Donated supplies sit waiting for trip to Haiti

Over the last three weeks, Wesley Gabbard has collected enough antibiotics to treat hundreds of Haitian earthquake victims. He just doesn't know how to get the supplies to them.

"We just want to help," said Gabbard, a nephrologist at the Renal Hypertension Center in Clearwater. "It's frustrating, having been from New Orleans before (Hurricane) Katrina and seeing how things stymied there. It kind of feels similar."

Donated goods are accumulating at some local businesses because of costs and logistics problems. Gabbard said he has contacted large organizations for help to no avail. "If we find a way to get it there, we're so happy to give it," Gabbard said of the antibiotics, gauze, bandages and intravenous collected.

Soon after the Jan. 28 quake, agencies such as the American Red Cross and Salvation Army said the most efficient, flexible method to help was to give cash.

Roads, ports and infrastructure were destroyed by the quake. Getting boxes to Haiti, storing them and distributing supplies on a large scale is difficult, said Steve Dick, development director of The Salvation Army of Florida.

Aid workers in Port-au-Prince have said red tape, transportation bottlenecks, corruption and a fear of violence has slowed the distribution of supplies.

Other organizations have found ways around stalled shipping lanes or grounded flights. Local Haitian and Caribbean associations go through Mango Radio, a Tampa Bay area station, to collect and distribute supplies. They have united under Tampa Bay For Haiti, which has agreements with ministries and missions that have been in Haiti for years. There is no logjam; supplies are shipped every other week or so, said Mango Radio's general manager, Joe Lespinasse.

Norma Fontaine-Philbert, pastor of Garden of Grace Ministries in Riverview, started a donation drive hours after the 7.0-magnitude quake struck. She said donations are rolling in and are shipped out because of an arrangement she has with a freight shipping company. "There has been an overwhelming response," she said.

American Red Cross officials ask people not to collect goods unless they know a reliable way of getting them to Haiti. "Find the organization that is on the ground that can distribute it and house it down there," said Janet McGuire, Red Cross disaster coordinator in Tampa. "These people are going to need things for a very long time. Things will open up later on, but not right now."