By Ban Ki-moon
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
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The disaster in Haiti shows once again that even amid the worst devastation, there is always hope.

How to rebuild Haiti, from scratch. I saw that this week in Port-au-Prince, where the United Nations suffered the single greatest loss of life in its history. Our headquarters in the Haitian capital is a mass of crushed concrete and tangled steel. Upon seeing it, I wondered: How could anyone survive? Yet moments after I left the scene on Sunday, rescue teams pulled out a survivor -- who had been buried five days without food or water. As I moved around the stricken city, I saw horrific images like those we have all seen on television: collapsed buildings; bodies in the streets; people in dire need of food, water and shelter. But I also saw people demonstrating extraordinary resilience despite having suffered the heaviest blows.
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During my brief visit, I spoke with ordinary people to gauge their fears and concerns. A group of young men near the ruins of the presidential palace told me of wanting to help rebuild Haiti. Beyond the immediate crisis, they hope for jobs and a future with dignity. Across the street, I met a young mother who lives with her children in a tent in a public park. There were thousands like her, patiently enduring, helping one another as best they could. She and others had faith that help would soon come and that the international community would help Haiti rebuild -- for their children and future generations.
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For those who have lost everything, help cannot come soon enough. But it is coming in growing amounts despite very difficult logistical challenges in a city where all services and capacity are gone. As of Monday morning, more than 40 international search-and-rescue teams with more than 1,700 staffers were at work. Water supplies are increasing; tents and temporary shelters are arriving in larger numbers. Badly damaged hospitals are beginning to function again, aided by international medical teams. Meanwhile, the World Food Program is working with the U.S. Army to distribute daily food rations to nearly 200,000 people. The agency expects to reach as many as 1 million in the coming weeks, building toward 2 million.
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Aid has poured forth from nations and international organizations commensurate with the scale of this disaster. Our job is to channel that assistance. We need to make sure the help that is mobilized gets to the people who need it, as fast as possible. Ensuring that essential supplies do not sit in warehouses requires strong and effective coordination -- the international community working as one, with the United Nations in the lead.
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From the first day the United Nations has been working closely with the United States and the countries of Europe, Latin America and other regions as well as aid organizations to identify the most pressing humanitarian needs and deliver what is required. These needs must be grouped into well-defined "clusters," so that the efforts of the various organizations complement rather than duplicate one another. A health cluster run by the World Health Organization, for example, is organizing medical assistance among 21 international agencies.
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The urgency of the moment naturally dominates our planning. But as President René Préval emphasized during my meeting with him, we must be thinking about tomorrow. Haiti, though desperately poor, had been making progress. It was enjoying a new stability; investors had returned. That will not be enough to rebuild the country as it was, nor is there any place for cosmetic improvements. We must help Haiti build back better, working with the government so that today's investments have lasting benefit, creating jobs and freeing Haitians from dependence on the world's generosity.
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In this sense, Haiti's plight is a reminder of our wider responsibilities. A decade ago, the international community began a new century by agreeing to act to eliminate extreme poverty by 2015. Great strides have been made toward some of these ambitious "millennium goals," variously targeting core sources of global poverty and obstacles to development -- from maternal health and education to managing infectious disease. Yet progress in other critical areas lags badly. We are very far from delivering on our promises of a better future for the world's poor.
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As we rush to Haiti's aid, let us keep in mind this larger picture. Those people on the streets of Port-au-Prince asked for jobs, dignity and a better future. That is the hope of all the world's poor. Doing the right thing for Haiti in its hour of need will be a powerful message of hope for them as well.
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The writer is secretary general of the United Nations.

Dear Friends of Project Medishare,
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Among the first foreign doctors into Haiti after Tuesday’s earthquake, Dr. Barth Green, Project Medishare co-founder, is now helping coordinate international medical relief, and will oversee a new field hospital that was set up on vacant land in the northwest corner of Port-au-Prince’s international airport.
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Allowing our team on the ground to operate more efficiently, the new hospital location will house a medical staff of 100 and two operating rooms. The hospital will be formed out of two tents that retired Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning arranged to have donated by a party-planning company. Project Medishare’s medical team is assisting more than 300 patients at this new facility.
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Alonzo Mourning who volunteered with Project Medishare doctors Friday, returned to Haiti today with ESPN analyst Desmond Howard, and Philadelphia Sixers’ Samuel Dalembert. The three are volunteering their time to assist Project Medishare at the new hospital location. Dalembert is the NBA's only Haitian-born player.
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Project Medishare is working closely with the Haitian Ministry of Health, the United Nations, and the U.S. Army to organize all medical teams on the ground and implement a plan to set up field hospitals and triage centers around the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Our organization is uniquely positioned to provide disaster relief services in Haiti because of the staff experience, language skills and relationships developed over many years working in this impoverished country.
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For now the focus is on rescue and treating those at the trauma clinic. Cash donations allow Project Medishare to purchase whatever is needed to save lives immediately. The next phase will be recovery. Funds will be needed to sustain operations on the ground because many of those injured will require ongoing treatment and care for weeks and months ahead. Eventually, we will enter a third phase of rebuilding.
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Project Medishare has been working in Haiti since 1995 and will be there for years to come---after all of the cameras have gone home. Before the earthquake hit, there were not enough hospitals and clinics in Haiti. Now many have been destroyed, so rebuilding will require significant financial resources. We want to assure all donors that funds collected since Tuesday are being used immediately for earthquake relief.
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To support Project Medishare's important efforts in Haiti CLICK HERE to donate to the Project Medishare Earthquake Relief Fund.
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Thank you for your support.
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The Project Medishare Team
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Mailing Address:
Project Medishare
8260 NE 2nd Ave.
Miami, FL 33138
US
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Contact Name: Dr. Barth Green
Telephone Number: 305 762 6448

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The staggering scope of Haiti’s nightmare came into sharper focus yesterday as authorities estimated 200,000 dead and 1.5 million homeless in the heart of this luckless land, where injured survivors still died in the streets, doctors pleaded for help, and looters slashed at one another in the rubble.
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The world pledged more money, food, medicine, and police. Some 2,000 US Marines steamed into nearby waters. And ex-president Bill Clinton, a special UN envoy, flew in to offer support.
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But hour by hour the unmet needs of hundreds of thousands grew. “Have we been abandoned? Where is the food?’’ shouted one man, Jean Michel Jeantet, in a downtown street. The UN World Food Program said it expected to boost operations from feeding 67,000 people on Sunday to 97,000 yesterday. But it needs 100 million prepared meals over the next 30 days, and it appealed for more government donations.
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“I know that aid cannot come soon enough,’’ UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in New York after returning from Haiti. He urged officials to “unplug the bottlenecks.’’ Ban asked for 1,500 more UN police and 2,000 more peacekeepers to join the 9,000 or so UN security personnel in Haiti. The Security Council was expected to approve the reinforcements tomorrow.
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In one step to reassure frustrated aid groups, the US military agreed to give aid deliveries priority over military flights at the now-US-run airport here, the WFP announced in Rome. The Americans’ handling of civilian flights had angered some humanitarian officials.
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The US Air Force itself resorted to an air drop of aid. A C-17 parachuted pallets of food and water into an area outside Port-au-Prince secured by US forces. The Americans have been reluctant to use air drops for fear of drawing unruly crowds
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Sunday’s looting and violence raged into yesterday, as hundreds clambered over the broken walls of shops to grab anything they could, including toothpaste, now valuable for lining nostrils against the stench of Port-au-Prince’s dead. Police fired into the air as young men fought each other over rum and beer with broken bottles and machetes.
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Hard-pressed medical teams sometimes had to take time away from quake victims to deal with gunshot wounds, said Loris de Filippi of Doctors Without Borders. In the Montrissant neighborhood, Red Cross doctors, saying they “cannot cope,’’ worked in shipping containers and lost 50 patients over two days, said international Red Cross spokesman Simon Schorno.
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The latest casualty report, from the European Commission citing Haitian government figures, doubled previous estimates of the dead from the magnitude-7.0 quake, to approximately 200,000, with about 70,000 bodies recovered and trucked off to mass graves. If the death toll projection is accurate, it would make Haiti’s catastrophe almost as deadly as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries.
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European Commission analysts estimate 250,000 people were injured and 1.5 million were made homeless. Masses are living under plastic sheets in makeshift camps and in dust-covered automobiles, or had taken to the road seeking out relatives in the safer countryside.European nations have pledged more than a half-billion dollars for the relief effort, on top of at least $100 million promised by the United States.
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An impoverished nation, Haiti will need years or decades of expanded aid to rebuild. For the moment, however, front-line relief workers want simply to get food and water to the hungry and thirsty.
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The delays aren’t “so much about food supplies as logistics,’’ said Brian Feagans, a spokesman for the aid group CARE. The priorities are clearing roads, ensuring security at UN food distribution points, getting this city’s seaport working again, and bringing in more trucks and helicopters, WFP executive director Josette Sheeran said in Rome.
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The UN humanitarian chief, John Holmes, said in New York that not all 15 UN food distribution points were up and running yet. “That’s a question of people, trucks, fuel, but the aid is scaling up very rapidly,’’ he said.
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Evidence of the shortfall could be found at a makeshift camp of 50,000 displaced people spread over a hillside golf course overlooking the city. Leaders there said the US 82d Airborne Division had been able to deliver food to only half of the people. American forces were to be reinforced by 2,000 Marines arriving off Haiti’s shores aboard three amphibious landing ships.
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Getting clean water into people’s hands was still a dire concern. “People can survive a few days without food but we must try to avoid major outbreaks of waterborne disease,’’ Feagans said.
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Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea, who accompanied him to Haiti, pitched in. They helped unload cases of bottled water from their plane to a UN truck.
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Some aid groups and foreign officials have blamed the US military for slowing down aid deliveries, saying the American units that took charge of the small Port-au-Prince airport gave priority to US military flights.
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Doctors Without Borders said yesterday its specialists were 48 hours behind on performing surgery for critically injured patients because three cargo planes loaded with supplies were denied clearance and forced to land almost 200 miles away in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
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France’s cooperation minister, Alain Joyandet, also complained yesterday, saying the UN must “clarify’’ the dominant US role here, suggesting the Americans were “occupying’’ Haiti. The WFP’s Sheeran said things would change. She announced an agreement with the United States so that “we now have the coordination mechanism to prioritize the humanitarian flights coming in.’’
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At the airport, a US military spokesman said the parking ramp designed for 16 large aircraft at times was holding 40. “That’s why there was gridlock,’’ said Navy Commander Chris Lounderman. He said about 100 flights a day were now landing. There remained a “huge demand for lifesaving surgery for those who suffered terrible injuries,’’ Doctors Without Borders reported.
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Across the city, countless abandoned bodies had been picked up by government crews, but residents still dragged others to crossroads, hoping municipal garbage trucks or aid groups would deal with them.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com
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PORT-AU-PRINCE -- They were the voices of reason and compromise in a country where words are often used as weapons of political warfare, where political
turmoil is a chronic condition, like hardship and economic chaos. And now these rising stars have been lost forever, swallowed in the rubble of the earthquake. They were women's rights leaders, political militants, university professors, men of God.
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Their departure from the scene raises questions on the future of this nation, which has gone in and out of foreign occupation and struggled to stand on its own.
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With many still unaccounted for, the news of every confirmed death is gripping the country, even bringing tears to the eyes of its leaders.
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``Every time you hear another name, you can't help but feel it,'' said Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, who last week excused himself from a meeting with Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding, walked outside and broke down in tears.
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Moments earlier, word was just making the rounds that Micha Gaillard, the university professor and firebrand political militant, who became known as
the voice of the opposition during the movement to oust former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was dead. Gaillard was attending a meeting at the ministry of justice when the earthquake hit. Despite attempts by the minister of justice, who spent hours digging through the rubble, he died, said Dr. Ariel Henry, a friend and fellow member of Fusion, the political party they helped form a few years ago.
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Henry was among the last to speak to Gaillard during a 1:15 a.m. conversation Thursday during which Gaillard was joking about needing to eat.
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``He was someone who was trying to be useful to the country. He had a commitment toward the change of this country,'' said Henry.
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Gaillard died three hours after their phone conversation.
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``I cringe for the moment when cellphones are back up. Every moment, we will find someone who is dead,'' said Gabriel Verret, an economist.
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In recent days, local radio has been giving a roll call of some of the dead, numbering 70,000 and counting, according to government figures.
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``It's clear that in this catastrophe, all kinds of individuals were victims. You find people in the bourgeoisie, in the middle class, in popular
neighborhoods, in peasants communities who have died,'' said former Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis. The one-time prime minister was not immune to Gaillard's ``shame on you'' criticism on the radio during his tenure as head of the Haitian government,2006-08.
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``It's a huge blow when [the earthquake] takes away the human resources to help us to improve the governance of the country, to help us ensure that
democracy is making huge progress in the country we've lost a lot,'' Alexis said.
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The loss, he said, extends to Haitians from the diaspora who were visiting last week. These, the middle-class Haitians who come here regularly, have
been part of a vital lifeline to those struggling in Haiti.
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``We have a good competence in the diaspora,'' he said. ``We're not trying to make one group more privileged than the other, but we have to recognize
that in this particular framework, in the framework of the government, the framework to continue to promote democracy in the country, to do
development, technology, scientific, we've suffered a huge loss.''
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Bellerive, the current prime minister, said he can't give an analysis of what has happened to the country, but acknowledged that the loss is
immeasurable.
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``Every moment you hear about a well-known, important Haitian figure who has died. You ask yourself, `Why? '' he told The Miami Herald. ``I would like to think that we are going to learn something positive out of it, to help the
country. I've seen during this period and extraordinary solidarity, compassion that gives a bit of hope, it shows that we can work together.
It's a good thing toward unity.''
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Among those who often called for unity was Archbishop Serge Miot. The face of the Catholic Church in Haiti, he was the mediator in times of crisis. He became well known to many Miamians and Aristide supporters when he stripped Haitian activist Gerard Jean-Juste of his priestly duties after Jean-Juste considered running for the presidency.
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``For me it's a personal pain because many of the personalities who died I personally knew,'' said Evans Paul, a former Port-au-Prince mayor.
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Paul also knows Georges Anglade, the former Aristide minister of public works, who partly lived in Canada and was here with his wife, Mireille Neptune Anglade. She was a women's rights activist. Both died along with Phillipe Rouzier, a respected Haitian economist whose name had been mentioned as possible a prime minister contender over the years. Rouzier was Mireille Anglade's brother-in-law.
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They died crushed under several layers of concrete roofs in a lush neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.
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``He was a university professor, a demographer, who published a lot of books,'' Paul said of Georges Anglade, who was mayor of the city when Anglade was a minister of public works. ``I used to work a lot with him.''
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In Miami and New York, fans of Haitian music are joining their Haitian brothers and sisters in mourning the loss of Joubert Charles, a promoter and
manager who has worked with some of Haiti's leading konpa bands. For the past three years, he promoted the country's biggest konpa festival.
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Marie Laurence Lassegue, the former minister of women's affairs, is wearing black for the loss of the feminists recently lost in the earthquake. They
include Anne-Marie Carolian, a sociologist who studied in Mexico, and Gina Porcena, a topographer who up until her death had been trying to provide GPS
mapping to Haiti. Said Lassegue, who knew both personally: ``It's a loss not just for Haiti
but for the Caribbean, for Latin America.''
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They fought for the equal treatment of women, defended women against abuse and pushed to groom young Haitian girls. Another loss: Magalie Marcelin, a women's-rights leader who helped found a shelter for victims of rape and violence with her Kay Fanm organization. Paul had known her since she was 14 years old.
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``They will leave a huge void in the country because these were people who played an important role on behalf of the society,'' he said.
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``Haiti has lost a lot and it will take a long time before it can stand again.''

