Oregon Public Broadcasting

Two aid workers who’ve been helping with earthquake relief in Haiti have just returned to Portland. April Baer reports.

Matt Turkington with Medical Teams International thinks he left for Haiti about ten days ago. But standing by the baggage claim at PDX, he confessed it was hard to keep track after so many sixteen hour shifts.

Turkington says  that while there’s no shortage of volunteers, the logistics of Haiti relief are still daunting.

Matt Turkington “I’d get emails saying, ‘I really want to come and help! I really want to come and help!’ And I’d say, don’t! There’s not clean water, unless you have a filter system, there’s not food unless you bring your own. There’s security issues. A lot of people want to help, but it’s still a very very tough situation to go into.”

Turkington was coordinating operations at a hospital facility that was dealing with hundreds of people with compound fractures and crushed limbs.

He says he saw kids bleeding from injuries they got in riots.

Turkington says it’s still very difficult to move food into the country, because of poor roads and vehicles.

Counting staff and volunteers, Medical Teams International has 27 people still there.