Twin Cities groups that work in Haiti were scrambling today to reach their contacts in the earthquake-shattered country, asking for donations but still largely in the dark about what will be needed most in the coming days and weeks.
While telephone service had largely collapsed, e-mails continued to get through, aid representatives said.
"I got an e-mail from our country director, saying he was OK, but we still don't know about the rest of the staff," said Dale Snyder, executive director of Haiti Outreach, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that has been developing water projects there for the past 12 years. "The sun's just come up, so it's going to take time to figure out what we should be doing."
The organization is taking donations at its website: haitioutreach.org
The Minneapolis-based American Refugee Committee (www.arcrelief.org) announced today that it will dispatch an emergency response team to Haiti as soon as possible and is soliciting donations for relief. Monte Achenbach, the committee's senior director of programs who has lived and worked in Haiti, will lead the team.
Achenbach said members of the organization's team hope to provide medical assistance, electricity and communications help.
At least four Twin Cities parishes of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota have been working for several years in Haiti, part of the denomination's Episcopal Relief Development organization (er-d.org), which has established a Haiti earthquake relief fund.
"With the hurricanes and landslides, we've built tons of schools and clinics over the years," said the Rev. James Jelinek, bishop of the diocese, who visited Haiti in late 2008.