Mary's Boss

Michael Barringer-Mills is Mary's immediate boss at the American Refugee Committee.


Minn. Man Helps Coordinate Haiti Relief
Reporting
Holly Wagner
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (WCCO) ―

A Minnesotan helping coordinate relief efforts on the ground in Haiti says he has never seen anything to compare to the devastation he sees there.

Monte Achenbach and his co-worker Michael Barringer-Mills are with the American Refugee Committee, and are trained to respond to natural disasters. They have responded to emergencies all over the world.

"This is a city I use to move around freely and really enjoy this place, and it's crushing to see what's happened to it," said Achenbach Monday morning, calling from a satellite phone he took to Port-Au-Prince.

Achenbach said they are set up close to an area where the military is bringing in supplies. The sounds of helicopters and cargo planes make it tough to sleep.

He said they have access to fresh water but food is harder to come by. Worse still, he says, is the smell hanging in the air, which is a real marker of the tragedy.

"Everyone has things stuffed up in their nostrils or they have a lotion that they put beneath their nose so that it masks the smell," he said. "It really is the smell of decay and destruction."

Logistically, it remains difficult to get people the food, water, and medical care they desperately need, which is why he says he is there. He spends his days coordinating these relief efforts and listening to the stories of the survivors.

"People are burying their own families," he said. "I ran into one man -- an educated, well-spoken guy -- who said that his entire family of seven were lost. He had spent the last two days burying them himself."

Achenbach used to live in Haiti, and lost two friends when the U.N. headquarters collapsed.

"To be honest I don't know that I'm dealing with it very well, and I think I'm kind of delaying the processing of everything that I'm seeing and what I'm going through," he said, emphasizing his concentration on doing whatever he can to make life easier for the earthquake's survivors. "I think that commitment is what's keeping me going right now."

The American Refugee Committee planned to have Achenbach and Barringer-Mills stay for two weeks initially and then planned to send another team in. Now it looks like their stay will be longer than planned.