In the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Haiti, the director general of the Dominican Post travelled to Port-au-Prince over the weekend to take stock of the situation and make contact with officials at the Haitian Post.
He made the 250-km journey from Santo Domingo with a small team.
In a message to the UPU, Modesto Guzman said there were no words to describe what he saw and qualified the scenes as “Dantesque”.
He confirmed that both the main post office in Port-au-Prince and the building housing the EMS service – the Post’s premium express service – were “completely destroyed”.
Guzman met with the Haitian Post’s director general, Margarette Kettly Emile, who luckily survived the earthquake. She had left her office about 10 minutes before the catastrophe occurred.
Postal employees are among the casualties, but no official figure is available yet.
Guzman and his team returned to their country the same day. The Dominican Post has offered to facilitate the transportation of donations – clothing, food and medical supplies, for example – to Haiti, due to its close proximity.
Discussions are ongoing at the UPU International Bureau, in association with postal experts around the world, to coordinate global postal efforts to help Haiti.