, leader of G9 Revolutionary Forces, addressed a Facebook video to the hardest-hit parts of Haiti’s southwestern peninsula. “We want to tell them that the G9 Revolutionary Forces and allies, all for one and one for all, sympathise with their pain and sorrows,” Cherizier said. “The Revolutionary Forces G9 and allies … will participate in the relief by bringing them help. We invite all compatriots to show solidarity with the victims by trying to share what little there is with them.”
The collapse of churches in some of the worst-affected towns and villages of the impoverished Caribbean nation left residents to grieve in open fields. In the hard-hit city of Les Cayes, some attended outdoor church services on Sunday because sanctuaries had been badly damaged by the earthquake, which was centred on the impoverished nation’s southwestern peninsula.
Aid delivery and rescue teams had been pouring into the country. Additionally, US aid organisation Samaritan’s Purse opened a field hospital in Les Cayes, one of the big cities in the worst-hit area, and took in its first patients. German aid organisation ISAR Germany has also sent a team of 33 doctors, nurses and orderlies, along with 11 tonnes of material. The disaster followed a devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed tens of thousands of people.
The USS Arlington arrived from the United States, with doctors, nurses, medical devices, two helicopters and 200 Marines. As of 10:00 AM EDT on 21 August 2021, Joint Task Force (JTF) Haiti conducted 170 missions, saved 319 people, and delivered almost 80,000lbs of vital aid, as Department of Defense capabilities join those from the U.S. Coast Guard (assets now under JTF-Haiti) to continue to rapidly respond to help the people of Haiti.
USS Arlington (LPD 24) arrived off the coast Haiti bringing Fleet Surgical Team 2 to provide advanced medical support, including operating room (OR) staff capable of providing surgical support, an intensive care unit (ICU) team, behavioral health providers, and a broad range of ancillary services to include additional radiology and laboratory technicians. Two (2) MH-60S helicopters, capable of transporting personnel and life-saving supplies as needed Approximately 200 Marines from 2d Marine Division (2d MARDIV), II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF) and a Landing Craft Utility (LCU).
The 10 helicopters supporting JTF Haiti, which are from JTF-Bravo (out of Honduras) and the Puerto Rico Army National Guard, continue to provide lifesaving support and transport disaster relief personnel and supplies.
Working with Allies / Partners: Colombia is supporting the life-saving efforts, including with a C-130, a Casa C-295, and other capabilities; UK Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Wave Knight remains stationed off the western most point of Haiti and is continuing to aid the lifesaving mission by facilitating refueling operations; French Frigate GERMINAL with helicopter onboard underway to assist; Dutch ship HOLLAND with helicopter underway to assist, expected soon.
Historically, U.S. military capabilities are needed most in the critical early stages of a disaster relief operation, when fewer resources, capabilities and disaster-response experts are available to help victims and impacted communities. As those disaster-relief missions progress and more experienced experts arrive to aid longer-term recovery and reconstruction, U.S. military capabilities are no longer requested, and roles previously performed by military units and troops are assumed by other, more experienced relief organizations.
SOUTHCOM has supported USAID/BHA-led disaster relief missions in Haiti in the aftermath of previous disasters, most recently in 2016, after the nation was struck by Hurricane Matthew. SOUTHCOM has also assisted Haiti in preparing for natural disasters with the construction of emergency operations centers, disaster relief warehouses, fire stations and community centers that double as shelters. The command has also previously donated search and rescue boats, as well as transport vehicles to Haitian emergency response and civil protection agencies.
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