Reaching Victims Outside the Capital
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For the first time, the ICRC has managed to reach victims of last Tuesday's earthquake in areas outside Port-au-Prince. It has been working with the local health authorities to set up first-aid posts in nearby towns and cities.
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ICRC staff have managed to reach the city of Léogane, 60 kilometers west of Port-au-Prince, for the first time. "Léogane was severely damaged by last Tuesday's earthquake and the people there urgently need assistance," said Philippe David, the ICRC's health coordinator in Haiti. "We are setting up first-aid posts in the areas hardest hit by the earthquake and plan to step up our medical assistance in Léogane in the coming days."
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In addition, ICRC engineers assessed the damage sustained by the water tower that serves the entire population of Cité-Soleil, one of Port-au-Prince's biggest shantytowns. The tower is heavily damaged and will require extensive repairs. In the meantime, residents are collecting water directly from the base of the tower.
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On Monday, the ICRC started to distribute essential household supplies in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. However, the distribution had to be interrupted owing to the tense atmosphere. "These tensions are understandable given the extremely difficult situation people who have lost everything find themselves in," said Riccardo Conti, who manages ICRC operations in Haiti. "Despite the uneasy situation in Port-au-Prince, we intend to resume aid distributions in the coming days." Meanwhile, the ICRC finished building another 10 latrines in Delmas and provided water for 7,500 people living in makeshift camps in three other areas of the capital.
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The ICRC and the Haitian National Red Cross Society are setting up an office in Port-au-Prince to help people renew contact with their relatives following last Tuesday's earthquake. Located at Haitian Red Cross headquarters in Croix-de-Prez, the office will enable people to give and receive information about relatives. Local radio stations are expected to shortly begin informing the population about Red Cross activities aimed at restoring family links.
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So far, more than 23,000 names have been registered on the ICRC website set up to help people who have lost contact with family members (www.icrc.org/familylinks). More than 1,500 of these postings are from people eager to let their loved ones know that they are safe and alive.
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An ICRC-chartered aircraft carrying 36 tons of water and sanitation equipment as well as medical items is expected to leave Geneva later today for the Dominican Republic. From there, the cargo will be taken by road to Port-au-Prince. A second plane carrying 2,500 family kits, containing such essential items as blankets, kitchen sets and plastic sheeting for temporary shelter, is due to leave Panama for the Dominican Republic in the coming days.
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The ICRC's activities are carried out as part of the overall Red Cross and Red Crescent response to the crisis. For more information consult www.ifrc.org.

The earthquake in Haiti and the U.S.-led humanitarian relief response has drawn attention to one of the world's poorest countries located a mere 600 miles off the coast of the United States. Ruth Levine, CGD senior fellow and vice president for programs and operations, recently visited Haiti as part of a delegation assessing opportunities for donor support to health programs. This was not her first visit to the country: in the mid-1990s, she was responsible for negotiating the Inter-American Development Bank's health programs with the Government of Haiti.
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Q: The earthquake comes at a time when some observers were beginning to see things looking up for this troubled country. What was your impression during your recent visit?
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Haiti's Outlook had been Improving (USA Today)
A: I was there for only one week, but my impression, both in meetings and in field visits, was that things were much the same as they had been 12 years ago, when I was last in Haiti and had the chance to spend much more time. If anything, the crowding and general precariousness of life seemed more acute.
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I’d expected the same sort of signs of change that I’ve seen in other poor countries in the past ten or 15 years: many more signs of foreign investment, internet cafes everywhere, and a general improvement in infrastructure —airports, traffic lights, that sort of thing. I mentioned this sense that the country was frozen in time to a Haitian colleague with whom I’d worked many years ago, and he said, “Oh, no. You just missed the bad years. We got much worse for a while, and now we’re on the way up.” So I came away with a bit of optimism, but a clear sense that there’s no linear path.
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Q: The earthquake is a natural disaster, but the high death toll and the lack of proper equipment to rescue those beneath the rubble—those trying to help them were reduced to digging with their hands—are the result of human shortcomings, a failure of development. Why was Haiti such a mess, even before the quake?
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It would take a scholar of the history of slavery, colonialism, and dictatorial rule to explain how centuries of exploitation of people and natural resources have led to contemporary Haiti. There is more than enough blame to go around. Some belongs to U.S., French, and other external interests that have at times extracted resources from Haiti and at other times subjected the country to economic embargoes. Some blame belongs to a series of national figures who have done everything in their power to profit while letting the Haitian people live in desperate conditions. Certainly one feature that has characterized Haiti’s history is a whole series of set-backs—coups disrupting incremental progress toward better governance, natural disasters, the emergence of HIV/AIDS and more. This devastating earthquake is yet another, and it’s a major blow at a time when the international community was, I think, prepared to make some long-term commitments to support the current government’s development plans.
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Q: Against such a grim historical background, is there scope for outsiders to be helpful, beyond simple humanitarian relief?
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I absolutely think that there are ways that we can contribute to the development of Haiti, and there are certainly some examples of constructive involvement by both public and private donors. Just a few weeks ago, we hosted a seminar by Dr. Marie Marcelle Deschamps, who leads work at GHESKIO, a very impressive AIDS service-delivery and research center in Port-au-Prince, which also works in some of the rural areas. This is a Haitian organization that is able to do incredible work providing high-quality services in slum areas and contributing research about the best ways to prevent and treat the disease—all with the support of lots of the donor community, including PEPFAR, the Global Fund, the National Institutes of Health, and more. There have also been impressive gains made in the delivery of health services through NGOs, in USAID-funded programs—some of that is described in our video on performance incentives and a working paper. And of course the inspirational work of Partners in Health has brought high-quality health services to rural communities.
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A different example is in infrastructure development. One of the few things that was markedly better than what I’d seen in the past was the road connecting Port-au-Prince to some of the more rural areas—and that was built with funding and technical input from the Inter-American Development Bank as well as European donors. So I do think there are specific ways that traditional types of international development aid can help.
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But, looking beyond the specific ways that dollars and expertise from outside can do good, Haiti faces problems that, in many ways, can be addressed only over the long term if a reasonably capable government that is attentive to the population’s needs is sustained over many years, and there are a series of peaceful political transitions.
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Q: What about just letting Haitians come here, as your colleague Michael Clemens has proposed?
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Michael’s argument about the power of migration as a force for development is compelling, and of course you just have to look around at the impressive achievements of Haitian immigrants. But relaxing the barriers to immigration is not, in my view, going to address the fundamental challenges that Haiti faces so many areas: creating a functional economy that is able to trade with neighbors, including the United States; providing educational opportunities and health services to the most people, who live in extreme poverty; managing natural resources in sustainable ways; or reducing the threats of violence. The “solution” for individuals, which may lie in being able to move to a place that is more stable politically and economically, doesn’t add up to the “solution” for the country.
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Q: President Obama has directed Raj Shah, who was sworn in just last week as the new head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to coordinate U.S. relief efforts. Is this a departure from the agency's traditional focus on long-term development challenges? Do you worry that the urgent demands of relief will compete with the development efforts that could make Haiti and other weak states more resilient in the face of such natural disasters?
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No, it’s not a diversion from the core mission, but it’s also not the sum total of the organization’s role. USAID has done a lot of humanitarian relief over the years, and I think that makes a lot of sense. The people who best know how to work in a particular country—and that’s usually the USAID personnel, who accumulate a tremendous amount of on-the-ground implementation-level expertise—are often the best positioned to know where and how help can best be used in a crisis.
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Certainly my own recent experience getting to know some of the staff in the USAID mission in Port-au-Prince gave me a lot of confidence in their understanding of the needs and capacities of different communities and organizations in Haiti—understanding based on long working relationships. They need to work closely with other parts of the U.S. Government, of course, like the Department of Defense, that can come in with equipment, specially trained teams, and other assets. But coordinating the effort, and being prepared to transition to reconstruction and back to the development agenda, is something USAID is—or should be—prepared to do.
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Q: Are there lessons from other disasters that should be taken into account in this case?
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There’s no question that the experiences with the Asian tsunami and several different earthquakes have yielded important lessons about how to organize the relief effort, and then move from relief to reconstruction. A couple come to mind: that setting up field hospitals can often take too long to make them particularly useful and that from a public health perspective burying the dead is not a top priority.
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Because of the uniquely challenging environment of Haiti, as well as the importance of knowing the language and being trusted by communities that have suffered so much over the years, it’s particularly important in this case to depend on organizations that are already familiar with Haiti and have the capacity for large-scale actions. In my view, the last thing Haiti needs is to have lots of well-meaning people arrive who are not affiliated with organizations that can effectively deploy them. Relief and aid workers themselves place lots of demands on housing, communications, security, and other very scarce resources. And the proximity of Haiti to the United States makes the risk that “freelancers” will go to help all the more acute. What all of us can do is write a check (or send a text to organizations that are set up to use the money well.
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I am also sure that many of the experienced development organizations working in Haiti have their own hard-won lessons, which hopefully are mitigating some of the impacts now. When I was in Haiti recently I learned that as a result of experiencing stock-outs of medication after a particularly severe set of hurricanes, health facilities treating AIDS and TB patients had instituted a practice of having several months’ worth of drugs stockpiled at all times, to ensure uninterrupted care. That’s just one example of how those who live and work in Haiti are, sadly, all to accustomed to working in hardship conditions, and figuring out how to get through. As a Haitian colleague just wrote to me, “We are courageous and confident that we will get out of it with your support and prayer to build a better Haiti.”

Star Tribune Minneapolis
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http://www.startribune.com/opinion/letters/81595442.html
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Dear Pat Robertson,
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I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher.
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The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake.
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Haven’t you seen “Crossroads”? Or “Damn Yankees”? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there’d be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox — that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it — I’m just saying: Not how I roll.
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You’re doing great work, Pat, and I don’t want to clip your wings — just, come on, you’re making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That’s working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.
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Best,
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Satan
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The letter was written by Lily Coyle of Minneapolis and appeared in the Star Tribune.

BY TRENTON DANIEL, LESLEY CLARK AND CAROL ROSENBERG
tdaniel@miamiherald.com
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An ever-greater flow of food and other relief supplies arrived in Haiti's quake-ravaged capital Monday, though still-haphazard distribution meant that many survivors were left fighting for scarce resources while others complained they had yet to receive any aid a week after the earthquake.
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A shocking new report brought the scale of the catastrophe into sharper focus. Citing Haitian government figures, the European Commission doubled previous estimates of the dead to 200,000 and put the number of homeless at 1.5 million.
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As U.S. and Haitian officials and relief agencies struggled to bring help to Haiti, American citizens and some of the injured were evacuated on Monday.
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At least 20 victims, most of them children with critical injuries, arrived in South Florida for treatment. The Broward Sheriff's Office issued a statement early Tuesday saying an injured baby was among several survivors who arrived on a cargo plane late Monday night at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
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The five-day-old baby was with its mother. Also among the injured were a 20-year-old woman and her two young children. Two wounded men were also on
the flight, a Haitian man and a 32-year-old with the U.S. Air Force. Amid the debris and the smoke of bodies being burned in Haiti's capital, hundreds of survivors boarded buses to leave the city while looting and violence flared again.
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U.S. and Haitian government officials and relief managers defended the pace of aid distribution and search-and-rescue operations, noting the response is
likely unprecedented in scope and is occurring in a place that was greatly disadvantaged even before the catastrophe hit. Humanitarian aid will reach most victims soon, though the wait may seem excruciatingly long for those desperate for it, said David Eller, president of World Concern, a Christian humanitarian relief group out of Seattle,
Wash., which had 112 field workers in Haiti when the quake struck.
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``In a place like Haiti, you should be prepared for two weeks with enough food and water to get by until help arrives,'' Eller said. ``But the poverty
in Haiti does not allow that. People don't have the ability to stock more food and water. They live day to day.''
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Meanwhile, in a late development on Monday, the U.S. government announced it was granting humanitarian parole to hundreds of Haitian orphans who were
waiting to be adopted by Americans before the earthquake. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano left the door open for other needy orphans to be considered for the humanitarian parole. The Catholic Church in Miami has announced plans to launch a second Operation Pedro Pan, this time to house in South Florida Haitian children at risk.
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Food and fresh water did reach more Port-au-Prince residents on Monday, the United Nations said.
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The U.N.'s World Food Program reported delivering 200 metric tons of food to 95,000 people, compared to 30 metric tons of rations delivered Sunday to
67,000 people. But it needs 100 million prepared meals over the next 30 days, and it appealed for more donations from its member nations.
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Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who visited Port-au-Prince on Monday and was spotted helping unload cargo at the airfield, said he was confident
substantial amount of aid will soon begin reaching even more victims. And he pledged to help Haiti rebuild.
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``If they can say it and believe it, then a lot of people would be glad to stay,'' he told The Miami Herald, referring to the government's commitment
to an economic plan it presented the international community last year.''
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The pace of arriving aid may pick up under an agreement reached Monday between the U.N. and the U.S.-run airport in Port-au-Prince, where the vast
bulk of supplies are arriving because the seaport was destroyed by the quake. The deal gives aid flights priority in landing at the tiny, overwhelmed airport.
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Doctors Without Borders, along with other aid agencies, criticized the U.S. military for giving priority to military and rescue missions, saying
delivery of life-saving medical supplies were delayed when five of its flights were diverted away.
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On Monday, the agencies highlighted the success of international search-and-rescue teams.
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The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Task Force Haiti reported that, on Sunday, rescue teams from Los Angeles,
Miami-Dade, and Miami set a new international record for the number of survivors pulled from crumbled buildings in a single day: 10.
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Five people were rescued Monday morning from the wreckage of the Caribbean Market and the downtown business district. In all, 71 people have been
rescued from crumbled structures since the 7.0-magnitude quake struck Jan. 12.
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The South Florida Urban Search and Rescue Team pulled a man and a girl from the market, and declared them to be in ``remarkably good shape.'' The two had been trapped in the supermarket aisle that stocked peanut butter and jelly.
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But after seven days, World Concern's Eller said, ``the likelihood of finding live survivors under the rubble is very, very slim.''
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In the meantime, there were conflicting reports Monday of the effect of sporadic violence and unrest on the distribution of aid.
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Navy Rear Adm. Michael Rogers, director of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a telephone conference call from Haiti that violence was not impeding rescue or relief efforts.
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He said in spite of ``isolated events'' of unruly crowds at distribution points and some looting, ``there's nothing in the security environment right
now that is significantly inhibiting our ability.''
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Still, the U.S. government pledged that security and aid distribution would improve with the arrival of additional military personnel in Haiti. Security
in Port-au-Prince is led by the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, a 9,000-member force of international military and police. U.N. chief Ban
Ki-moon asked for 1,500 more U.N. police and 2,000 more peacekeepers to bolster security for aid distribution supply efforts.
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About 1,700 U.S. troops, primarily from the 82nd Airborne Division, are on the ground inHaiti. Another 2,200 Marines were scheduled to arrive off shore Monday, arrayed across three ships, and running operations and relief supplies back and forth. Progress was being made on another front: medical care.
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The U.N., which estimates that one million people were made homeless by the quake, reported setting up seven field hospitals, with three of them fully
operational. In addition, the U.S. Army tapped the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine to staff a 300-bed hospital in Haiti that will include two live operating rooms.
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Airplanes have been leaving daily from Opa-locka Airport in Miami and Fort Lauderdale Airport filled with university doctors, support staff and medical
supplies.
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*This report was supplemented with material from The Associated Press. Miami Herald staff writer Frances Robles contributed to this report from Haiti,as
did Daniels and Clark. Herald staff writers Andres Viglucci and Daniel Chang reported from Miami, as did Rosenberg.*

