1,000 T-Shelters Sending 1K shelters to Haiti

PERMASHELTER TO BUILD 1,000 TRANSITIONAL SHELTERS IN HAITI
PermaShelter Division of Harbor Homes Eyes Hurricane Thomas/Prepares to Sail for Haiti

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 4, 2010 – There is a large barge and a tug boat moored to a pier at M.D. Moody & Son’s Shipyard on the Intracoastal Waterway under Atlantic Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida. The ship is laden with materials to construct a thousand transitional shelters (also known as T-Shelters or temporary shelters). This batch of relief housing represents a very small proportion of the transitional shelters that are desperately needed in Haiti, and Hurricane Tomas will certainly confound disaster relief efforts as it threatens to hit this devastated island nation yet again.

The PermaShelterTM barge has been loaded with the supplies to build a thousand transitional shelters along with the tools, equipment, and supplies to support the company’s activities in the region. According to Harbor Homes CEO Lucas Stewart, “We are transporting an entire manufacturing, delivery, and assembly operation to Haiti. PermaShelter S.A., our sister company in Haiti, will be establishing a manufacturing operation in La Gonave, which will employ as many as several hundred Haitians in the constructing of transitional and permanent structures in the country. On this ship alone we are transporting eight tractors, a surplus army truck, numerous shipping containers, four months worth of food, generators, a desalination plant, a ready-to-assemble factory building, and about half a dozen travel trailers. It’s really a site to behold.”

There is no rest for the weary. Harbor Homes is being engaged by several other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Haiti to build T-Shelters and other structures. The company has adopted an innovative approach to its operation on the Island of Gonave, which is located about 9 miles off the coast of mainland Haiti. According to Harbor Homes Vice President Matthew Batson, “We have acquired and modified a causeway, which is essentially a floating dock with impellers. The causeway will be laden with tractors and custom-fabricated trailers, each designed to transport the supplies for five complete transitional shelters. This will permit us to avoid traffic jams and poor road conditions for more rapid deployment of our relief housing to those who desperately need shelter.”

According to the National Weather Services’ National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida: there is a hurricane warning in effect for Haiti, with landfall expected late Thursday or early Friday morning. PermaShelterTM is waiting for calmer seas before departing with its badly needed cargo. “No one is served if something happens to our cargo at sea,” said Mr. Stewart. “We have been advised to wait out the storm before departing, and by the looks of the storm, that seems like prudent advice.”

The Harbor Homes family of companies includes PermaShelter, S.A., Intrepid Structures, and Outlast Emergency Products. Harbor Homes manufacturers, delivers, and assembles a wide range of disaster relief housing, field support structures, and other non-food item (NFI) relief supplies throughout the Caribbean, Central America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Contact:
Matt Williams
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1207 Sunset Drive
Thomasville, Georgia USA 31792
Ph: +229 234 2911
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