My name is Conor Shapiro and I am a US citizen and general director of the St. Boniface Hospital in Fond des Blancs, Haiti. I wanted to send everyone a quick update of the situation on the ground as we see it.

As you all know by now, Port-Au-Prince other surrounding environs has been hit by a strong earthquake that has devastated the city and surrounding communities. At the time of the earthquake, I was in my office at the hospital in Fond des Blancs, about 65 miles from Port-Au-Prince. The shaking was quite serious, but we did not sustain much damage at the hospital or in the village. However, as soon as I heard that the epicenter was in Port-Au-Prince and couldn't get in e-mail contact I rushed with other employees to find our families.

Our family house is located in Delmas, in one of the hardest hit areas of Port-Au-Prince. My wife Lise (who is four months pregnant) and daughter Lisa (6 years old) were able to e-mail me to say they were unharmed, but I wanted to evacuate them as soon as possible. Due to road damage we weren't able to get into the city until yesterday morning and I was lucky to be able to get my family back to FdB. The roads from Port-Au-Prince along the southern coastline are extremely tenuous and many bridges are cracked and ready to fall. At one point we had to run across a bridge as a family while our vehicle and driver raced across to avoid it collapsing under our weight. We arrived in Fond des Blancs safely last night and are doing ok.

The scene in Port-Au-Prince is just inconceivable. Almost every building has major structural damage and most large buildings have collapsed. Bodies line the streets and millions of people are walking with nowhere to go. As of yesterday afternoon, there were no aid organizations that I could see and the suffering is just unbelievable. There needs to be a massive aid effort to restore order (I saw random incidents of mass hysteria), feed people, and get clean water to the population. Large refugee camps need to be set up throughout the city and it will be important to have security forces that can restore order, especially as time goes on. There also needs to be a huge effort to evacuate people who were injured by falling debris and concrete.

In Fond des Blancs, we have a functioning operating room, but need an orthopedic surgeon, supplies, gas (diesel and gasoline)and water as soon as possible. If anyone has contacts with the military, they can feel free to land by helicopter at a field within a ¼ mile of the hospital and deliver what is needed, so that we can start operating. *I would also like to evacuate a visiting American group of 10 people as well as 3 members of my family including my pregnant wife, daughter and nephew. If you don't have contacts in the military, please feel free to donate funding to our organization at www.haitihealth.org. We will need financial help to deal with the aftermath as time goes on.

Please forward this document to anyone you think can help. Thank you and please e-mail at conorshap@yahoo.com if you have any questions or need further information in terms of getting the help that I have requested.

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