Haiti - Evacuation

When I left Haiti, there were few options for getting out. The best option, it seemed, was the US Citizen Evacuation. According to the US Embassy web site, citizens just had to go directly to the airport and could get in line for evacuation flights. So I went. I naively imagined that I'd have to be flexible but that I'd be flown somewhere in southern Florida and have to fend for myself from there. When I got to the airport, I found out that even though I got to the airport at 10 am (after battling traffic through a nasty traffic jam where the UN was distributing food right next to the only road to the airport), they said there would maybe be an evacuation flight by 11 pm. Furthermore, they said that it could go anywhere in the US and that I would have to fill out a complicated form ("Emergency Loan Application and Evacuation Documentation"), which obviously from its title was more about the "Loan" than the evacuation. So the bottom line about evacuation is:

• you go wherever the flight happens to go, anywhere in the US


• you have no idea where you're going, until you go, and you have to commit to going before this step


• you pay full coach fare prior to the emergency for the route you finally end up taking


• you fill out a form that provides all your credit info so they can collect the full coach fare from you


• you may be strapped into the back of a C130 and flown to Anchorage for all you know, and charged thousands of dollars

Luckily, while I was waiting in line, a gentlement from Missionary Flights asked me if I felt lucky. "For about the last 5 seconds" I replied. To make a long story short, he offered to get me out of Haiti on one of their flights, after I and my luggage were weighed. We flew on a Locair charter, which didn't have enough fuel to make it to Florida without stopping to refuel in the Bahamas. It was a 19 passenger plane with 16 passengers, and we flew to Fort Pierce, FL (which does not have any services like taxis or rental cars, except for Hertz which offered cars at $146/day). Missionary Flights specializes in flying doctors and Christian missionaries into Haiti. I am quite grateful for their assistance.

From Fort Pierce, the 4 of us hitchhikers who made it onto the flight convinced the pilots to fly us back to Fort Lauderdale, where Locair is based. Thank goodness.