Safety/security consultant, churches team for Haiti relief

GAINESVILLE - A safety and security consulting firm from Gainesville has joined with several ministries and businesses to provide relief for earthquake victims in Haiti.

Eagle Watch Investigations' Catastrophe Response Division usually provides business-related consulting, security and emergency management resources.

But owner Hal Lowder is donating his business resources to the other groups which include three northeast Georgia churches: The Rock Church in Flowery Branch and Cleveland and Word of Faith Church in Buford, as well at Impact International Ministries in Bristol, Va., and Consign and Design Interiors,
and others to form a coalition of catastrophe responders.

"I had several people contact me, knowing of our other responses to Katrina, Rita, Wilma and other disasters and said that besides giving money, they actually wanted to do more, so we put together this group," Lowder said.

Lowder said he has a contact with a minister in Haiti that has trucks, warehouses and staff that we can get these items into. Clearances to get into the country have also been done.

"What we have found out is that if we have someone on the ground ready to run with this stuff, we can avoid the bottleneck at the airport and get this stuff
straight from the plane to the field. Right now our immediate goal is to get
water, peanut butter, cereal, protein bars, baby formula and survival
blankets on the ground. We have a warehouse here and several drop off
points."

Lowder said this is a long term relationship with this group in Haiti.

"We want to keep them alive for now, but help teach them to recover. We
are using the special forces small force tactic: we want to insert a small
team that is cross-trained in medical, security, rescue and problem solving
that will be able to instruct and help train the missionaries on the ground
to work as first responders. We will have to pack our own food and water
in, so teams will have to be small to be mobile, self sufficient and must
able to multi-task."

Lowder adds that this is the worst disaster he has ever seen.

"Our Pastor on the ground has schools, churches and orphanages and they have bodies trapped in the rubble and are trying to dig with shovels and their hands."

Immediate needs are: cases of water, peanut butter, cereal, protein bars,
baby formula and survival blankets. These items can be dropped off at The
Rock Church in Flowery Branch, The Rock Church in Cleveland,
Consign and Design Interiors in Flowery Branch and Smokin' Gold
BBQ in Dahlonega and Greene Ford in Gainesville.

"We are also working on larger, more long term items that would be carried in by ship. We need everything from a skid loader, backhoe to dig out bodies to shovels to basic needs for the long haul. Our biggest problem is finding aircraft to insert our teams and equipment. We do have some resources, but that means trucking it to Florida, and cargo planes are not cheap. Long term plans are to insert mission workers, EMTs, rescue personnel and emergency responders to do a short tour to assist and train about basic medical care and water purification. We also need drop off points."

Lowder also has ties to Haiti, "my dad worked and lived there for several years
in the apparel industry." Hal has experience from Hurricane Hugo to Katrina
and has worked in medical missions in Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, floods and
other natural catastrophes as well as the Persian Gulf.

For more information contact Hal Lowder at 770-287-7694 or
[email protected] or eaglewatchministries.com. Hal can also be
contacted through therockchurchfb.com on the contact us page. Any money
donated will go through The Rock Ministry or Impact International Ministries.