Yesterday morning, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti just 14 miles outside of Port-au-Prince. Today, Haitian officials estimate that the number of dead could be in the several hundred thousand. To put that into perspective, it would be as if Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast region more than fifty times over. It would be as if the tsunami that ravaged fourteen countries in Southeast Asia in December 2004 landed less than 700 miles off the coast of Florida. It would be as if roughly one-third to one-half the population of Tucson vanished in a single moment.
But really, there’s no way to truly grasp the loss of life on that scale.
Apparently, Obama’s committed to giving “aggressively” to relief efforts in Haiti, although I’m not sure how one exactly gives “aggressively”. But, you can do your part to help disaster efforts:
- Donate $10 to the American Red Cross International Relief Fund. You can donate online, or specify your donation to the disaster relief in Haiti by texting “HAITI” to 90999 on your cell phone. If you choose the texting option, you are making a one-time donation via mGive.com, which directs 100% of your donation to the American Red Cross. The amount will appear on your next cellphone bill. If you would like to publicize this option on your blog, feel free to use this button I made for my site.
- Donate to any of the agencies verified by InterAction as conducting relief efforts in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti.
- Become a blood donor.
I chose the texting option because it seems to be the most direct way to specify my donation for disaster relief in Haiti. Please post a comment here if you donate to receive good karma from … well… me.
