UPDATED--A group of 52 Armenian emergency aid professionals are off to Haiti to assist in the rescue effort there. Haiti was hit by a powerful earthquake a few days ago measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale.
The Armenian government has been sending emergency relief workers to various places around the globe where natural disasters, namely earthquakes, have struck. If memory serves correctly the government even offered to send a team of experts to Turkey a couple of years ago when an earthquake hit there, but their assistance was refused. Armenian earthquake relief specialists are considered to be among the best in the world.
Personally I think it’s a wonderful thing that the team is headed there. Hopefully they will arrive in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, this weekend at the latest. Apparently they will fly there via Moscow.
Note: As of January 19, according to the Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations, the team had not yet been deployed to Haiti but remained on “high alert,” whatever that means. The alert for rescue and aid to Haiti can’t be any higher at the moment.
Photo credit: AFP
Actually, Azarutyoun Radio reported yesterday that the Armenian rescue team has not left for Haiti and it seems that no one in the government can categorically state if it will be dispatched or not.