I was on the road when I heard that Haiti had been hit by an earthquake of a magnitude in the range of the low 7’s, if I recall correctly I think I remembered 7.1 magnitude and that the quake epicenter was somewhere around 300 miles off shore. I was traveling that week and while juggling work, travel and this news I did not pay much attention to it at first. After all I had been in Los Angeles during the Northridge quake in 1994 and while that quake was “only” a 6.7 the epicenter was far closer to where I was at the time (about 8 miles as the crow flies) and so naturally with the epicenter of the Haiti quake having been several hundred miles away I assume that Haiti should be in far better condition than I later learned it was.
The day after the quake hit I had reached a destination where I would be for the next several days and i could devote time to my work and to following this story without being on the road. It seemed that the earthquake caused damage which to me watching the new coverage seemed to continue to grow. Every passing minute brought new information as to the devastation and later the desperation of the Haitian people. It did not seem like there was a single building still standing in Haiti. I watched as an interview took place with the President of Haiti, whose palace had collapsed. The president was at the airport along with hundreds of other people, he was disheveled and when asked where he would sleep that night he replied that he did not know. This was the President of the country they were interviewing and he had no food no change of clothes and was not sure where he would sleep that night. I thought to myself if this is how the President is how are the rest of the people of this country.
Over the days after the quake as more and more news flooded in about Haiti we learned how destructive this quake had been to the Port Au Prince capital and to the rest of the country. We learned about the trapped survivors slowing dying in their entombed dwellings. We learned about the dead and the lack of basic necessities as well as the lack of medical supplies. There was no central authority and seemingly no authority of any kind.
It was obvious that these people and this country would need massive and sustained assistance. We at GreenGeeks are proud to be a part of the Hosting Industry and probably our proudest week was this past week when rivals and competitors from all over our industry joined together to create HostingForHaiti.com a site that promotes contribution to the aid and redevelopment of Haiti. GreenGeeks is proud to be a part of HostingForHaiti.com and we have pledged to donate a dollar for every new web hosting account signed up in 2010.
We are proud of where we are as a company and we take pride in being able to reach within ourselves and offer aid to those in need.
Trey Gardner, CEO of GreenGeeks