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After three weeks of emergency service in Haiti, Herkimer County Coroner Daniel Enea returned home Monday.
Several family members and friends, whom he had little contact for the duration of the trip, greeted him at Hancock Airport in Syracuse.
Having returned from the small Caribbean island that was devastated Jan. 12 by an earthquake, Enea said his journey’s depth didn’t become real until seeing home.
“A lot of people say you appreciate things more,” he said in a phone interview, “but when you go to a place like this; you really, really appreciate what you have.”
Enea said he arrived Jan . 17 in Haiti, having flown from Syracuse to Santo Domingo.
He was part of a disaster management team, through Kenyon International Emergency Services. Shortly after arriving, the team drove to the capital city, Port-au-Prince, which the earthquake basically reduced to rubble, Enea said.
Being among some of the early emergency responders, the group had to be completely self-sufficient. Enea said he hadn’t experienced anything like the complete lack of infrastructure.
“It was different from other disasters,” he said, referring to his prior service following Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast of the U.S. “Being in Haiti, they didn’t have anything to start with,” he said. [And now] there’s nothing,” he added. “The first couple of days were kind of nervous.”
Adding to the distressed situation, the team -consisting of a global mixture of professionals dealing in recovery and identification following disasters - was in Haiti for the aftershock earthquake that struck Jan. 20.
Enea’s family and friends had been frantically trying to get in touch with him after news of the aftershock. Having just served a night shift, Enea said the morning aftershock quake didn’t really register with him at first. “I thought I was just tired,” he said, “I thought now things are shaking.”
After reaching safety with some fellow team members, he was able to use a journalist’s computer to send an e-mail saying “everything’s OK.”
Aside from the aftershock, however, Enea said his team basically did their jobs.
Joining the military personnel and numerous relief organization, the Kenyon International recovery and identification crews performed another task required in getting Haiti back up and running. “Everyone is definitely doing their jobs,” Enea said of the relief effort. The emergency services were distributing necessities in an efficient manner by the time his team was leaving, he said. Unfortunately, the infrastructure repairs seemed long off. “As far as building, that’s a whole different story,” he added.
But still the people of Haiti people showed their appreciation for the help and proved to be resilient in character, Enea said. “You wonder how people can survive,” he said. “But they just kept doing what they had to do to get by.”
After three weeks of emergency service in Haiti, Herkimer County Coroner Daniel Enea returned home Monday.
Several family members and friends, whom he had little contact for the duration of the trip, greeted him at Hancock Airport in Syracuse.
Having returned from the small Caribbean island that was devastated Jan. 12 by an earthquake, Enea said his journey’s depth didn’t become real until seeing home.
“A lot of people say you appreciate things more,” he said in a phone interview, “but when you go to a place like this; you really, really appreciate what you have.”
Enea said he arrived Jan . 17 in Haiti, having flown from Syracuse to Santo Domingo.
He was part of a disaster management team, through Kenyon International Emergency Services. Shortly after arriving, the team drove to the capital city, Port-au-Prince, which the earthquake basically reduced to rubble, Enea said.
Being among some of the early emergency responders, the group had to be completely self-sufficient. Enea said he hadn’t experienced anything like the complete lack of infrastructure.
“It was different from other disasters,” he said, referring to his prior service following Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast of the U.S. “Being in Haiti, they didn’t have anything to start with,” he said. [And now] there’s nothing,” he added. “The first couple of days were kind of nervous.”
Adding to the distressed situation, the team -consisting of a global mixture of professionals dealing in recovery and identification following disasters - was in Haiti for the aftershock earthquake that struck Jan. 20.
Enea’s family and friends had been frantically trying to get in touch with him after news of the aftershock. Having just served a night shift, Enea said the morning aftershock quake didn’t really register with him at first. “I thought I was just tired,” he said, “I thought now things are shaking.”
After reaching safety with some fellow team members, he was able to use a journalist’s computer to send an e-mail saying “everything’s OK.”
Aside from the aftershock, however, Enea said his team basically did their jobs.
Joining the military personnel and numerous relief organization, the Kenyon International recovery and identification crews performed another task required in getting Haiti back up and running. “Everyone is definitely doing their jobs,” Enea said of the relief effort. The emergency services were distributing necessities in an efficient manner by the time his team was leaving, he said. Unfortunately, the infrastructure repairs seemed long off. “As far as building, that’s a whole different story,” he added.
But still the people of Haiti people showed their appreciation for the help and proved to be resilient in character, Enea said. “You wonder how people can survive,” he said. “But they just kept doing what they had to do to get by.”