By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU Associated Press Writer
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Thousands of Haiti quake victims are struggling to board buses to flee hunger and violence in the shattered capital, hoping that food will be easier to find in the countryside.
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But both gasoline and food are scarce in Port-au-Prince, and bus drivers have hiked fares forcing some to pay more than three days' wages for a seat.
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"Thousands and thousands are leaving, I've never seen such a rush, even at Christmas," said driver Garette Saint-Julien, who was trying to manage the crowd Monday in front of his bus at the Portail Leogane, a suburb where buses gather for trips to Haiti's southern peninsula.
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Most of those fleeing said they were heading to small farms run by their relatives, pressed on by the specter of starvation because foreign aid has
failed to reach much of the population. "We've got no more food and no more house, so leaving is the only thing to do," said Livena Livel, a 22-year-old street vendor who was traveling to her father's house near the town of Les Cayes four hours south of Port-au-Prince.
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"At least over there we can farm for food," she said, carrying her 1-year-old daughter, Othmeline.
Livel and the six relatives leaving with her said they'd scraped together the last of their money to pay for the trip. "It's become insanely expensive," she shouted amid the animated crowd, saying the one-way fare had nearly doubled to the equivalent of US$7.70 - more than three days' income for most Haitians. Saint-Julien, the driver of a bus he'd named "Saint Yves" in bright, painted lettering, said he had no choice but to jack up his prices. "It's not my fault, gas has doubled" because of shortages, said Saint-Julien, who is now paying US$50 to fill his tank. Inside the crammed bus, passengers already seated said they'd been waiting to depart for nearly five hours.
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"I can't continue sleeping outside with the children," said Rose-Marie Dedieu, 20, a mother of three who was holding an infant in her arms.
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She couldn't remember exactly when the baby was born. "But it was a day or two before the earthquake" last Tuesday, she said. Most people said they hope they'll return to Port-au-Prince, a rundown city packed with slums and shanties where life already was exceedingly difficult for most people before the quake.
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Some officials estimate 200,000 people perished and 1.5 million are homeless. Some Haitians sent only their children to the countryside while they stay behind to try to resume their jobs and find decent housing. Fearing an outbreak of disease or violence, Charlemagne Ulrick had put his three children ages 4 to 11 on an overloaded truck for an all-day journey to Mole Saint Nicolas, at the far tip of Haiti's northwestern peninsula. "They have to go and save themselves," said Ulrick, a dentist. "I don't know when they're coming back."

One week after an earthquake pulverized Haiti, emergency supplies of water, food and medicine are beginning to reach large numbers of the country's desperate survivors. The number of U.S. troops in Haiti is expected to reach about 10,000 by midweek to help transport emergency supplies, provide security and clear debris.
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In the interim, however, residents have perished as distraught relatives awaited rescue teams and equipment that didn't arrive in time. Homeless people still camp on the streets, wondering why aid is taking so long. "They say there's help, but it doesn't arrive," said Henock Volmidor, an unemployed hotel worker, at a makeshift refugee camp on Monday.
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It wasn't supposed to be this way. After the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 that killed at least 230,000 people in 13 countries, the United Nations and emergency-relief organizations vowed to avert the disorganization that plagued that effort. More than 300 charities showed up in Aceh, Indonesia, with little coordination between them.
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The U.N. established a rapid-response system to coordinate the work of its agencies with nonprofit organizations, an online database to track assistance and avoid duplication, and a special emergency-relief fund that released $10 million within 24 hours of the Haitian quake. The U.N. quickly sent to Haiti an assessment team whose tasks included dispatching search-and-rescue squads that arrived from Iceland, China, France and the U.S. Meanwhile, what was left of the Haitian government put out an urgent request to the U.S. ambassador for help.
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"The message, basically, was, 'Send everything you've got,'" says State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. Relief experts working in Haiti say the new U.N. system has prevented the kind of chaos evident in Aceh, although it remains imperfect. "Any system you have will struggle in the first 24 to 48 hours, not to organize itself, but to get stuff on the ground," says John Holmes, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. Some disorganization also has been evident.
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American Red Cross UNICEF Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund During a visit to Haiti on Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon conceded that international search-and-rescue teams needed to be "more balanced" in looking for victims of all nationalities and not just their own. He also suggested too few teams had been sent—even though on Friday, the U.N. had appealed to nations not to send any more rescue squads.
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On Monday, he asked the U.N. Security Council to authorize 2,000 more peacekeepers and 1,500 more U.N. police for Haiti. "The heartbreaking scenes I saw yesterday [in Haiti] compel us to act quickly," Mr. Ban said. "I saw mass destruction and mass need."
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It has been unclear at times who is in charge—the U.S. military, which controls the main airport, or the U.N., which ostensibly oversees the relief operation. Benoit Leduc, operations manager for Doctors Without Borders in Haiti, on Monday said "hundreds of lives" were lost because five of its planes carrying surgical teams and equipment weren't allowed to land and were diverted to Santo Domingo.
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"I don't really know who is in charge," he said. Several countries and other aid groups also have complained that the U.S. military has refused to let some of their supply planes land at Haiti's crippled airport.
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"It's a question of physics," says Capt. John Kirby, a U.S. military spokesman in Haiti. "The airport is the only way in, it only has one runway, and there are literally hundreds of flights trying to make it in." Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday that the U.N. and its peacekeeping force is "in the lead" in Haiti.
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Los Angeles County search-and-rescue team helps load family members of a woman who was just pulled from the rubble as they preapre to drive to the U.N. hospital in Port-au-Prince, on Monday.
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The U.S. military is reluctant to move shipments out of the airport without a security escort, sometimes causing added delays. "Twenty containers go out, but you have to have about 100 heavily armed soldiers," says Gilberto Castro, emergency response director of transport company Deutsche Post DHL, which is handling hundreds of tons of aid.
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U.S. officials have blamed security concerns for holding up providing relief. Yet a team of Cuban doctors were seen Monday treating hundreds of patients without a gun or soldier in sight. The deputy chief of mission at the American Embassy in Haiti, David Lindwall, said the U.S. had done a lot, but that some teams and supplies "aren't getting out as broadly as we'd like because of security" concerns.
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Still, search and rescue teams from around the world have saved 71 people from the rubble of fallen buildings, said Tim Callaghan, chief of the U.S. Disaster Assistance Response Team in Haiti. He said 39 of those were saved by U.S.-based teams.
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U.S. Rescue teams continued search operations Tuesday despite what they admit are ever-slimmer chances of finding survivors beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings. "There might be a needle in the haystack so don't give up," Rex Strickland, operations chief for a search-and rescue team from Fairfax County, Va., told his 72-member crew on Tuesday morning. Searchers from the U.S. Air Force have shifted from missions based on specific reports of trapped people to general sweeps of affected neighborhoods.
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The odds of finding survivors fall after 7 or 8 days, according to Mark Stone, spokesman for the Fairfax team. "The window is shutting relatively quickly," said Mr. Stone. Rescuers from California, however, found a woman alive monday. She had been buried in her bed, according to U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Keith O'Grady.
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On Monday, the U.S. began some air drops of food and water, a move that U.S. and U.N. officials had said they would avoid because the drops can invite violent scrambles among refugees.
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Many relief experts say no global response plan could likely have averted the delays seen during the initial days following the earthquake, given the scale of the destruction and Haiti's poor infrastructure. The earthquake knocked out the control tower at the main airport, decimated the capital's port and crippled major roads needed to ferry supplies. The U.N.'s top lieutenants in Haiti were killed, as were many Haitian officials. The local government, which normally would take charge of the relief effort, was paralyzed. And there were widespread fuel shortages at a time when electricity was out.
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"Here you have a disaster of huge magnitude concentrated in the capital of one of the most dysfunctional countries in the world," says Andrew Natsios, who ran the U.S. Agency for International Development under President George W. Bush and is a veteran of relief operations going back to the 1980s. "No matter what, it takes five or six days to get in place and to really open the spigot."
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The roads of Port-au-Prince are in miserable condition in normal times. Unpaved, uneven, twisty and steeply graded roads thwart trucks. Port-au-Prince's Toussaint L'Ouverture airport, which normally handles about a dozen flights a day, is now receiving close to 70 flights a day, ranging from U.S. Air Force C-130s to small chartered jets.
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The airport not only lacks warehouse space, but also machinery to unload the international aid from as far away as China. The U.S. military was forced to fly in giant forklifts. On Sunday, the Spanish government shipped a high-tech water-purification system in a Colombian airliner. But the airport didn't have a loader capable of removing the heavy, sensitive equipment. Neither DHL nor U.S. soldiers would risk damaging the plane by unloading it. So the plane sat for hours, until a squad of Spanish firemen showed up to remove the water gear.
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The U.S. military is relatively new at spearheading massive relief efforts; Washington has turned increasingly to the military for disaster relief in part to boost the image of the U.S. diplomatically. Although it had assisted during crises such as in Somalia and Bosnia in the 1990s, the Pentagon's role in the tsunami effort, when it sent huge numbers of U.S. ships, planes and military personnel, marked a stepped-up role. Afterward, the military assisted the rescue and feeding of tens of thousands of people following the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.
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"People forget, but this extensive use of the U.S. military in humanitarian relief work is relatively new," said John Simon, who helped coordinate disaster assistance in the Bush White House.
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The pace of military response has quickened. Prior to the tsunami, requests for military assistance after a major hurricane or earthquake—normally channeled first through the State Department—could take days or even longer to review. But in 2007, the Defense Department whittled the approval process down to a matter of hours.
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Moving quickly, though, often hinges on luck. After the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, the U.S. was able to commandeer more than 30 helicopters, which already were in place in neighboring Afghanistan. "We could not have done that work without them," says Mr. Simon.
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Perhaps the biggest obstacle to getting supplies into Haiti quickly is the state of the country's chief cargo port. "The pier has collapsed and the cargo cranes are in the water," says U.S. Coast Guard Captain Jim McPherson.
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He says ships which had been en route to Haiti are sitting offshore unable to pick up or discharge cargo. "You've got to get the pipeline bigger," he says. "It's essential to the country to get the port going."
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—Steve Stecklow, Neil King and Yochi J. Dreazen contributed to this article.
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Write to Steve Stecklow at steve.stecklow@wsj.com, Charles Forelle at charles.forelle@wsj.com and Joe Lauria at newseditor@wsj.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The 5-month-old patient at the Israeli field hospital has a number rather than a name. No one even knows who dropped the barely conscious child at the makeshift medical center after he was pulled from the debris of a collapsed building four days after last week's catastrophic quake. Now recovering, doctors have a difficult decision ahead.
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"What will we do with him when we are finished?" said Dr. Assa Amit of the hospital's pediatric emergency department. No one knows who the boy's family is, or whether any of his relatives are alive.
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Tens of thousands of children have been orphaned by the earthquake, aid groups say — so many that officials won't venture a number. With so many buildings destroyed and growing chaos in the capital, it is conceivable that many children are alone.
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"As yet they are still on the streets," said Elizabeth Rodgers, of the Britain-based international orphan group SOS Children. "Without doubt, most of them are in the open."
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Even before Tuesday's deadly magnitude-7.0 earthquake, Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries, was awash in orphans, with 380,000 children living in orphanages or group homes, the United Nations Children's Fund reported on its Web site.
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Some of the children lost their parents in previous disasters, including four tropical storms or hurricanes that killed about 800 people in 2008, deadly storms in 2005 and 2004, and massive floods almost every other year since 2000. Others were abandoned amid the Caribbean nation's long-running political strife, which has led thousands to seek asylum in the U.S. — without their children — or by parents who were simply too poor to care for them.
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International advocacy groups are trying to help, either by speeding up adoptions that were already in progress, or by sending in relief personnel who could potentially evacuate thousands of orphans to the U.S. and other countries.
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On Monday, the Dutch government sent a planeload of immigration officials to Haiti who will try to locate and evacuate 100 children who were already being adopted by Dutch parents. Also Monday, Indiana-based Kids Alive International, which runs orphanages around the world, is expected to take 50 Haitian orphans to group homes in the Dominican Republic, the organization said in a news release.
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U.S. Homeland Security spokesman Sean Smith said Monday that orphans who have ties to the U.S. — such as a family member already living here — are among those who can get special permission to remain in the United States. Notwithstanding the U.S. policy, the Catholic Church in Miami is working on a proposal that would allow thousands of orphaned children to come permanently to America. A similar effort launched in 1960, known as Operation Pedro Pan, brought about 14,000 unaccompanied children from Cuba to the U.S.
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Under the new plan, dubbed "Pierre Pan," Haitian orphans would first be placed in group homes and then paired with foster parents, said Mary Ross Agosta, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Miami.
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"We have children who are homeless and possibly without parents and it is the moral and humane thing to do," Agosta said. Archdiocese officials said many details would have to be worked out and President Barack Obama's administration would have to grant orphans humanitarian parole to enter the U.S.
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In the meantime, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said the United Nations is establishing a group whose mission on the ground in Haiti will be to protect children — orphans and non-orphans alike — against trafficking, kidnapping and sex abuse.
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And orphanages that were operating in Haiti before the earthquake are scrambling to keep their kids safe, sheltered and fed. Those with damaged buildings are pledging to rebuild and take in more children, if needed. Three of the four orphanages operated in Port-au-Prince by Planting Peace, a Melbourne, Fla., nonprofit, have been damaged, forcing staff to move everyone into one building. They are now trying to secure homes in Haiti for the kids, the group's founder, Aaron Jackson, told The Associated Press in an e-mail. Rainn Wilson, who appears in the TV show "The Office," is raising money for the group, Jackson said.
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Jackson said all 37 of his orphans are physically fine and he would like to help more children.
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"There needs to be some communication from the government level about what we need to do. Can we take these children?" he said. "We're ready. We've already raised a fair amount of money where we can go out and get an orphanage running soon."
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Sherrie Fausey had to evacuate 30 children from her Christian Light Foundation orphanage in the capital after her facility was badly damaged in the quake.
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Fausey, a former Florida elementary school teacher who came to Haiti 10 years ago, acknowledges that her job — daunting before the quake — has become even more challenging now.
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"Wherever the Lord sends you, he'll make you content to be there," she said. "Times can be hard, but I'd rather be here in all this rubble. It's where my kids are."
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At the Israeli field hospital, doctors are expecting to treat many more orphans in the coming days.
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On one of the hospital's stretchers, Patient No. 236, a 6-month-old boy, lay on a hospital stretcher, crying in pain. Relatives brought him to the medical center shortly after the disaster, then left. They didn't tell anyone the boy's name.
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Doctors suspect the infant had meningitis long before the earthquake — and they also suspect that no one is coming back for him.
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"We will wait to discharge him until there is a facility that can grant continuous care," Amit said.

