‘Every Day Is a New Obstacle’
A pilot races to outfly changing needs
(01/28/2010) At dinner with a friend a few weeks ago, Jonathan Nash Glynn, who had recently decided to live full time at his house in Sag
 Jonathan Nash Glynn
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Harbor, wondered how he was going to fill his time during the winter here.
Then the earthquake in Haiti struck, and Mr. Glynn, a pilot who keeps his four-seater Cessna 172 at East Hampton Airport, found out.
Compelled by the enormous need for medical supplies and humanitarian help in the devastated country, Mr. Glynn flew to Florida and set about getting clearance to fly to Haiti and offer his help. And Christina Carter, the friend with whom he was musing, found herself embroiled, day and night, in the organizational end of things from her house in Southampton.
An artist and businessman who rents and sells properties in New York City, Miami Beach, and Sag Harbor, Mr. Glynn has used technology to keep friends apprised of his whereabouts, sending texts to Ms. Carter from his iPhone and posting updates on his Facebook page detailing up-to-the-minute needs in Haiti.
“Scroll back and you’ll get the story,” he wrote to a friend on Facebook. “Just had to go! Took 18 hours to get down here!”
“Every day is a new obstacle to overcome. Tomorrow scouting out the region north of here near a hospital . . . so I can shuttle supplies, doctors, etc. by plane and save them three hours of commuting time. Also they are in desperate need for more doctors and surgeons. Lots of amputations needed and I think it will get worse this week as more Haitians make it to the clinics.”
The members of his network — growing exponentially, especially since a new Facebook group, Friends of Jonathan Glynn, Helping in Haiti, was established this week — have, in turn, mobilized efforts to send supplies and put Mr. Glynn in contact with doctors, hospitals, orphanages, and other organizations that need help transporting people and equipment, as well as to raise money to help pay for his expenses.
After an intermediate stop on the Turks and Caicos Islands, he has been on the island of Hispaniola since Jan. 18, flying back and forth from the Dominican Republic to Haiti.
Because he is piloting a small plane, Mr. Glynn has been
able to land in hard-to-reach areas on small dirt airstrips, including some that have been hurriedly created since the Jan. 12 earthquake.
Many of his trips have been to Cap-Haitien and Jacmel, where there are orphanages supported by Help for Orphans International, a nonprofit, Los Angeles-based organization with which Ms. Carter is affiliated.
Mr. Glynn has also been coordinating his efforts with
other groups as varied as the Israeli Defense Forces and a Christian missionary group.
“BIG need for morphine here in the hospitals (or at lease oral narcotics). They are doing amputations without it,” Mr. Glynn reported on Friday. “That might be the single most important item to distribute now. Apparently there are quantities in Port-au-Prince but the Army has taken over and distribution is very slow. Pass the word.”
Earlier this week, exchanges on Facebook centered on his efforts to provide doctors in Jacmel with morphine and surgical supplies, such
as saws, blades, and surgical sponges, needed to do amputations.
As one person worked to locate the supplies and arranged for people to take them to the Dominican Republic, another provided details about regulations on shipping narcotics. Mr. Glynn replied with contact information for doctors to whom the drugs could be sent.
“Today urgent medical supplies are needed in Jacmel. I can pick up the supplies in Puerto Rico, Provo in Turks/Caico, or in Santo Domingo and will pay for them,” he wrote on Facebook on Sunday, listing the supplies needed. “Things change every day so this takes priority over the morphine,” he concluded in that post.
On Tuesday night, Ms. Carter received a text message from Mr. Glynn: “Tents are needed at a small orphanage southwest of Port-au-Prince. Looking for donated tents that my pilot friends Shasha and Vern might be able to deliver to me and I will get it to the orphanage and promise to send back pics of the children in their new ‘homes’ to the donor. Also, can’t thank Lily enough for arranging to get donated supplies including $2,500 worth of surgical saw blades to me in Puerto Rico tomorrow. The doctors in Jacmel were very pleased as sad as that is.”
“Transporting over $100,000 medical supplies over mountains now!” he wrote on Jan. 21. “Lots of obstacles crossing from Dominican Republic to Haiti . . . snail’s pace and very high fuel prices. But we did it!”
At times, Mr. Glynn’s primary challenge has been finding fuel for his plane. “Checked out potential new landing strip in unbelievably remote spot over 8,000-foot mountains near Jacmel,” he said in a Jan. 20 post. “Arranged for six doctors to a hospital in Port-au-Prince since I didn’t have enough fuel to get back to D.R. Working on transporting drums of fuel to Jacmel so I can shuttle people and supplies over the mountains.”
One day when no fuel was available, Mr. Glynn volunteered at a hospital, Ms. Carter said — a horrifying experience.
“Transported 140 gallons of gas in barrels to Barahona airport for my plane to cut cost and efficiency by 30 percent. Should give me to Friday flying four hours a day to transport supplies, doctors, and to scout out and get a crew to cut out a makeshift airstrip near Jiminy Hospital which could help a lot of people” was his post on Saturday.
“My costs are around $600 a day (have no idea what my cell bill is!). I have funds enough to Friday.”
“My own stash. Like gold,” he wrote after another successful effort to obtain fuel.
Conditions and day-to-day needs in Haiti have been changing rapidly. When arrangements were made for a certain doctor to fly in to meet him, Mr. Glynn wrote back: “Jake, maybe it’s better you don’t come now. Today saw an influx of too many doctors and medics but not enough available supplies and horrible working conditions. I took a surgeon around today and couldn’t get him work.”
“I think you should wait until the situation gets organized (it’s chaotic), and I can find something worthwhile for you to do. I’m trying to locate, pick up, and deliver surgical supplies and need all the weight in the plane for supplies and to conserve fuel for the next few days otherwise I’d have you join me.”
Mr. Glynn’s friends on Facebook have been watching out for and encouraging him, writing notes in which they call him an “angel” or a “hero.”
“I’m really run down,” he wrote last week while in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, waiting for fuel. “Too late to fly back before sunset. I finally hit the wall.”
“It’s rough but I’m lucky to be here at the right time,” he wrote in response to friends’ expressions of concern.
Her friend has been sleeping in his plane, or on people’s floors, Ms. Carter said. And, she said, “I don’t think he has an exit date in mind.”
Ms. Carter said donations can be made to support Mr. Glynn’s efforts in several ways: by sending a check, made out to Help for Orphans, directly to her at 425 Hampton Road, Unit 3, Southampton 11968, for deposit to the group’s account at a local Chase Bank branch, online through HelpforOrphans.org, or by sending money to Mr. Glynn’s PayPal account, details of which can be found on his Facebook page. Information about making a $5 donation through a text message can also be found there.