There are bound to be air pockets in slab buildings, but there is a lot of concrete to move, and not enough equipment to do it.

Still, you make the effort because there is always a chance.

It’s amazing that they are still finding survivors, especially children. They must make the kids tough there! 🙂 That helps spur on the rescue workers, not that the need it. But it’s easy to get disheartened in these situations. Very tough work.

It wasn’t designed as a military field, either, which is why the US just made a deal with the Dominican Republic to get landing rights at their San Isidro Air Base, which is 150 miles East of Port au Prince. It is the standard runway with parallel taxiway design that allows for high volume take-offs and landings.

Fortunately, the US is doing what they are asked in Haiti, and not trying to take over. They starting providing security to some sites after they were asked by the Haitian government and/or UN, rather than insisting on it.

It’s nice to know that they realized that people need to control their own fates and make their own decisions. The US needs to act like a friend, and not like a parent.

Even though there will be mistakes (an inevitability in an operation of this scale) what the US military are doing is definitely to be praised.

I checked around, especially looking at the airport that the Cubans built on Grenada, and that seems to be the predominant plan for Caribbean airports. The military builds a parallel taxiway, because that’s a quick way to expand an existing airport in an emergency.

The US paid for it under some program or another, and it was probably built by KBR.

There is a Navy amphibious group, that should have arrived recently that has the capability of putting a docking system, as well as having amphibious vehicles on board. So far the Marines have been coming in by helicopter.

I’ve seen several pictures that were labeled 82nd, but they looked like Marines to me, although most were too far away to see insignia or subdued patches.

The most effective way to get cargo in is by ship, but the port facilities got rubbelized pretty good. But surely the Navy has some landing craft that can land cargo onto beaches? Or are Marines supposed to walk on water nowdays too, along with all their other responsibilities?

– Badtux the Aquatic Penguin

They are looking at two other airports, with much shorter runways, from which C-130s might be able to operate, but nothing bigger. Only one of them is in Haiti, the other is in the Dominican Republic, and you still have the problem of the roads being barely adequate for large vehicles.

Setting up the drop zone for the C-17s is the best interim solution, and they can drop vehicles that way, or by rolling out the back in a zero level pass if there are no obstructions [basically not quite landing and rolling the cargo out the back door].

Haiti is a mountainous country, there isn’t a lot of flat land for airstrips.

I just checked and the airports they are contemplating using are both on the North coast, the Cap Haitien at 5000 feet and the Monte Cristi in the DR at 4000 feet. So they have to truck stuff from the North coast all the way to the South to get to Port au Prince.

The only criticism of the Bushmoron and his moronic evil minions was that he wasn’t evil enough! They would have been ecstatic if he’d nuked Iraq, iran and Afghanistan! The fact that it would have started WW3 would have just made them laugh. After all, the USA has Darth Cheney, Rambamby, da Gubbernator, Kapitain Amerika, De XXX-Men, Badman and Stupidman! Not to mention John Wayne (in spirit anyway) and the Loan Arranger. LMAO

You are a funny guy Mr Duff! (And I did need a laugh today… Thanks for the comic relief!)

PMSL