Haiti

(Sam) Another picture of Francois, our bodyguard/translator/guide. He was a pretty cool guy. He lost his mom and one or two siblings in the earthquake. His dad lost his job after the earthquake because his place of employment didn't survive the quake. Now Francois is the sole breadwinner for his family.

This is the site of liquefaction/lateral spreading. We came here on our first full day in Haiti. It felt hotter that day, it had just rained, we couldn't feel the wind down in the stream bed, we underestimated the amount of water we would need, and we were still getting used to everything. To top it off, the mud was super sticky, and I used all my strength trying to pull my leg out of knee deep mud, more than once. I think we all suffered from heat exhaustion that day.

This picture was taken on maybe the penultimate full day we were there. It is at a site right on the coast near the port. Some lateral spreading occurred here since the soil used here was more like a landfill and it is right on the coast. There are several large grain bins here that were under construction at the time the earthquake occurred. No construction has occurred since the quake, but guards were still there to protect the investment. (Anything of worth has to be guarded. All the wireless towers have security guards at them. Can you imagine how much your cell phone bill would be if the companies had to pay for a guard at every cell tower, 24/7?)

Anyway, I was taking notes in the logbook while the other guys were trying to measure the height of the bins. They told me how tall some bracing on the bins was, so I backed up so I could scale the height like the way we learned in boy scouts. I backed up and disappeared into this crack which was probably 2 feet wide and about 5 feet deep. You should have heard the panic in my advisor's voice as he saw me go a la Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade! I got some bumps and bruises and scratches and hurt my pride, but I was alright.