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Dominican Republic — I’ve been on the road since early this morning trying to make my way to the border town of Jimani, where some of the relief efforts have been set up to treat the injured, but as you can imagine it’s been a logistical nightmare.

The closer we get to the border, the more traffic we have been running into. Currently, there are only a few roads, maybe even only one that is passable from the D.R. side into Haiti – and it’s going to be tough going for many days to and weeks to come.

Here in the Dominican, anyone who has an aircraft is chipping in to help. They’re bringing supplies to Haiti as well as picking up the injured and bringing them back to the D.R. for treatment.

I talked to a spokesman from the national police force here on the D.R. and he said they are not only focusing on the relief efforts, but they are bracing for the possible mass migration of people from Haiti into the Dominican. One thing the D.R. has done is to beef up their border patrol significantly in preparation of this possible migration, especially with people desperately searching for shelter, food and water. With that said, the Dominican may face tremendous challenges in the weeks and months to come.

On the ground, there are a lot of people wandering around, some holding signs saying “Help Haiti” and this scene become much more apparent the closer we get to the Haitian border. Of course the D.R. has a big Haitian population that has resided here for many years. I actually spoke to a young man this morning that is working here in the D.R. and sending money back to his family in Haiti, and he hasn’t heard from them at all since the quake hit. And you can see the look of pain in his face as he wonders if he will ever see them again. It’s simply heartbreaking.

As far as the death toll, there is not clear number right now, but I saw reports this morning that it could be as high as 500,000. This is a situation that presents so many challenges on so many levels. There are a few major things that I talked to doctors in the region about this morning and one of them is the tropical climate down here. It’s already 85 – 87 degrees with bright sun, so this not only poses the issue of dehydration, it also poses the risk of infection from gastrointestinal problems and we can’t forget about malaria and Dengue fever, which are major killers.

So, for the folks who have no water and no shelter, they are going to be forced to rely on unfiltered water and unsanitary conditions. These two factors are incredibly problematic.

Like I said, we are making our way to the border town of Jimani and I will give you an update as soon as we get there.