From Staff Reports

The Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti, already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has prompted an outpouring of humanitarian efforts by residents of Asheville and Western North Carolina.

The massive earthquake nearly destroyed the capital city and killed an estimated 200,000 people.

In the aftermath, the dead are being buried, some of the many wounded are receiving medical care and food and water are scarce, prompting looting and violence.

Following are some of the highlights of local relief efforts:

• White Horse Black Mountain will host the Help Heal Haiti benefit concert 7-11:30 p.m. Feb. 6 and 2-6 p.m. Feb. 7. All proceeds will benefit Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods, or SOIL, a nonprofit in Haiti dedicated to soil resources.

Musicians will include David Holt, Kat Williams, Akira Satake, Nikkie Talley, Sons of Ralph, Menage, Paco Shipp, Sirius.B, Taylor Martin’s Engine, RiYen Roots, Jesse Barry and Skinny Legs and All, Kimberly Hughes and Richard Inman.

Tickets, which cost $15 for one day, $25 for both days, may be purchased at the club at 105-C Montreat Road. For more information, visit www.helphealhaitibenefit.com, or call 669-0816.

• Café String Quartet and French Broad Chocolate Lounge have joined forces for the Help for Haiti benefit 7-9 p.m. Feb. 16.

Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to Mercy Corps, www.mercycorps.org. The benefit will be in the newly opened second floor of the French Broad Chocolate Lounge at 10 S. Lexington Ave. Artisan chocolates will be free to attendees. A raffle for a special occasion cake is included. Ticket prices are on a sliding scale, from $10 to $20, and may be purchased at the door.

The music will be provided by French and Latin and Provided by the Café String Quarter. For more information, call 252-4181.

• Park Ridge Hospital in Fletcher announced that it is sending four surgical teams to Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, to assist with the overwhelming medical and srugical needs in the wake of the earthquake.

The team of about 16 anesthesiologists, orthopedic and general surgeons, and nurses were to land Jan. 29 in Port-au-Prince, where they will work at Hospital Adventiste d’Haiti, Park Ridge’s sister hospital.

The team, which also include physicians from Mission Hospital in Asheville and Haywood Regional Medical Center, are bringing donations, medication and supplies, along with more than 1,000 sleeping mats donated by the community. AirTran Airways donated flights for the 16 team members to Orlando, where they will fly on a plane donated by Hendricks Motorsports to Haiti.

• A team from Sisters of Mercy Urgent Care, based in Asheville, is planning to go to a suburb of Port-au-Prince on Feb. 4 with the Baptist Men to provide medical care and bring supplies.

• Sarah Rideout, the head nurse at Christ School in Arden, plans to travel to Haiti during the school’s spring break and is collecting supplies and medicine from local doctors’ offices. Rideout, who has worked in disaster relief in Africa, said she wants to help as much as possible.

• Groce United Methodist Church in Asheville is serving as a collection point for health kits that contain a new hand towel, wash towel, toothbrush, bar of soap, adhesive bandages and other items. By Jan. 27, GUMC had assembled and dropped off for shipment 1,600 kits.

• Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden collected around $27,000 in donations for aid organizations, Baptist Global Response and Samaritan’s Purse.

BBC, which has two member of the church — Cody and Maria Whittaker — serving since October in a mission in Haiti to work with orphans, plans to send a team to help out in June.

• The Asheville disaster relief agency Hearts With Hands, a nonprofit, has set up a collection point in the center court of Biltmore Square Mall, where a pile of supplies is growing steadily larger. Items dropped off include, among others, canned food, personal hygiene items, crutches, medical supplies, tarps and sleeping mats.

Hearts With Hands will continue collecting donations at the mall through Feb. 3, but the organization needs funds to help with the shipping costs.

Before their trip, relief workers traveling to Haiti need to remember to have proper vaccinations and ensure that they have their own supplies of food, water and protective equipment, area health officials say.

Some Americans have been ill-prepared when they went to Haiti, requiring people to have to help them, according to Sue Ellen Morrison, disease control specialist with the Buncombe County Department of Health.

To that end, she said the county clinic has increased the number of appoints it has available to relief workers, even double-booking and overbooking appointments to try to meet the increased demand.

Dr. James Whitehouse of Asheville Infectious Disease said two weeks should ensure full immunity, but it is not the requisite period for all vaccinations . He said all people traveling to Haiti should get immunized, regardless of when they are leaving