[lac-discuss-en] ICANN Blog : Situation in Haiti and the DNS

[Dev Anand Teelucksingh]

>From http://blog.icann.org/2010/01/haiti/ :

"We have received a lot of communication concerning the devastation in
Haiti, particularly its impact on Internet function and the .HT
top-level domain. Here are the basic facts:

*  We have been in contact with the administrators of .HT and they are
alive and well, although understandably overwhelmed dealing with the
tragedy there. Other ICANN fellows in the country have been contacted
and accounted for. Regrettably, some have lost their homes and are
impacted heavily by the tragedy.

*  Some of the name servers for .HT are not reachable from outside
Haiti due to significant damage to the local telecommunications
infrastructure. Work is underway to re-establish Haiti’s links to the
world through the Dominican Republic.

*  Despite some of the DNS infrastructure not working as expected, the
DNS is a highly resilient protocol, and the .HT domain continues to
function through a number of sites located outside of Haiti. Haiti’s
name server partners are aware of the situation and also taking
additional measures so that should technical reachability of Haiti
deteriorate, function of .HT can continue uninterrupted.

Functioning telecommunications can make a real difference in
recovering from a major natural disaster. The naming and numbering
infrastructure is just a small piece of this, but we want to be sure
it continues to function so that it is not the obstacle that prevents
people communicating. We’d like to thank all our friends and partners,
particularly those in Haiti, who have been working the last couple of
days to ensure we can best help the community emerge from this
disaster."