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations Security Council is set to vote today on sending 2,000 more troops and 1,500 extra police to Haiti as forces on the ground struggle to keep order and speed delivery of food, water and medicine.
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“Haiti requires a massive response from the international community,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said in New York yesterday. “The people need to see that today is better than yesterday, and that the future will be better than the past.”
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The UN, whose Haitian offices were destroyed in the 7- magnitude quake Jan. 12, has more than 9,000 troops and officers in Haiti. At least 46 UN staffers died in the disaster, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
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Aid workers face scattered street violence, fueled in part by shortages of food and medical supplies in the capital Port- au-Prince, a city of about 3 million people. The quake, which may have killed more than 100,000 people, damaged roads, and the port and toppled the control tower at the country’s only international airport, hampering efforts to get relief supplies moving.
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The U.S. expected to have 7,000 troops in Haiti and offshore as of yesterday, providing medical care, security and operating the airport.
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Brazil, which had the largest number of soldiers in Haiti in the UN’s peacekeeping forces, is ready to double its 1,266- strong contingent if asked, General Enza Peri, the army’s commander, said yesterday in a news conference in Brasilia.
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Alain LeRoy, the head of UN peacekeeping operations, told reporters yesterday at the UN that the neighboring Dominican Republic has pledged to send 800 soldiers to Haiti. The European Union will send some police units, he said.
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The main task for the additional soldiers will be escorting relief convoys to 200 distribution points in the capital, LeRoy said. Relief corridors are being set up from the Dominican Republic and ports in northern Haiti to Port-au-Prince, he said.
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LeRoy said that while there has been violence “here and there, most due to frustration,” the situation is “generally calm.”
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Spain will send a warship to Haiti, El Pais reported. The ship, which will arrive at the beginning of next month, will have a 190-member crew and a hospital on board, the newspaper reported. Spain is also considering sending engineers and guards to help with reconstruction, the newspaper said.
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The number of flights the single-runway airport can handle almost doubled yesterday to 100 after the U.S. took control, the White House said in a statement. The U.S. is giving priority to planes carrying relief supplies, said John Holmes, UN emergency relief coordinator.
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Doctors Without Borders medical teams are stymied by bottlenecks at the airport that have stretched out by two days the expected time for delivery of supplies, said Benoit Leduc, operations manager for Haiti, in a conference call yesterday with journalists from Port-au-Prince.
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People are dying and infections, curable with antibiotics, are leading to amputations instead, he said. The organization has five facilities now, three of which have surgical capabilities, he said.
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The organization has treated more than 3,000 patients, and performed 500 operations with 165 international workers and 550 locals. Another 48 doctors from abroad are on the way.
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Doctors Without Borders is trying to reach areas outside the capital that have suffered destruction and often are accessible only by helicopter, Leduc said.
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“We’re behind pace,” he said of the group’s overall operations. “It’s really a race.”
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Looting in downtown Port-au-Prince was “widespread,” CNN reported yesterday. One U.S. citizen died in an “incident,” Agence France-Presse said, citing a military spokesman.
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U.S. Rear Admiral Michael Rogers, director of intelligence for the Joints Chiefs of Staff, told reporters yesterday looting had been “isolated” and wasn’t impeding aid from getting through.
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Haitian President Rene Preval said that international aid to his country, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, has been “quick, concrete and massive.” The nation, with an economy of about $7 billion, was in a “difficult” situation before and needs institutional changes and economic development, he said in an interview with Venezuela’s government-funded Telesur television network.
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In London, European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said the EU should set up a rapid reaction force to better deal with humanitarian crises.
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“We have to reflect afterwards about a better instrument for reacting,” Van Rompuy said today. “But that’s for later, first things first, we need to do everything we can to help the people of Haiti.”
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To contact the reporters on this story: Bill Varner at the United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net ; To contact the reporter on this story: Andres R. Martinez in Mexico City at martinez28@bloomberg.net .

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The United States was sending more troops on Monday to help protect a huge relief operation in Haiti from marauding looters as tens of thousands of earthquake survivors waited desperately for promised food and medical care.
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Gangs of looters still prowled demolished streets of downtown Port-au-Prince filching goods from destroyed shops with little police presence, but some signs of normality returned as street sellers emerged with fruit and vegetables.
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"We do not have the capacity to fix this situation. Haiti needs help ... the Americans are welcome here. But where are they? We need them here on the street with us," said policeman Dorsainvil Robenson, as he chased looters.
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Some 2,200 Marines with heavy earth-moving equipment, medical aid and helicopters were arriving on Monday, said the U.S. Southern Command, which aims to have 10,000 U.S. troops in the area for the rescue operation.
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World leaders have promised massive amounts of assistance to rebuild Haiti since Tuesday's quake killed as many as 200,000 people and left its capital, Port-au-Prince, in ruins.
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European Union institutions and member states have offered more than 400 million euros ($575.6 million) in emergency and longer-term assistance to Haiti, which even before the disaster was already the poorest state in the Western Hemisphere.
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Aid workers struggled to get food and medical assistance to the survivors, many of them injured, hungry and thirsty and living in makeshift camps on streets strewn with debris and decomposing bodies.
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"The situation is very tough on the ground, including for agencies and countries rushing to help. Minimal survival even for staff there is an issue," the head of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, said in Geneva.
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Nearly a week into the crisis, international aid was only just starting to get through to those in need, delayed by logistical logjams and security concerns.
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Haitian President Rene Preval said on Sunday U.S. troops will help U.N. peacekeepers keep order on Haiti's increasingly lawless streets, where overstretched police and U.N. peacekeepers have been unable to provide full security.
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Speaking on ABC's "This Week," the commander of the U.S. military operation in Haiti, Lieutenant General Ken Keen said: "We are here principally for a humanitarian assistance operation, but security is a critical component. ... We are going to have to address the situation, the security."
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In an indication of the sensitivity of U.S. soldiers operating in a Caribbean state where they have intervened in the past, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused Washington of "occupying Haiti undercover."
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Canada will host a meeting of foreign ministers in Montreal on January 25 to look at Haiti's needs, the Canadian government said.
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Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, meanwhile, proposed that African nations offer Haitian survivors the chance to resettle in Africa "the land of their ancestors".
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"Africa should offer Haitians the chance to return home. It is their right," Wade said on his website. Local media quoted Senegalese officials as saying the West African country was ready to offer parcels of fertile land to Haitians.
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The president of the Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Alberto Moreno, will visit Haiti on Monday and attend a donors meeting in the Dominican Republic to start discussing Haiti's reconstruction needs, a bank spokesman said.
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Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti, was due to meet on Monday with Preval, whose cabinet met outside police headquarters on Sunday in a circle of white plastic chairs due to the collapse of the presidential palace.
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Clinton was to bring aid supplies and determine more about what Haiti needs.
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Streets piled with debris slowed the delivery of medical and food supplies, but there were signs of progress as international medical teams took over damaged hospitals where seriously injured people had lain untreated for days.
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Rescue teams also raced against time to find people alive under the rubble of collapsed buildings, with more successful rescues of survivors reported on Sunday.
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Trucks piled with corpses were ferrying bodies to hurriedly excavated mass graves outside the city, but tens of thousands of victims are still believed buried under the rubble.
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With people turning more desperate by the day, looters have swarmed smashed shops in downtown Port-au-Prince, fighting each other with knives, hammers, ice-picks and rocks while police tried to disperse them with gunfire. At least two suspected looters were shot dead on Sunday, witnesses said.
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Heavily armed gang members have returned to the Cite Soleil shantytown since breaking out from prison after the quake.
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"Whether things explode is all down to whether help gets through from the international community," said police commander Ralph Jean-Brice, in charge of Haiti's West Department, whose force is down by half due to the quake.
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Local mayors, businessmen and bankers told Preval that restoring law and order was essential for reviving at least some commercial activity.
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The U.S. military said it was doing its best to get as many planes as possible into Port-au-Prince, after aid agencies complained shipments of aid had not been allowed to land at the U.S.-controlled airport.
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The airport's control tower was knocked out by the quake and U.S. military air controllers were operating from a radio post on the airfield grass, said Colonel Buck Elton, commander of the U.S. military directing flights at Haiti's airport.
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More than 30 countries have rushed rescue teams, doctors, field hospitals, food, medicine and other supplies to Haiti since Tuesday's quake, choking the airspace and the ramp at the small airfield.
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Although a few street markets had begun selling vegetables, charcoal, chicken and pork, tens of thousands of earthquake survivors across the city were still clamoring for help.
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There were jostling scrums for food and water as U.N. trucks distributed food packets and U.S. military helicopters swooped down to throw out boxes of water bottles and rations.
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"We haven't moved for four days, only God knows how long we can survive like this, but there are no jobs and no houses," said Marie Gracieuse Baptiste, a single mother with four children, sheltering at one improvised survivors' camps.
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A crude sign at the camp's entrance read: "People needs water, food."
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(Additional reporting by Tom Brown, Joseph Guyler Delva and Carlos Rawlins in Port-au-Prince, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, Frank Jack Daniel in Caracas, Mark John and Diadie Ba in Dakar, and David Brunnstrom in Brussels, writing by Anthony Boadle and Pascal Fletcher, editing by Sandra Maler)

By Anne Applebaum
Monday, January 18, 2010; A17
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For the past several days, I have found myself unable to look at the photographs from Haiti. I have also found that when I start an article datelined Port-au-Prince, I have to force myself to read to the end. I have donated money to Doctors Without Borders, on the grounds that its medical staff has been in Haiti a long time and will be able to use the cash quickly. I have no illusions, however, about my tiny donation or about those doctors' ability to help. I have no illusions about anyone's ability to help, for this is not just a natural disaster: It is a man-made disaster first and foremost, and so it will remain.
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Though the earthquake itself was powerful, its impact was multiplied many, many times by the weakness of civil society and the absence of the rule of law in Haiti. As Roger Noriega has written, "you can literally see the dysfunction from space." Satellite photos of Hispaniola, the island split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, show green forests on the Dominican side and bare, deforested hills on the Haitian side. Mudslides and collapsing houses were routine in Haiti even before this disaster. Laws designed to prevent erosion, and building codes designed to prevent criminally shoddy construction, were ignored. The rickety slums of Port-au-Prince were constructed in ravines and on steep, unstable hills. When they collapsed, they collapsed completely.
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So incredibly weak were Haiti's public institutions that nothing is left of them either. Parliament, churches, hospitals and government offices no longer exist. Haiti's archbishop is dead. The head of the U.N. mission is dead. There is a real possibility that violent gangs will emerge to take the place of leadership, to control food supplies, to loot what remains to be looted. There is a real possibility, in the coming days, of epidemics, mass starvation and civil war.
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I don't remember feeling this utter hopelessness about previous natural disasters. After the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 there were equally horrific scenes and stories: Whole villages swept away, people drowned in their homes, American families wading through water clutching their possessions on their heads. But after the initial chaos in both places, it was possible to coordinate basic assistance. In fact, the victims of Katrina were moved quickly out of New Orleans. Remember the buses to Texas, the Americans who offered their spare rooms to homeless families, the churches and schools that "adopted" refugees from the Gulf Coast? Although I would never claim that the result is satisfactory -- neither the city nor the adjacent coastline will ever be rebuilt as it was, and hundreds of thousands of people will never truly recover -- at least there were no epidemics, no mass starvation, no civil war.
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The same is true in Indonesia. It is even possible to read assessments of the worst-hit places, such as the region of Aceh -- from the World Bank, for example -- that describe life there as better than ever. I am certain that many disagree. There are, however, no scenes in Aceh of what everyone always calls "biblical" tragedy. Indonesia is not a society of utopian perfection, and neither is the United States. But both have enough social cohesion to support indigenous charities; both have enough educated people to plan reconstruction; both are capable of absorbing lessons learned, of rebuilding villages and cities with an eye toward future floods, of helping their own refugees resettle.
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Haiti does not have these kinds of internal resources, which means that the reconstruction expertise will have to come from outside. Most of it will come from the United States. Yet for the obvious historical reasons, this outside expertise will be unacceptable to many Haitians, who will see it as a colonial imposition, unwarranted interference in local affairs and cultural imperialism. Armed Marines may wind up in firefights with those violent gangs. Local elites -- those who remain -- may plot to swindle the aid missions out of their food and money.
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I hope I am wrong. I am sure there are optimists out there, people who think this is Haiti's chance to reconstruct itself, literally and figuratively, to rebuild government institutions, to attract donors and investment. Bill Clinton is such an optimist, and I am very, very glad that he and his wife spent their honeymoon in Haiti: How fortunate, at this moment, that the country has such powerful friends. Yet I also know that a successful recovery and reconstruction will require not just friends, not just money and not just optimism, but also a profound cultural and political shift, the kind of change that normally takes decades. And Haiti does not have decades, it has days -- maybe hours -- before fresh disasters strike.

