Halifax-based sailors, soldiers, hard at work in Haiti

Crew members from HMCS Halifax are now in Haiti, working to help the victims of last week’s earthquake.

The Canadian warship is anchored off the town of Jacmel, about 40 kilometres south of Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince.

Commander Josee Kurtz says the first work parties from Halifax went ashore on Tuesday to help with repairs and restoration.

“What my work parties are engaged in at the moment is to clear the rubble in the streets and the main arteries in downtown Jacmel.” she said. “Now we can start getting some of the movement in town, the roads cleared for delivery of human assistance relief.”

She says there’s a lot of devastation with many homes destroyed, forcing people to live in camps.

Kurtz says the townsfolk need pretty much everything, so Halifax’s crew put together their own version of a care package to deliver.

“The night baker baked all night, some bread buns,” she said. “We filled 100
3.5 litre jugs of water and we distributed some canned food as well.”

She says the weather’s been fine, but hot with the humidex reaching about 40 degrees Celcius.

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