Opening the Roads in Haiti

Click the map to the right to open. The yellow is the road from Port-au-Prince west to Carrefour, west to Gressier, southwest to Leogane, and southeast around the epicenter to Jacmel.

North Port-au-Prince is where the 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division is operating, starting from the airport to the north and working south. The roads highlighted in yellow are the priority roads that are being opened with engineering equipment from the airport.

USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44) sent teams ashore at Killick Haitian Coast Guard base in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Carrefour. There have been reports of obstructions on the main road #200 throughout Carrefour. There were an estimate 400,000 people in Carrefour before the earthquake.

USS Bataan (LHD 5) is supporting Marine operations off the large area of Leogane, very near the epicenter of the 7.0 earthquake. 80% of the houses in the greater Leogane have reported to have been destroyed by the earthquake. The town and greater surrounding area supposedly had around 130,000 people before the earthquake, but the early estimates of dead in the area by NGOs first working the area is 25,000-30,000, yet to be confirmed. Several NGOs have a medical station or relief distribution station set up there, and the UN had a base there.

The Canadians are already ashore and working in Leogane. Another Canadian group is in Jacmel. After the earthquake there was a report the road from Leogane to Jacmel blocked with landslides at 18°23.938’ -72°38.277’ (just north of the turn off to Trouin and Baudin). The Canadians intend to open that road to connect Jacmel to Leogane. There is a small airfield in Jacmel, and the population of Jacmel is around 40,000, making it the 4th largest city in Haiti before the earthquake.

Presumably the Marines intend to open the road from Leogane back to Port-au-Prince, and open roads to the surrounding suburbs of Leogane, Gressier, and Carrefore. That won't be easy, for example the bridge at Dufort, about 10km west of the epicenter, is reported to be down.

There are additional naval forces globally responding to Haiti as follows:

Netherlands
HNLMS Pelikaan (A804)

Canada
HMCS Halifax (FFH 330)
HMCS Athabaskan (DDH 282)

Italy
MMI Cavour (550) (arrival 29th)

France
FNS Siroco (L 9012)
FNS Francis Garnier (L 9031)

Mexico
Hospital ship Huasteco
ARM Papaloapan

Spain
SNS Castilla (L52) (arrival after 29th)

Venezuela
2 naval transport vessels?

Brazil
1 ship?

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Notes

It is very noteworthy that no ship of the Royal Navy has been dispatched to Haiti, considering the interests the British claim in the Caribbean Sea. How much longer before the MoD asks the Admiralty to take the red and blue colors out of the White Ensign? That would be a joke, if it was funny.

The KMZ file I used in Google Earth for the map above can be obtained from Google here. It is updated following the earthquake and has a few overlays of interest. A browser embedded version of the viewer can be found here.