Over the past 24 hours, with communication partially restored in Port-au-Prince, we have been able to coordinate strategy, challenges, and needs efficiently and effectively with our medical and logistics teams on the ground in Haiti.
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With supplies delivered and initial surgical teams deployed there have been numerous successes at PIH's sites of medical operations in Port-au-Prince and outside of the city. Today, we initiated a more decentralized approach, identifying four communities and a medical complex in Croix-des-Boquets into which we will expand our efforts tomorrow.
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We also began a MedEvac program for the most critical patients - four patients arrived in Philadelphia this morning where they all had surgery today and five additional patients were flown to the Dominican Republic this afternoon.
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In addition to these details, we have received painful emails, commentaries, and images about the state of Port-au-Prince. We hope that the following two pieces will provide you-our supporters who now stand in solidarity with Haiti-a glimpse of Port-au-Prince. You'll note, as we have, the profound need for a sustained, long-term international response to this crisis
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An email from Dr. Evan Lyon: In an email sent very early this morning, Dr. Evan Lyon documented his reaction to the catastrophe in Port-au-Prince
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The city is changed forever
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In today’s earliest hours, Dr. Evan Lyon recounted his reactions to PIH staff in Boston. He spent his first twelve hours in Port-au-Prince driving around the city identifying places in need so that PIH could pursue a more decentralized approach to emergency medical care delivery today.
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He and other PIH leadership forged important relationships with the hospital administration at the University Hospital (HUEH) where PIH has partnered with the Ministry of Health to pursue a fully coordinated approach to restoring of services for the thousands of patients awaiting care there. And together with the PIH logistics team and Dr. Joia Mukherjee, he helped evacuate four of the most in need patients and a guardian from Port-au-Prince to Philadelphia for urgent care. We hope his words will give you all who are supporting this relief effort a small window into what it is like to be in Port-au-Prince now.
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Can't get through much now but beyond the horror, one very striking reality is that things are totally peaceful. we circulated in PAP in the middle of everything until just now. everywhere. no UN. no police. no US marines and no violence or chaos or anything. just people helping each other. drove past the main central park in PAP where at least 50K people must be sleeping and it was almost silent.
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People cooking, talking, some singing and crying. people are kind, calm, generous to us and others. even with hundreds lying on the ground, open fractures, massive injuries of all kinds.
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There are few dead bodies on the street. stench is everywhere. the city is changed forever.
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We had a late day opportunity to evacuate 4 patients to the US. these may be the first haitian nationals allowed to leave for the US. but martinique has taken over 200. the DR has taken many many more. so we circulated in PAP looking for urgent cases. found hundreds but picked up the 4 to get out, hopefully to philadelphia. open fractures, gangrene, one 4 year old boy with a leg broken in 3 places, a minor head wound, and now 4 days of sleeping outside with IV fluid and maybe some pain meds. Probably none.
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At the airport, we drove onto the tarmac to meet the air ambulance. surrounded by marines and UN, massive weapons. a humvee with a gunner turret at the top drove by. the noise from the large transport planes was deafening. us citizens and haitian american citizens leaving by the hundreds on US planes. and our small team of haitian and american docs evacuating a drop in the bucket. my ears are still ringing from the noise of it all.
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in contrast, port au prince is silent. no current. no car traffic. people sleeping in the streets but little else. beside the impossible weight and tragedy of this city completely devastated, one lasting impression was the stillness of the city. in shock, tragically sad, but quiet. so good to get away from the airport.
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Sleeping tonight in the house of a dear PIH friend and doctor. attending to neighbors here and able to rest. safety and the work is with our sisters and brothers in this beautiful, proud, and strong nation.
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The safest and best way to be here and help is with our colleagues and friends. wonderful to be in the city, away from the airplanes, and working shoulder to shoulder with people we know and love and will continue work with to mourn, assist, and rebuild this special country.
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For press / outreach strategy, we might highlight the generosity and getting it done kindness of the air ambulance team. they also left us all the supplies they had on.
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For his photos, click here: http://standwithhaiti.org/haiti/news-entry/photos-from-port-au-prince-da...
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To share this information, click here:
http://standwithhaiti.org/haiti/news-entry/photos-from-port-au-prince-da...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2010/01/14/GR201001...

The Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com
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Posted on Sun, Jan. 17, 2010
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BY LUIS FELIPE LOPEZ
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Nobody here has seen elements of the United Nations
mission, with their unmistakable blue helmets. Nor the vehicles that distribute water or the mobile kitchens sent by the Dominican Republic.
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This town, which was the epicenter of the earthquake, is living in the epicenter of oblivion.
On Saturday, a first contingent of Dominican firefighters managed to reach Carrefour, an enormous hillside town about 10 miles south of Port-au-Prince, home to more than 400,000 people.
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``We're looking for the possibility to rescue some
survivors in the rubble, but unfortunately can't find
anyone,'' a member of the Dominican crew -- who asked not to be identified -- told El Nuevo Herald.
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``We have decided to return to Port-au-Prince because the people here are desperate and, under such conditions, our work becomes much too dangerous,'' he added.
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The streets and alleys of Carrefour -- known by the
Haitians as Kafou -- are empty. Getting here is extremely complicated because most the buildings collapsed and the rubble blocks access to the town.
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In the absence of police, residents have barricaded the roads with cadavers and burning tires in an effort to prevent looting. But many others refuse to abandon their rickety homes, hoping that someone will arrive to rescue them and the bodies of their relatives.
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``We need the government, the United Nations, the
firefighters, someone to come. Now. We cannot wait any longer,'' said Beatrice Raimond, 32.
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This decimated population has endured one tragic event after another over the past three decades: earthquakes, hurricanes, the horror of indiscriminate violence and the eccentricities of the dynasty of Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier.
So far, the limited efforts of rescue and aid conducted with international cooperation have been focused on the central zone of Port-au-Prince.
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With hundreds of bodies on the streets or trapped in the rubble, the danger of disease is imminent. The name Carrefour means ``crossroads'' in Creole, and in
the present situation it could not be more appropriate.
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© 2010 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.

Washington Post

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Medical teams struggled to cope with an overwhelming crush of injured patients in this earthquake-ravaged city Sunday, while an international armada of would-be helpers vied in frustration for access to the disaster zone.
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The French-based group Doctors Without Borders issued a public call that its planes "be allowed to land" at the Port-au-Prince international airport, "in order to treat thousands of wounded waiting for vital surgical operations." In North Carolina, troops with the 82nd Airborne who have been ready to deploy since Friday were told it would be at least 9 p.m. before they leave, because the tarmac is clogged with too many planes.
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"We're ready to go," said Lieutenant Col. Peter Im. "It is a matter of having the capacity to receive it. There's very limited infrastructure, so getting equipment and personnel in is like you're going through a funnel."
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Top State Department and military officials on the ground in Haiti said their ability to quickly get vital food and water in Haitians' hands has been hampered by their reliance on Port-au-Prince's tiny airport. Because of damaged roads and a devastated port, an airfield that typically serves three flights a day and lacks electricity and a functioning tower is having to handle up to 60 civilian flights a day.
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The airport has been swarmed by incoming flights carrying emergency relief items from many nations, and some officials and organizations have been angered that the U.S. military took over prioritizing which flights it considered the most important to gain entry.
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After the complaint from Doctors Without Borders, its hospital plane was given clearance to land around 3 p.m. Sunday. An Air Force official said the military had 67 civilian flights trying to arrive, Elton said, and turned away only three.
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"When you're dealing with life and death, everybody feels quite strongly . . . understandably," Denis McDonough, the chief of staff of President Obama's National Security Council, said of complaints about delays at the airport. "It's absolutely understandable that tempers would flare. But one thing that I'm sure none of us will apologize for is that we're all trying to relieve the pain of the Haitian people in this time of disaster."
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At a field hospital run by the University of Miami in a United Nation's compound outside the Port-au-Prince airport, workers set up cots on an outdoor patio to accommodate waves of sick and wounded who could not fit into the already overflowing surgical and medical tents.
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Since Wednesday night, the staff at the field hospital has grown from three doctors to 87 personnel. On Sunday, they were treating 280 patients crammed into a large tent on side-by-side cots. Next door was the surgery tent. On the patio, patients hooked up to intravenous lines filled the rows of new cots as soon as they were in place.

"The need is just overwhelming. We're just scratching the surface," said Dr. Eduardo de Marchena, a cardiologist taking a break from operating on patients. "We may have to turn people away, we're overspilling."
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Seven field hospitals had been set up in Port-au-Prince by international organizations as of Saturday, and three more were supposed to open Sunday, said Nicholas Reader, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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While some Haitian hospitals were still functioning, they were facing a new challenge -- patients and their families who refused to leave once they were treated because they had no other shelter available.
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They have nowhere to go. Their homes have been destroyed. So they are staying," Reader said. "So the hospitals are literally overflowing with people."
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Among the 30 search-and-rescue teams from around the globe who were scouring the fetid rubble, some successes were reported. Nadine Cardoso Ridela, 60, the owner of the destroyed Hotel Montana, was found alive in the rubble shortly before dawn Sunday, and was being treated for nonlife-threatening injuries, medical officials said.
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But officials acknowledged that the effort here is soon going to move from a search-and-rescue operation to a recovery effort
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"The further we get from the event, the more difficult, the more challenging it becomes to find people alive," said Tim Callaghan, USAID's senior regional adviser on the Caribbean. "We're getting close to that painful time."
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The Red Cross said access to food, water, shelter, sanitation and medical care remain extremely limited throughout the capital, as tens of thousands of survivors spent a fifth night camped out in squalid tent cities and makeshift shelters. Some people sought refuge in smashed and dust-covered cars, Red Cross officials said. Residents were seen picking through a dumpster in search of something to eat. Where medical help is available, those in need vastly outnumber those able to help. Long lines of sick and wounded form outside the gates of makeshift clinics, and the doctors and nurses who have mobilized search for desperately needed medicine and equipment.
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At a clinic in the Montrissant neighborhood, pieced together out of two metal containers and a canvas-covered courtyard, "one of the doctors told me they cannot cope and lost over 50 patients in the past two days," said International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman Simon Schorno, who has toured most parts of Port-au-Prince. Fifty foreign doctors were expect to arrive at the clinic "soon," the Red Cross said.
The nearly collapsed Haitian government is at least nominally in charge of the relief effort, even though it has ceded air traffic control at the airport to the U.S. military.
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With their offices heavily damaged, the president and his cabinet are now working out of a cramped, low-slung Haitian judicial police headquarters near the airport. International aid workers consider the building so fragile -- it has small cracks from the earthquake -- that they hold meetings with the officials on plastic chairs on the patio outside.
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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton flew in for a visit Saturday with Haitian President Rene Preval, telling him: "We will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead."
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Adding to the confusion, the top two leaders of the U.N. mission in Haiti, who normally would coordinate an aid response, are presumed dead. They disappeared after the quake destroyed the building in which they were meeting.
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Clinton said the Haitian government has given the United States and others some leeway to meet emergency needs. The Haitian "government says the highest priority is to save lives," she said.
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Haiti's government had reportedly recovered 20,000 bodies from the rubble by Saturday. Estimates are that the death toll could reach 50,000 to 100,000.
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A few signs of national survival flickered, even as some Haitians began an exodus out of the devastated capital and into the countryside. But there was rising frustration -- and scattered looting -- among the desperate Haitian population. On Friday, the World Food Program had to suspend distribution of high-energy biscuits near the destroyed national palace when a crowd revolted, complaining that they were not getting better food.
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"We're hungry. We're hungry," a group of boys on the side of the road implored a passing journalist on Saturday.
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Much of the population of the city continues to sleep outside, with parks, streets, car lots and other sites turned into open-air dormitories. But other groups of people were seen trekking out of what one resident described as the "hell" of Port-au-Prince to friends, relatives and security in the countryside.
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In Washington, meanwhile, former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush pledged to lead a long-term fundraising effort on behalf of Haitian relief as they stood with President Obama in the White House Rose Garden Saturday morning.
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The two former presidents continued their public appeal Sunday morning, with a joint appearance on CNN's "State of the Union." Bush, who until now has kept out of public view since leaving the White House, dismissed as "defeatist" critics who say Haiti will never recover from the devastation.
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"Success is helping save lives in the short term," Bush said. "And then we can worry about the long-term after the situation has been stabilized."
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Wilgoren and Leonnig reported from Washington. Staff writers Michael E. Ruane, Glenn Kessler and Michael D. Shear in Washington and Dana A. Hedgpeth in Fort Bragg, NC, contributed to this report.

Haiti earthquake: ICRC rushes to get water and medical supplies to survivors
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Significant amounts of emergency aid have arrived in quake-struck Port-au-Prince. The challenge now is to get it to survivors as quickly as possible. Further assessments confirm that the damage is widespread and immense. Very few neighbourhoods have been spared, while local infrastructure and services have been wiped out. The ICRC has built latrines for 1,000 people and supplied medical kits for 2,000 patients to two hospitals. Seven truckloads of ICRC medical supplies should arrive in the capital on Sunday evening.
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Tens of thousands of quake survivors have spent a fifth night outdoors in the makeshift camps that have sprung up in every neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince. Access to shelter, toilets, water, food and medical care remains extremely limited, according to ICRC specialists on the ground. While some food seems to be available in the city, prices have skyrocketed and most people cannot afford to buy anything.
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Medical facilities in Port-au-Prince still lack staff and medicine. They are overwhelmed and bursting at the seams. The sanitation situation in the makeshift camps is precarious.
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"Croix de Pré may be the most devastated neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince," says ICRC spokesman, Simon Schorno, who has visited most areas of city. "Very few buildings are left standing and in every back alley, people have pitched their plastic sheets and blankets. Some survivors sit in smashed and dusty cars. There is trash everywhere and the air is filled with the stench of dead bodies," he says.
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The ICRC, which was already present and active in Haiti before Tuesday's earthquake, is strengthening its response to the crisis. It works as part of the wider International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and cooperates closely with the Haitian Red Cross.
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According to Mr. Schorno, the headquarters of the Haitian Red Cross, which is located near Croix de Pré, is surrounded by people looking for medical care. The National Society has set up a first aid post in the middle of the street, where Red Cross volunteers from Haiti and other countries work side-by-side to clean and stitch up wounds amidst the rubble.
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In Centreville, on the Place du Champ de Mars, several thousand survivors are now living in one of the city's largest makeshift camps. Mr. Schorno describes a desperate situation there. "Some people have found a bit of shade but most sit in the sun. The stench of stale urine is overpowering. Hundreds of children improvise games, laugh and cry. Mothers chat with neighbours and fan themselves," he says.
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Martine, a 39-year-old mother, washes her son in a bucket of water. Several families have already used it. Her husband left earlier in the morning to fetch drinking water. For now, they have none. Her neighbours gave her a few vegetables they had cooked. "I don't know how long we'll stay or where we'll go," she says.
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The streets further towards the sea are packed with people. Aftershocks continue and no one wants to be inside the few buildings left standing.
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"There are bloated, decomposing bodies in the streets, many leaking yellow liquid," says Mr. Schorno. "Motorcycles and cars drive around them, and no one looks. Young men remove blocks of cement from collapsed buildings. They are not looking for people, but for scrap metal. It seems they are now focused only on their own survival."
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In the shadow of the flattened National Palace, the police headquarters is empty and the building half-collapsed. Police officers and their families, who are also in need of help, sit in their cars and pick up trucks. Rémi, the three-year-old son of one officer, is sick and injured.
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"He was under the building for four hours and has been paralysed since we moved him out of the rubble, three days ago," says his father. "I am scared," whispers his mother, Wilma. "Is my boy going to die?" Her son, who has not eaten in two days and is unresponsive, is taken to a nearby field hospital. It is the only functioning medical facility in Montrissant. There are four doctors for around 400 patients waiting at the makeshift clinic, which is made up of two metal containers and canvas-covered courtyard.
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It is packed and there are dozens of wounded and sick people at the gate. "One of the doctors told me they cannot cope and lost over 50 patients in the past two days," says Mr. Schorno. Around 50 expatriate doctors are expected to arrive soon but for some survivors, like Rémi, the help may be too late.
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"Closer to the sea, huge piles of black and white trash are piling up, grey polluted water floods the streets, ladies sell dirty vegetables, and young men are cutting up used car tires," says Mr. Schorno. "Buses blowing clouds of black smoke are full. Those who can are leaving the city for the countryside, where it might be easier to survive and perhaps start anew."
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Before the quake, the Haitian Red Cross had around 1,000 registered volunteers in Port-au-Prince, many of whom have since been working around-the-clock to help those in need. "We have saved many lives in the last few days," says Judas Celoge, the field coordinator for the Haitian Red Cross' first aid post in Martissant – one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the city.
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Near the first aid table on the side of the street, 13-year-old Marine sits on the sidewalk holding her head in her hands. She doesn't cry but stares emptily ahead. She lost both her parents and her brother and sister in the quake. Their bodies have not been found and probably never will be.
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"Everyone you talk to has lost someone. There is no one here that has not been affected by this tragedy," says Mr. Schorno.
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The international relief activities of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, including those of the ICRC, are being coordinated by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
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The ICRC continues to work closely with its Red Cross partners on the ground to assess humanitarian needs and deliver relief assistance.
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A shipment of around 40 tonnes of ICRC medical supplies, sent from Geneva on Thursday night, is finally expected to arrive in Port-au-Prince on Sunday evening. It will arrive by truck from the Dominican Republic.
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On Saturday, 16 January, the ICRC started a water trucking programme in the Delmas neighbourhood, which is now providing clean water for around 1,000 people living in a makeshift camp. Latrines have also been built in the same neighbourhood.
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The ICRC, with the support of the Haitian Red Cross, has supplied medical kits to treat 2,000 patients for a month to two Port-au-Prince referral hospitals. Hundreds of blankets and plastic sheets have also been distributed.
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Given the scope of the disaster, the ICRC is not in a position to provide exact figures about the number of deaths or injuries resulting from the earthquake.
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A second ICRC rapid deployment team left Geneva on Sunday morning for Haiti, where they will provide additional forensics, tracing, nursing, communications and logistics support to staff already on the ground.
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Meanwhile, the first of three massive Red Cross Red Crescent basic health care emergency response units (ERUs) arrived on 16 January. The ERU is designed to provide basic and immediate health care to 30,000 people. So far, 14 ERUs have been deployed to Haiti, with most expected to arrive in the coming days. They include water and sanitation units, logistic units, IT and telecommunication infrastructure, and a massive 250-bed hospital.
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In addition, ICRC Delegates have visited several places of detention in Port-au-Prince to assess the needs of the detainees and the authorities, and to follow up on detention issues.
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The ICRC is working to set up a post at the headquarters of the Haitian Red Cross to help restore family links between people who may have been separated or who are searching for missing relatives. People will also be able to register as safe and well. The post will ensure that people can receive and forward information to their relatives.
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As of 17 January, more than 21,600 people had registered with the ICRC's special website, www.icrc.org/familylinks, which was activated on Thursday to help people searching for their loved ones.
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The overwhelming majority of registrations are from people looking for news about their relatives, although around 1,500 people have so far used the site to say they were safe and alive.
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"The large number of people who have registered the names of their loved ones is a clear indicator of how many people outside Haiti are really desperate for news," says Robert Zimmerman, who's in charge of the ICRC's Restoring Family Links programme.
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"It's going to take some time, though, before we're able to collect significant amounts of information from within Haiti. We're trying to get the word out that this service exists and that people can let the Red Cross know they're okay, but for the anxious relatives waiting for news, it's going to require patience and time."
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For further information, please contact:
Simon Schorno, ICRC Port-au-Prince, satellite tel: +88 165 146 6175
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Anna Nelson, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 79 217 3264
ICRC out-of-hours duty phone, tel: +41 22 730 3443

