Posted on 01/15/2010 1:56:18 AM PST by PoliticalEthics
On Tuesday night, devastation struck the island of Haiti. As soon as news broke, Tom Garcia, candidate for Congress in Florida’s 24th district, got in touch with other candidates across the state and established a coalition for Haitian relief. The candidates discussed a strategy for relief for half of the night. At 1:00 am, the plan was finalized, Garcia had located a water purification expert who had led other disaster relief missions, a Cessna was filled with high-level purifiers and the two flew into Port au Prince.
Touching ground, Garcia, a former naval commander, spent the first day distributing food and medicine to locals. On the second day, after the blockade around the airport was lifted, Garcia set out to purify drinking water for hundreds of civilians. Traveling throughout the greater Port au Prince area, Garcia came across a three room medical clinic that was still function, but had lost power. Connecting four car batteries and an inverter, Garcia reestablished power to the clinic, thereby helping hundreds of people receive medical care.
The other co-chairs of the statewide initiative are Bernard Sansaricq, a renown human rights leader who has fought for decades to end child slavery and improve living conditions across the board, business innovator Ed Lynch, who is widely credited with the resignation of Robert Wexler, and Yomin Postelnik, a business and non-profit development leader and conservative stalwart who established a relief hotline and coordinated with volunteers on the ground.
Sansaricq is running to unseat Alcee Hastings, Lynch is running to replace Wexler and is slated to address CPAC as one of the GOP’s top new candidates. Postelnik is running for state house and has recently been endorsed by Major General Paul Vallely and numerous other conservative leaders. All have praised the heroic efforts of Commander Tom Garcia, issuing a joint statement saying “all Americans and fellow candidates can be proud of the heroic efforts of Tom Garcia, who risked his life to bring relief to thousands of people. Commander Garcia exudes the type of leadership that America needs now more than ever.”
For more information visit www.garcia4congress.com
deeds. words, yes. but these deeds saved lives, I’ll reckon.
Here’s a small update from Tom Garcia, forwarded by one of his staff (typed by him very quickly on an iphone or blackberry):
Since we got here, we have purified hundreds of gallons of water for a village of women and orphans. The quake had tossed backup battery power supplies all over and I was able to reconnect the lead acid batteries and get power back to the medical clinic while others hunted for fuel for the generator. We got the generator running again by late afternoon which not only supplied power for the water purifiers to keep running, but also recharge the batteries.
Late last night we had two pretty big tremors. Each day we find more cracks in the homes here in the village.
Two of the buildings had been sealed shut simply by the weight of the the walls on the steel entry doors. I was able to open one door with a small crowbar and a little muscle power, and the other by freeing the door latch with a cinder block. The second door opened to a store room full of food and baby formula.
Of course Florida Today won’t mention that Tom Garcia is running for Congress, just that Tom Garcia’s a hero. We can’t have Suzanne Kosmas getting all hot under the collar now can we?
Git er done.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.