Back From Haiti, Councilman Says: 'It was horrible. I saw dead people.'

On Monday, 14th District Councilman Fernando Cabrera, his daughter and about a dozen other people from the Bronx chapter of the Latin and African-American Chaplain's Association (LACA) boarded a JetBlue flight to the Dominican Republic, carrying big bags and suitcases full of emergency supplies: antibiotics, bandages, baby food and more.

On Tuesday, at 1 a.m., the crew loaded themselves and the supplies into a 12-passenger van and a jeep and made the seven-and-a-half-hour trip to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. What Cabrera saw was total devastation.

"It was like if you walked down Broadway and every other building or more were completely destroyed," he said, in a phone interview this afternoon, his voice hoarse with sickness and exhaustion.

"It was horrible," he said. "I saw dead people. One house was crushed. There was a girl, you could tell she almost made it out because her hand was sticking out."

Cabrera said more and more locals are flocking to the area's hospitals. The most immediate problem, he said, is a lack of supplies. Amputations and C-sections are being performed without anesthesia. He said the supplies are there, but they're not getting to the hospitals.

This may have something to do with a fuel shortage that forces motorists to wait in lines at the few working gas stations for hours. In order to get back to the D.R., Cabrera said they paid someone $10 for a gallon of gas.

Port-au-Prince is also in desperate need of more skilled physicians. He said his church, New Life Outreach International and LACA are raising money to sponsor the stays of qualified doctors. For just $7,000, Cabrera said, they can pay for 15 doctors to be in the disaster zone for a month.

Through fundraising at the church and elsewhere, Cabrera said LACA is bringing in $3 million in supplies for the relief efforts.

For more information and/or to donate to the cause, you can call New Life at 718-562-2230 or LACA, at 718-842-8555. They will provide you with more information about how to donate.

You can also donate to the Red Cross's efforts at redcross.org, or you can just donate $10 to the Red Cross by texting "Haiti" to 90999.