Follow the ICRC on Twitter for regular updates on relief efforts in Haiti: http://www.twitter.com/icrcnews

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew to Haiti on Sunday to support earthquake relief efforts and to visit his staff's devastated headquarters in what the agency is calling the most challenging disaster it has ever faced. Ban's charter Boeing 737 was met by the acting chief of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, Edmond Mulet, who was sent in immediately after the quake to replace mission chief Hedi Annabi.
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Annabi was buried in the rubble along with many others when the five-story U.N. headquarters collapsed in Tuesday's magnitude-7.0 quake. His body was found Saturday. Hundreds of others are missing.
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Shortly after landing, Ban had an emotional reunion with his former spokeswoman, Michele Montas, a Haitian woman who was visiting her mother at the time of the earthquake.
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Ban's first stop in Haiti was to be the U.N. headquarters, after which he planned to take an aerial tour of the country's most-damaged areas.
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Ban said he has three priorities in Haiti: saving as many lives as possible, stepping up humanitarian assistance and ensuring the coordination of the huge amount of aid coming into the country.
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"We should not waste even a single item, a dollar," he said. Ban said the U.N. is feeding 40,000 people, and expects that figure to rise to 2 million within a month. The secretary-general also said he was "very touched and grateful" for the outpouring of aid from other countries around the world.
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U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs in Geneva has declared the quake the worst disaster the international organization has ever faced, since so much government and U.N. capacity in the country was demolished. In that way, she said, it's worse than the cataclysmic Asian tsunami of 2004: "Everything is damaged."
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Ban called the quake "one of the most serious humanitarian crises in decades."
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"The damage, destruction and loss of life are just overwhelming," he said.

By Ansel Herz (IPS - 1/17/2010)
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 15, 2010 (IPS) - The roof of Haiti's national penitentiary is missing. The four walls of the prison rise up and break off, leaving only the empty sky overhead.
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The gate to the jail in downtown Port-Au-Prince is wide open; the prisoners and police are all gone. Bystanders walk freely in and out, stepping over the still-hot smoldering remains of the facility's ceiling.
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The 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday afternoon broke it to pieces. "I don't know if he's alive or not alive," said Margaret Barnett, whose son was a prisoner. "My house is crushed down. I'm just out in the street looking for family members."
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"Where is the help?" she asked. The former government employee spits the question again and again, hands on her hips. "Where is the help? Is the U.N. really here? Does America really help Haiti?"
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In the absence of any visible relief effort in the city, the help came from small groups of Haitians working together. Citizens turned into aid workers and rescuers. Lone doctors roamed the streets, offering assistance.
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The Red Cross estimates that 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday's earthquake, with some three million others left homeless and in need of food and water.
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At the crumbling national cathedral, a dozen men and women crowded around a man swinging a pickaxe to pry open the space for a dusty, near-dead looking woman to squeeze through and escape.
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The night of the quake, a group of friends pulled bricks out from under a collapsed home, clearing a narrow zig-zagging path towards the sound of a child crying out beneath the rubble.
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Two buildings over, Joseph Matherenne cried as he directed the faint light of his cell phone's screen over the bloody corpse of his 23-year-old brother. His body was draped over the rubble of the office where he worked as a video technician. Unlike most of the bodies in the street, there was no blanket to cover his face.
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Central Port-Au-Prince resembles a war zone. Some buildings are standing, unharmed. Those that were damaged tended to collapse completely, spilling into the street on top of cars and telephone poles.
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In the day following the quake, there was no widespread violence. Guns, knives and theft weren't seen on the streets, lined only with family after family carrying their belongings. They voiced their anger and frustration with sad songs that echoed throughout the night, not their fists.
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"Only in the movies have I seen this," said 33-year-old Jacques Nicholas, who jumped over a wall as the house where he was playing dominoes tumbled. "When Americans send missiles to Iraq, that's what I see. When Israel do that to Gaza, that's what I see here."
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Late at night, Nicholas heard false rumours that a tsunami was coming and he joined a torrent of people walking away from the water.
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Nobody knows what to expect. Some people said Haiti needs a strong international intervention - a coordinated aid effort from all the big countries. But there was no evidence on the streets of any immediate cavalry of rescue workers from the United States and other nations.
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"My situation is not that bad," said Nicholas, "but overall the other people's situation is worse than mine. So it affects me. Everybody wants to help out, but we can't do nothing."
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Haitians are doing only what they can. Helping each other with their hands and the few tools they can find, they lack the resources to coordinate a multi-faceted reconstruction effort.
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U.N. agencies and humanitarian organisations on the ground are struggling to help survivors of the quake, but many are hindered by large-scale damage to their own facilities, as well as lack of heavy equipment to clear rubble.
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Logistics remained the main obstacle on Friday, according to news reports, with damage to the main airport, impassable roads and problems at the docks continuing to bottleneck the outpouring of international relief workers and basic supplies.
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The United Nations is issuing a flash appeal Friday for more aid as part of a coordinated immediate response and long-term reconstruction plan.
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A popular radio host here reminded everyone that the strength of the Haitian people cannot be underestimated, posting on his Twitter: "We can re-build! We overcame greater challenges in 1804" - the year Haiti threw off the yoke of colonial slavery in a mass revolt.
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As the days tick by and the bodies pile up, it will take bold vision and hard work on that scale for Haiti to recover from Tuesday's tremors.

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration is expecting to commit significantly more to Haiti than the $100 million already designated for earthquake-relief, said the White House's point man on the crisis, Rajiv Shah.
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"We'll do whatever it takes to mount an effective response," said Mr. Shah, who heads the U.S. Agency for International Development, on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. "Our goal is to do more every single day, and exponentially more." The rising estimates for U.S. aid comes as the Pentagon is significantly scaling up its troop presence in the Caribbean country as concerns mount about looting and a broader breakdown in law and order.
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The U.S. has 1,000 troops deployed in Haiti with another 3,600 stationed offshore on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. Pentagon officials said Sunday that two more companies from the 82nd Airborne are scheduled to land soon in Haiti along with significantly more air, sea and land equipment and personnel.
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Military planners indicated the U.S. could end up deploying more troops to address the security situation.
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"We're going to be here as long as needed," said Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, deputy commanders of the U.S.'s Southern Command, on CNN. "Security is an essential component."
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U.S. and United Nations officials also already starting to point to a much longer international presence in Haiti beyond the current crisis phase. Many, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton who is United Nations special envoy to Haiti, said the Caribbean country had been making major strides in developing its economy and civic institutions before the earthquake. The hope is that reconstruction efforts will take Haiti beyond its pre-earthquake situation. The relief operation won't be successful if, "We just get them back to where they were before the earthquake," Mr. Clinton said on CNN.
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Mr. Clinton and former U.S. President George W. Bush have been tapped by President Barack Obama to help oversee a long-term relief fund for Haiti.

Ciné Institute Director David Belle reports from Port-au-Prince:
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"I have been told that much US media coverage paints Haiti as a tinderbox ready to explode. I'm told that lead stories in major media are of looting, violence and chaos. There could be nothing further from the truth.
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"I have traveled the entire city daily since my arrival. The extent of damages is absolutely staggering. At every step, at every bend is one horrific tragedy after another; homes, businesses, schools and churches leveled to nothing. Inside every mountain of rubble there are people, most dead at this point. The smell is overwhelming. On every street are people -- survivors -- who have lost everything they have: homes, parents, children, friends.
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"NOT ONCE have we witnessed a single act of aggression or violence. To the contrary, we have witnessed neighbors helping neighbors and friends helping friends and strangers. We've seen neighbors digging in rubble with their bare hands to find survivors. We've seen traditional healers treating the injured; we've seen dignified ceremonies for mass burials and residents patiently waiting under boiling sun with nothing but their few remaining belongings. A crippled city of two million awaits help, medicine, food and water. Most haven't received any.
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"Haiti can be proud of its survivors. Their dignity and decency in the face of this tragedy is itself staggering."

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/01/15/candiotti.haiti.port.d...

By Philip Sherwell in New York and Colin Freeman
UK Telegraph
Published: 3:57PM GMT 17 Jan 2010
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A looter holds a knife as he fights for products in Port-au-Prince: scavengers and looters have preyed on shattered buildings in the widespread absence of authority and order after Tuesday's earthquake
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One rioter, a man in his 30s, was killed outright by bullets to the head as the crowd grabbed produce in the Marche Hyppolite. Another looter quickly snatched the rucksack off the dead man's back as clashes continued and police reinforcements descended on the area armed with pump-action shotguns and assault rifles.
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It came as predictions of the death toll from the Haitian earthquake rose to 200,000 as mounting desperation at lack of aid threatens to tilt the country into anarchy.
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With up to three million survivors still cut off from outside rescue efforts, the United Nations said the disaster was the worst it had ever dealt with.
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Aid officials fear a lapse into all-out lawlessness in coming days unless US troops can get through with vital food, medicine and water deliveries, which are being hampered by the sheer scale of devastation. There were continued incidents of looting, and isolated reports of rescue workers being stoned by angry crowds.
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The UN's warning came as the full picture of the horror in the flattened capital of Port au Prince emerged. Haitian ministers claimed the body count could rise far beyond the 50,000 estimate made by the Red Cross officials on Friday, saying that 50,000 bodies had already been buried. Trucks piled high with corpses delivered them to mass graves outside the stricken city, with thousands more still lying uncollected on the streets or buried under heavy rubble.
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"We have already collected around 50,000 dead bodies," said interior minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime. "We anticipate there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number."
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If that casualty count is confirmed, it would make Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake one of the ten deadliest on record. The death toll would also rival that of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed roughly 250,000 lives. However, officials with knowledge of both incidents said the Haitian disaster - which hit a country already barely functional - posed an infinitely tougher relief challenge.
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"This is a historic disaster," said UN spokesman Elisabeth Byrs, whose own organisation has lost 36 local staff in the earthquake. "We have never been confronted with such a disaster in the UN memory. It is like no other."
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The UN undersecretary general for peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, added: "There have been some incidents where people were looting or fighting for food. They are desperate, they have been three days without food or any assistance.
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"We have to make sure that the situation doesn't unravel, but for that we need very much to ensure that the assistance is coming as quickly as possible."
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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to land in Port au Prince on Saturday to meet with President Rene Preval, who himself has been rendered homeless by the tremor. The Haitian government has handed over control of its airport to the US military, which has landed 1,000 troops into the country already and will bring another 9,000 in coming days to supervise aid deliveries and ensure stability. Some US soldiers had to keep large crowds at bay outside the airport, where some aid supplies have now got stuck because of the difficulties of transporting them into the disaster zone. Doctors at some of the few functioning field clinics complained that they had already run out of medicines.
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In Britain, which has sent teams of specialist rescue workers to Haiti, reports of the earthquake's appalling aftermath prompted a quick public response. The Disasters Emergency Committee said £10 million was raised in 24 hours.
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International aid efforts have so far been bottlenecked because of damage to the port and airport, where numerous relief planes were unable to land last week because of lack of space and damage to the control towers. The US naval aircraft carrier Carl Vinson arrived off Haiti on Friday with 19 helicopters, opening up an alternative aid delivery channel. But after making 20 deliveries of water and energy drinks, it ran out of supplies by yesterday morning. "We have lift, we have communications, but we don't have much relief supplies to offer," said Rear Admiral Ted Branch.
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"There are other supplies at the airport that are under the control of other agencies and we haven't yet coordinated together... unfortunately that doesn't happen overnight."
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Some 27 international search and rescue teams, with 1,500 workers and 115 dogs are already active in the disaster zone. A team of British firefighters rescued a two-year-old girl buried beneath a collapsed kindergarten, pulling other corpses aside to get at her.
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US rescuers also dug throughout Friday night at a collapsed supermarket where as many as 100 people were feared trapped. They were about to give up, when they were told a cashier had managed to call someone in Miami to say she was still alive inside.
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The working conditions for rescue teams remain extremely tough, however. Even with armed security teams, most deemed it unsafe to continue working at night. "It isn't just the challenges of transport and communications, it is security as well," said one UN official. "One rescue team had stones thrown at them."
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Haiti's threadbare police force has been largely powerless to keep law and order, although one local police chief said that they were rounding up known gang leaders and criminals, some of whom escaped from a prison damaged during the tremors.
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So far the looting and robbery has not been as bad as feared. But rescue officials sense the mood in the city is sullening, and believe violence could become widespread if a substantial aid effort does not arrive soon. On Saturday, four days into the crisis, many Haitians were still digging for loved ones with their bare hands, while others simply wandered the streets in a daze. The stifling heat has made the shortage of drinking water and stench from corpses all the more unbearable.
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Yesterday Russel Honore, the retired US general who coordinated the military response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster that devastated New Orleans, said the aid effort for Haiti had been too cautious to start off with.
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"The next morning after the earthquake, I assumed there would be airplanes delivering aid," he said. "What we saw instead was discussion about, 'Well we've got to send an assessment team in to see what the needs are.' And anytime I hear that, my head turns red."
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Washington denied his claims, saying the operation had been done as quickly as possible. But either way, the scale of the disaster means the initial stages of emergency aid may now only be the beginning. Officials say that up to three-quarters of Port au Prince now need rebuilding, and that US troops may have to be in the country for some six months. Failure to stabilise the situation could lead to a mass exodus of refugees, both into neighbouring Dominica, and possibly also in boats bound for the US.
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Donations to the DEC Haiti appeal can be made by calling 0370 60 60 900, through the website http://www.dec.org.uk or over the counter at any post office or high street bank, quoting Freepay 1449.

