It was 2:00 a.m. Wednesday morning when Craig Miller made the decision to put his operation on the ground in Haiti, immediately. Miller had watched the reports stream in throughout the night and, amazingly, managed two Facebook chats with one of his medical contacts working amid the rubble. When the magnitude of the catastrophe became clear, Miller did what he always does: he went into action, jumping right into the middle of disaster.

Miller is the co-founder and president of Thirst No More, a disaster relief organization with a history of moving into global trouble spots. Miller led efforts in Darfur-Sudan, the Myanmar cyclone, the Asian tsunami, and hurricanes Katrina and Ike, to name a few. These spur-of-the moment firestorms are almost routine. “When Craig decides to go,” said Vicky Miller, Craig’s wife, “we hit assembly line mode and can have him ready for an international trip in a few hours, complete with thermos-o-coffee as he heads out the door.”

Miller will arrive in the Dominican Republic at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday. A heavy duty SUV will be waiting for him, and he will first attempt to secure supplies for the medical team he was in contact with via Facebook.

That team has already had five children die, and they have no way to care for the survivors anymore because they have completely run out of medical supplies. There is no certainty he will be able to get to them in time, but “if I don’t try, I know for sure they won’t have the supplies they need,” Miller said.

Miller will visit several warehouses, gathering provisions for 1,000 PAKS, kits providing basics such as beans, rice, cooking utensils, soap, flashlights and matches. “They need the three essentials,” said Miller, “food, fire and light.” Thirst No More is also working to secure a container of tarps to be shipped into Port Au Prince. Tarps are needed because of the grim reality: “We need tarps for shelters because there is no way they can build the kind of shelter they need for that many people.”

Miller has two satellite phones and plans to offer reports to HalogenTV.com as often as he is able. He will work in the day and then hunker down at night, hopefully where he has Internet access and can send pictures of his work. Miller is not sure how long he will be there, anywhere from 10 days to two months (though he is supposed to be in Zimbabwe on a water project next week). However, the Thirst No More team will be there as long as they are needed.

www.thirstnomore.org

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