There is a natural inclination to mark significant dates and events in convenient increments of time (one month…six months… one year anniversary). In this way, we afford ourselves the distance, and the perspective to attend to other priorities. And, when you are in the business of responding to emergencies at home and abroad, the list of priorities never ends. Nearly two months after the Haiti earthquake, another one strikes in Chile. And just this morning, halfway around the world in Turkey, a 6.0 earthquake ripped through Turkey.

With this level of activity; vigilance cannot be sustained with heartfelt sentiment alone. There will always be the next “big thing” coming down the line.

In Haiti, the next big thing is the rainy season- less than a month away. And with the rainy season comes a greater urgency for sheltering and for disease control. According to the latest news from our headquarters in Washington DC, the Red Cross is well on its way to providing emergency shelter supplies- tents, tarps, and tools- for 400,000 people, which is one third of the people estimated to need shelter. There is also a great effort being made to find transitional housing for victims to make more room in the emergency shelter camps. Limited land availability is becoming a factor in this.

International Federation shelter specialists working against the clock to begin construction of replacement housing finalized the blueprint for a “core” or relief wood-frame house and a mock-up that was built in 24 hours. Photo: Jose Manuel Jimenez/IFRC

The American Red Cross Measles Initiative (a program which we all have a stake in through our local support) is active throughout Haiti as measles outbreaks have already been reported. The Red Cross has managed to vaccinate 60,000 Haitians for diseases like measles, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (“whooping cough”). But the incidence of these diseases has spiked and is expected to continue to rise in the crowded shelter camps where people will be spending even more time huddled indoors when the rains come.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross is looking ahead at long term recovery projects in Haiti centered on rebuilding water and sanitation facilities.

So what comes next? That is a loaded question.