Haiti Earthquake Relief
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On January 12, 2010, a massive earthquake struck the nation of Haiti, causing catastrophic damage inside and around the capital city of Port-au-Prince. President Obama has promised the people of Haiti that "you will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten." The United States Government has mobilized resources and manpower to aid in the relief effort. Here are some ways that you can get involved.
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Contribute online through ClintonBushHaitiFund.org.
Text “QUAKE” to 20222 to charge a $10 donation to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund (the donation will be added to your cell phone bill).
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Find more ways to help through the Center for International Disaster Information.
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Get Information about Friends or Family
The State Department Operations Center has set up the following phone number for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti: 1-888-407-4747 (due to heavy volume, some callers may receive a recording). You can also send an email to the State Department. Please be aware that communications within Haiti are very difficult at this time.
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The Federal Response: Check out the links below to find out how each federal department and agency is responding to the earthquake in Haiti.
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U.S. Agency for International Development
The Department of State
The Department of Defense
U.S. Army
U.S. Navy
U.S. Air Force
U.S. Marines
U.S. Coast Guard
The Department of Homeland Security
The Department of Health and Human Services
The Federal Communications Commission
The Department of Interior
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
U.S. Office of Personnel Management

By Tracy Wilkinson
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Reporting from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti - The woman wailed outside the ruins of the Notre Dame Cathedral of Port-au-Prince, the iconic Roman Catholic church that symbolized Haiti's religious fervor.
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"This is what God did!" she cried Friday morning. "See what God can do!"
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Tuesday's earthquake brought down the roof of the enormous pink-and-cream church, filling the apse and nave with tons of rubble. The quake punched out its vivid stained glass windows, twisted its wrought-iron fencing and sliced brick walls like cake. The western steeple, which had soared more than 100 feet, toppled onto parishioners praying at an outdoor shrine to St. Emmanuel. Flies buzzed around the pile of copper, plaster and felled columns.
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The senior Catholic figure in the country, Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, was killed in the magnitude 7.0 earthquake. As many as 100 priests were still missing, sacristan Jean Claude Augustin said.
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By the cathedral's ruins lay a small blue copy of the New Testament. Sheet music for Christian hymns was scattered through the street.
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Haiti is, officially, predominantly Catholic, with some Protestant faiths. But across the board is an underlying belief in, or respect for, voodoo and other indigenous traditions, which are often mixed in with those religious practices.
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Former Haitian President Bertrand Aristide was at one time wildly popular in part for his blend of superstitious spirituality, social activism and Catholic faith.
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Many have turned to God for an explanation of this catastrophe visited upon Haiti. Tens of thousands of people have been spending the nights in the streets, singing hymns and calling out the Gospel.
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Dudu Orelian, whose brother and nephew were killed, stood outside the cathedral. "God is angry at the world," Orelian said. Jack Fisner, a Haitian seminarian who lives in the Dominican Republic, came to Port-au-Prince to begin coordinating aid and prepare a report for the pope.
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"This has been a terrible blow to the church and the people," Fisner said. "You have to question your faith, but hopefully not lose it."
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Augustin, the sacristan, clambered into the interior ruins of the cathedral, nimbly scaling the mounds of rubble and downed chandeliers. He found a young man attempting to loot the collection box of its money and persuaded him to stop. Instead, the two men worked together to salvage the tithes, gathering up the coins and bills in a sheet.
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The statue of Notre Dame, familiar to anyone who ever worshiped in the cathedral, was gone, either destroyed or stolen. Behind the cathedral, the church's pastoral center, where religion classes were held, and the residences of most of the church leadership and its priests were also destroyed.
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Hope remained that the church's general vicar, an active, popular priest in his 80s, might still be alive. Father Charles Benoit, buried under a collapsed four-story building that contained his residence, managed to get a cellular telephone call out to Francois Voleile, a lifelong parishioner, two days ago. He said he was unharmed and had water and juice, but no way out.
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Voleile had been keeping vigil at the site ever since, while a couple of other people armed with a tiny mallet and pocket flashlight tried to work their way into a small opening on the side of the mountain of rubble. On Friday, they were getting nowhere.
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At midmorning, a search-and-rescue team arrived from Mexico, the topos (moles) who go around the world to extract disaster victims caught in terrible circumstances. The Mexican team boosted the rescue effort at the cathedral into full gear, using ropes to pull off sheets of laminated roofing and expose more rubble below.
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With area residents helping, they used pickaxes and shovels to tear into the top of the mound and create three possible entryways. They thought they heard occasional sounds to indicate life. They cleared plaster, beams, drawers full of papers and clothes, tossing everything into a widening heap. Only occasionally did one of the crew members pause to salvage something: a red priest's stole, then a copper chalice. He gingerly handed them to other members of the team.
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"It is overwhelming, such destruction in a place already destroyed," said Sister Berta Lopez Chavez, who said the team had worked the day before at a Catholic school, pulling out three children alive and the bodies of about 30 others. "Haiti lives two realities: this catastrophe, and their catastrophe of every day, of poverty and ignorance and daily hunger. It's like, what else can happen to them? The little they had is gone."
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About three hours after the team from Mexico launched its efforts, a team from Lincolnshire County, England, arrived with their black Labrador, Holly. Everyone was ordered off the hill, and the dog ran back and forth to inspect the scene.
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But Holly found no definitive sign of life, said team member Andy Ford. The team from England abandoned the search, leaving a smaller Russian team with a dog to do a second survey.
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"We are not discouraged," parishioner Voleile said. "We are still alive and we can go on."

NAIROBI, 17 January 2010 (IRIN) - Africa has not been left behind in the scramble to provide international assistance to Haiti.
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The following is a list of aid contributions reportedly pledged by African governments in the wake of the 12 January earthquake.
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South Africa – The government has announced a three-phase assistance package: deployment of doctors to a search and rescue team led by Rescue South Africa, a non-profit company; deployment of forensic pathologists to help identify bodies; provision of unspecified humanitarian aid in partnership with South African NGOs.
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Rwanda - US$100,000, according to Rwanda’s New Times newspaper.
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Senegal – President Abdoulaye Wade has pledged free land to Haitians wishing to be “repatriated”, news agencies reported. Spokesman Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye was quoted as saying: "Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land - even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come.”
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Liberia – Independent Star radio reported the government had contributed $50,000.
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Nigeria – The 121-strong police contingent serving with the UN mission in Haiti is working with rescue teams in the capital, Port-au-Prince, according to This Day newspaper. The country’s Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan said in a statement: “As the international community mobilizes in aid of Haiti, it can count on Nigeria's support.”

PORT-AU-PRINCE, 17 January 2010 (IRIN) - Haiti’s tiny international airport has been overwhelmed by the international response to the earthquake disaster, clogging up the emergency effort, according to aid workers.
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“The airport in Port-au-Prince does not have the capacity to handle so many aircraft,” Juan Carlos Porcella, the head of the civil aviation authority in neigbouring Dominican Republic told IRIN. “You have planes sitting for hours on the runway. No one wants to take responsibility to unload.”
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The Haitian and Dominican governments are planning an alternative 130km humanitarian road corridor to deliver relief supplies from the Dominican southern town of Barahona to Port-au-Prince, to be secured by UN peacekeepers.
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“The Haitian airport now is overwhelmed,” said UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Edmond Mulet.
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The US government stepped in to help at the overstretched airport on 15 January by taking control and allowing in only humanitarian flights.
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While some 180 tons of food aid had arrived by 15 January, getting the supplies out of the airport and into the hands of the needy has been a major hurdle, according to Kim Bolduc, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti.
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“You have no idea the state of the roads...The traffic is dense. We may need to change the time of [food] distribution,” she said. While main roads are reportedly open, secondary roads are still blocked.
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On 16 January the World Food Programme provided an estimated 39,000 people with high energy biscuits, water purification tablets and water containers. It could reach only 9,000 on 14 January.
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The government estimates three million people lived in the areas hit by the 12 January earthquake.
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When asked about criticisms that relief has been slow to get to the people, the UN's Bolduc replied: “Before the earthquake, Haiti was already a fragile state, and now almost everything has stopped [working]. The government is doing its best.”
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Local media reported that 27 out of 30 senators died in the quake, and half of the national police force has not been located, along with their equipment.

By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 16, 2010; C01
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In the strange circle of life, it all comes back to Haiti. When Bill Clinton married Hillary Rodham in 1975, a friend gave them a trip to Haiti. Since that honeymoon vacation, the Caribbean island nation has held a life-long allure for the couple, a place they found at once desperate and enchanting, pulling at their emotions throughout his presidency and in her maiden year as secretary of state.
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With the world's attention now trained on the devastated Haitian capital, rebuilding the country will be a central part of Bill and Hillary Clinton's lives going forward. And for the 42nd president, the catastrophe offers the opportunity to fulfill whatever unrealized ambitions he has for the long-suffering nation.
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"This is a personal thing for us," Bill Clinton said in a interview Thursday. He said he and his wife have "always felt a special responsibility" for Haiti and its 9 million people. "She has the same memories I do. She has the same concerns I do. We love the place."
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On that first trip in December 1975, Clinton said he and his wife watched as a wreath was placed at the national monument to celebrate Haitian Independence Day. They toured the old hotel where the writer Ernest Hemingway once stayed and visited a voodoo high priest dressed in all white. They sat in a lonely pew of the Port-au-Prince National Cathedral, which lies in ruin following Tuesday's earthquake.
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"We just became fascinated with the country," Bill Clinton said by telephone from his charitable foundation's office in New York. "We followed all its ups and downs."
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The Clintons' enthrallment has lasted for more than 30 years. They decorated their homes with Haitian art. They flew back again and again. Hillary Clinton once said that theirs was a "Haiti-obsessed family." At a dinner in Rwanda with African leaders in 2008, Bill Clinton talked more about Haiti than Rwanda.
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When the Clintons learned that sites in Port-au-Prince they had visited as tourists were destroyed in the earthquake and locals they had come to know were injured or unaccounted for, Bill Clinton said he was "personally emotionally affected." His wife, he said, became "physically sick."
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The Clintons are at the center of the global relief effort. Bill Clinton is the U.N. special envoy to Haiti and, together with former president George W. Bush, is leading America's humanitarian and long-term recovery efforts in Haiti. Hillary Clinton is among the top officials responsible for the nation's work aiding Haiti and its paralyzed government, and plans to fly there Saturday. "The two agencies in the world that can run these things are the United States and the United Nations, and the Clintons sit atop this package," said former senator Tim Wirth, president of the U.N. Foundation.
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Three months into her term last spring, Hillary Clinton addressed the Haiti Donors Conference in Washington, where she spoke of her family's "deep commitment to Haiti and the people of Haiti." She told of visiting the Haitian town of Pignon as first lady, meeting a country doctor who ran a health, women's literacy and micro-credit center to help his countrymen gain a foothold in the global economy.
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"For some of us, Haiti is a neighbor and, for others of us, it is a place of historic and cultural ties," Clinton said. "But for all of us, it is now a test of resolve and commitment."
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Bill Clinton is credited with prioritizing Haiti more than any other modern president; in 1995, he became the first commander in chief to visit the island since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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But Clinton failed to achieve his goal of economic growth in Haiti. His administration intervened in 1994 to reinstall President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and a democratic government in the wake of a military coup. When Republicans took over Congress the next year, they checked Clinton's every step in Haiti, and within two years Clinton withdrew U.S. troops from Haiti. The island state has continued to be plagued by crime and drug trafficking.
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"The unfinished business was whether there could be enough assistance to get an infrastructure to allow Haiti to dream of becoming this century's South Korea," said Taylor Branch, a longtime friend. "Naturally, Clinton hoped that Haiti could have an economic rebirth to go along with this political rebirth. But it didn't happen."
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Still, Clinton has been regarded as a harbinger of hope to the Haitian people. He recently visited Milot, a town in northern Haiti, where he drew a large and unexpected crowd of locals in a soccer field. They recognized the former president.
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"He kind of charged into the crowd," said Paul Farmer, a public-health expert and deputy U.N. envoy to Haiti, who accompanied Clinton on the trip. "He was so happy. It sounds corny, but I've seen that again and again. He has this real connection."
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Last summer, Clinton took a walk with Haitian President René Préval down a street in Gonaives that had just been reconstructed following the 2008 hurricanes. Hundreds of neighbors gathered around them and Clinton spent so much time talking with the locals, aides said, that it took one hour to walk a quarter-mile.
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"He is regarded as someone who's fundamentally sympathetic to the Haitians, someone who has argued they have a right to dignity and respect -- and to chose their own leaders," Farmer said.
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In his post-presidency, Clinton has tried to leverage his prestige to focus on long-term development in Haiti, helping secure millions of dollars in aid. Wirth has traveled with the Clintons to Haiti. "He asks, 'What can we do?' " Wirth said. "This is such a problem . . . and people have almost such enormous fatigue facing the size of this challenge. He lifts people above that fatigue and into action again."
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Asked if he is committing himself to Haiti's cause for near future, Clinton said: "Oh, you bet."
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"You've seen the pictures," he said. "The streets are full of the wounded, the orphaned and the dead. It's a devastating, devastating thing. . . . These people, they deserve their chance to build a modern life, and I think they can do it."
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On Thursday, Clinton and Farmer convened a long-scheduled meeting in Clinton's Harlem office of about 50 philanthropists, financiers and leaders of nongovernmental organizations interested in the long-term development of Haiti. Clinton said his strategy is to "build back better." That means not just fixing roads, but also planting trees on deforested hillsides, growing more mangoes to export and expanding organic recycling programs.
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"The Haitians have the first chance they've had to escape their own history," Clinton said.
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To Clinton, Haiti's promise can be summed up in a single briquette. Haitians cook mostly with charcoal fire, but coal is an expensive resource there. A group of entrepreneurial women he visited recently in a densely populated Port-au-Prince neighborhood found a solution. As Clinton told the story, they walk through the streets picking up trash. They mix the paper with sawdust and water and then press the water from the product to create organic briquettes.
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"They can sell these things for a penny or two a piece, and three of them will prepare dinner on a typical Haitian cooking stove for much, much less -- 15 percent of the cost of making dinner with charcoal," Clinton said.
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He was so impressed that he brought dozens of the briquettes to New York with him. He carries one in his bag every day, aides said, sometimes pulling a briquette out of his pocket during speeches to show audiences.
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"For a few hundred thousand dollars," Clinton said, "we can spread this all over Port-au-Prince."
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Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.

http://www.ngohaiti.com/disaster/index.htm
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There are now about a dozen books and CDs on the site, and will be continually updated. John also has aa Haiti Business Directory and a Haitian NGO Directory but needs volunteers to help update each.
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Feel feel to reach out to John through the website if you would like to assist him.

According to Corbett's List, the Haitian Embassy in DC is collecting offers of assistance from those with medical skills.
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http://www.haiti.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=137
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Also try http://dex.cidi.org

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND AUDRA D.S. BURCH
aburch@MiamiHerald.com
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When night falls, the 20 young men gather the megaphones and begin patrolling the rocky soccer field in the Marie Therese neighborhood, keeping vigil over this makeshift village of 1,500 mothers, fathers and babies, all earthquake survivors.
They walk this field where the dead rest in the shadows. As the day slips into night, others sing spiritual hymns. Oh Lord My God, when I in awesome wonder. Consider all the worlds, Thy hands have made . . .
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Five days after the earthquake, Haiti is surviving mostly on faith, fortitude and self-reliance born of years of war, hunger, political corruption and a series of natural disasters.
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``The entire system has been hit,'' said Evens Exantus, 32, one of the self-made soldiers of the camp. ``The people who usually give help are homeless. We are doing what we can with what we have.''
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Here in Marie Therese, on the outskirts of Pétionville, where the soccer field sits in a valley surrounded by cinderblock homes, the men have organized themselves into a brigade that governs, polices and protects those living in the camp. They have collected the equivalent of $12 to help pay for water and fuel to operate a tiny generator.
And they took charge of finding help. The top priority now is moving the 50 decomposing corpses from the yard of a closed hospital shouldering the field.
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Already the stench is heavy and smothering, but the fear of disease is even more powerful.
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``In Creole, there is a proverb that says, `Grés kochon ki kwit kochon','' said Exantus, ``that is what we are living by.''
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The saying, popularized during the era of the Duvalier family dictatorship, means ``the pork has to cook by its own fat.''
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Translation: ``We have to do it for ourselves.''
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Years of tragedy has forged Haiti's national character.
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``Our strength, our drive, our spirit comes from our history,'' said Jean Lot St. Gervais, who heads a Miami-Dade-based Haitian education foundation. `We will die trying, so if you ask us, `Will Haiti come back?' The answer is absolutely.''
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Less than two years ago, a staggering string of hurricanes and floods gouged the island -- already economically and socially frail -- leaving towns cloaked in water and mud. Some 800 people were killed and tens of thousands were left homeless -- living in the streets, on rooftops, and in some cases, back in their own broken, muck-encased homes.
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Over two months, Tropical Storm Fay, Hurricane Gustav, Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Ike ravaged the country and washed away precious livestock and rice, corn and plantain crops -- followed by collosal food and fuel shortages.
But once again, Haiti began its march back and within a year boasted of millions in investments in hotels and businesses and infrastructure.
Now, Haiti has nearly crumbled.
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The backbones of society are gone -- churches, hospitals, schools and businesses, the institutions upon which life is built.
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Yet from this wretched landscape, the stories, maybe even miracles, are emerging of self-help and personal responsibility and resourcefulness.
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``The country has been in a very dire condition for a very long time yet has managed to survive and, in fact, culturally thrive,'' said Pierre-Michel Fontaine, a University of Miami visiting associate professor of International Relations, Africana Studies and Latin American Studies. ``We Haitians are accustomed to living in harsh conditions but still have a tremendous degree of optimism.''
Evans Paul, former mayor of Port-au-Prince and political leader, said Haitians have been steeled by their 200-year history.
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``Don't forget this is a people that was formed out of exile. We came from afar, another continent, Africa. They brought us here and we worked hard as slaves, and we took our independence,'' Paul said.
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``All the time we spent fighting for our independence, fighting against dictatorship, gave this people a capacity to resist.''
And endure. Across this dust-caked city, as makeshift encampments and tent cities spring up and survivors await the basics that the world has pledged will come, Haitians have taken matters into their own hands, providing their own security, bartering and rationing what little they have.
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Those lucky enough to still work head for the marketplace in the daytime hours. Others spend the day scrounging for food and water -- some returning to their damaged homes with food to share with neighbors. Still others stand guard over the meager belongings left behind in the camps.
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``At night, we sleep bundled up, one up against the people,'' said Wandy Charles, 26. ``With so many people, you cannot stick a needle between us.''
At another sprawling camp of thousands formed at the Plaza St. Pierre public square in Pétionville, there is no brigade after dark, but the young people sing throughout the night.
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``We don't sleep; you can't close your eyes,'' said Jimmy Ludor, 22.
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Mildred Michel, a mother of five, said she walked three hours with her children and two sisters in tow to the plaza from downtown. She's still unsure how she made it out of her poorly constructed home alive. It collapsed.
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For now, this is home. At another camp in Port-au-Prince, the women braided one another's hair; some cooked up vats of spaghetti with tomato ketchup and steamed plantains, even rolled out dough on wooden boards.
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``I have nothing. From time to time, I find something to eat,'' said Thelusma Adrien, 25, at Plaza St. Pierre. ``I am not afraid because I am sure once a few months go by everything will be all right. By Monday, I am sure they will come.''
Others aren't so sure. Jasmine Pierre said she and 10 members of her family have been camped out in a Port-au-Prince park since Tuesday. She has not seen any food deliveries, rescue workers or signs of international relief.
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Some 700 miles away in South Florida, Haitians frantically worked the phones to find loved ones but also to mobilize their own relief campaigns.
Gisele Dessources Pean, 57, of Pembroke Pines sat motionless as television broke the news. First, she called Haiti for her brothers and sisters. Then she called friends and colleagues to start a circle of giving that would be headquartered at her church, St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Miramar.
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``I saw the palace go, I saw the cathedral go. I had my first communion there and was baptized there,'' said Pean, a registered pharmacist. ``I was just there in July and remember thinking how things were finally coming back from the hurricanes. I knew I had to do something.''
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When the quake hit, Jeff Policard, 30, was with his mother discussing their family business, Food Express, which allows Haitians here to pay for food in Miami for family members in Haiti.
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``We were talking about how we could be more involved in the country. After our last trip, we had noticed the efforts being made in the country,'' said Policard, who lives in Doral. ``This past December celebration was one of the best people have experienced in years. No violence or drama. The country was feeling good!''
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When flights return to Haiti, Policard plans to be among those going, joining his father who is safe but staying outside the family home in Pelerin. For now, Policard and friends are walking house to house collecting canned goods in his neighborhood.
Somewhere amid the anguish of losing parents in the quake, Martine Poitevien still saw rebirth rising from a homeland in ruins.
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It had been only a few hours since a brother called with the news that the bodies of their parents, Frederic, 75, and Innocent Poitevien, 70, had been found in the family home in Carrefour. Still, there was an exquisite mix of light and dark in Poitenvien's thin voice.
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``I have cried and cried and will go home as soon as the airports allow,'' said Poitenvien, a Miramar mother who left Haiti in 1986. ``I have to go home for them and for my country. It is suffering and needs our help. We must rebuild. And we will.''
Miami Herald staff writers Alena Lowenthal and Frances Robles contributed to this report.

http://haiticrisis.appspot.com/
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"...People Finder allows the Haitian diaspora to check the status of loved ones while also allowing relief organizations a common back-end to store data. The launch was announced by US Secretary of State Clinton and we're seeing considerable activity for both information on missing persons as well as
requests for information. We're hoping this proves to be genuinely valuable."

CHICAGO (AFP) – Haiti and its neighbors must prepare themselves for more massive quakes after the devastating tremors this week increased pressure along a lengthy fault line, scientists warned Friday.
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Paul Mann, a senior research scientist at the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin, warned that just because the rebuilding process had started people shouldn't assume the risk was over.
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"This relief of stress along this area near Port-au-Prince may have actually increased stress in the adjacent segments on the fault," he told AFP.
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Researchers have already begun to work on models to try to predict how the stress changes resulting from the 7.0-magnitude quake which struck Tuesday is affecting the adjacent segments of the fault.
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"This fault system is hundreds of kilometers long and the segment that ruptured to form this ear quake is only 80 kilometers long," Mann said in a telephone interview.
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"There are many more segments which are building up strain where there haven't been earthquakes for hundreds of years.
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"Potentially any one of these segments could cause an earthquake similar to that which happened in Haiti."
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There are, thankfully, only two major population centers along the fault: Port-au-Prince and Kingston, Jamaica.
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But as demonstrated in the chaos which followed Tuesday's tremor, the impact of a quake of that magnitude can be "paralyzing," Mann said.
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Adding to the danger is the fact that the segment which broke was not among those closest to Port-au-Prince. And there is a second fault system in the north of Haiti which extends to the Dominican Republic which has not ruptured in 800 years and has built up sufficient pressure for a 7.5 magnitude quake.
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"The question is when are those going to rupture," Mann said, adding that it is very difficult to predict "whether or not that's going to happen next week or 100 years."
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Eric Calais, a French geophysicist who works at Purdue University in Indiana, is among those trying to assess the danger.
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He had warned Haitian officials years ago of dangerous pressure in the fault which caused this week's devastating quake, but little could be done to reinforce the desperately poor nation's weak buildings.
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"The Haitian government is not to blame in this," Calais told AFP.
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"They listened to us carefully and they knew what the hazard was. They were very concerned about it and they were taking steps. But it just happened too early."
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Calais began researching the fault line in 2003 and soon took his initial findings to the Haitian government, even meeting with the prime minister.
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In March 2008 he and Mann presented a paper showing that the fault had built up sufficient pressure to cause a 7.2 magnitude quake.
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But they could not pinpoint when the quake might strike and the government was occupied with recovering from a series of four hurricanes which struck that year.
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While the government had begun work on an emergency response plan, little could be done to retrofit and strengthen key buildings such as hospitals, schools and government buildings from which rescue operations could be organized.
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"It's a poor country," Calais said. "Strengthening a building to resist a large earthquake can be as costly as replacing the building."
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The devastation will allow Haiti to rebuild stronger than before, Calais said, noting that there are relatively cheap engineering solutions that can be applied to ensure that new buildings will not collapse in the next quake.
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"It's very important for Port-au-Prince to rebuild properly," he added. "There are other segments of that fault that could rupture in the future."

Andrew Cawthorne and Catherine Bremer
Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:18am (Reuters)
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PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - World leaders pledged aid to rebuild a devastated Haiti, but on the streets of its wrecked capital earthquake survivors were still waiting on Sunday for the basics: food, water and medicine.
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Five days after a 7.0 magnitude quake killed up to 200,000 people, international rescue teams were still finding people alive under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince.
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Hundreds of thousands of hungry Haitians were desperately waiting for help, but logistical logjams kept major relief from reaching most victims, many of them sheltering in makeshift camps on streets strewn with debris and decomposing bodies.
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In the widespread absence of authority, looters swarmed over collapsed stores on the city's shattered main commercial boulevard, carrying off T-shirts, bags, toys and anything else they could find. Fighting broke out between groups of looters carrying knives, ice-picks, hammers and rocks.
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Many Haitians streamed out of the city on foot with suitcases on their heads or jammed in cars to find food and shelter in the countryside, and flee aftershocks and violence.
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Many others crowded the airport hoping to get on planes that left packed with Haitians.
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President Barack Obama promised help as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew on Saturday to Haiti, where the shell-shocked government gave the United States control over the congested main airport to guide aid flights from around the world.
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"We're moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in our history to save lives and deliver relief that averts an even larger catastrophe," said Obama, flanked at the White House by predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who will lead a charity drive to help Haiti.
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But on the streets of Port-au-Prince, where scarce police patrols fired occasional shots and tear gas to try to disperse looters, the distribution of aid appeared random, chaotic and minimal. Downtown, young men could be seen carrying pistols.
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And heavily armed gang members who once ran Haiti's largest slum, Cite Soleil, like warlords returned with a vengeance after the quake damaged the National Penitentiary allowing 3,000 inmates to break out.
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"It's only natural that they would come back here. This has always been their stronghold," said a Haitian police officer in the teeming warren of shacks, alleys and open sewers that is home to more than 300,000 people.
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There were jostling scrums for food and water as U.S. military helicopters swooped down to throw out boxes of water bottles and rations. A reporter also saw foreign aid workers tossing packets of food to desperate Haitians.
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"The distribution is totally disorganized. They are not identifying the people who need the water. The sick and the old have no chance," said Estime Pierre Deny, standing at the back of a crowd looking for water with his empty plastic container.
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Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest country and has for decades struggled with devastating storms, floods and political unrest. Around 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers have provided security here since a 2004 uprising ousted one president.
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Looting has been sporadic since Tuesday's earthquake, which flattened large parts of the capital. But it appeared to widen on Saturday as people became more desperate.
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The U.N. mission responsible for security in Haiti lost at least 40 of its members when its headquarters collapsed. The United Nations said the mission's chief, Hedi Annabi of Tunisia, his deputy Luiz Carlos da Costa of Brazil and the U.N. police commissioner in Haiti, Doug Coates of Canada, were killed.
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Aftershocks still shook the capital, terrifying survivors and sending rubble and dust tumbling from buildings. Dramatizing the need to keep up rescue efforts, three people were pulled out alive from a supermarket early Sunday. U.S. and Turkish teams freed a 7-year-old Haitian girl, a Haitian man and an American woman from the rubble of the five-story building, Reuters photographer Carlos Rawlins said.
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They were dazed but did not appear to be seriously injured. Rescuers had been ready to give up at the site on Saturday, until they were told that a supermarket cashier had managed to call someone in Miami to say she was still alive inside. As many as 100 more people could have been trapped inside the collapsed market.
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On Saturday, a Russian team pulled out two Haitian girls still alive -- 9-year-old Olon Remi and 11-year-old Senviol Ovri -- from the ruins of a house.
Trucks piled with corpses have been ferrying bodies to hurriedly excavated mass graves outside the city, but thousands of bodies are still believed buried under the rubble.
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Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said around 50,000 bodies had already been collected and the final death toll will likely be between 100,000 and 200,000. Dozens of bloated bodies have been dumped in the yard outside the main hospital on Saturday, decomposing in the sun. The hospital gardens were a mass of beds with injured people, with makeshift drips hanging from trees.
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The weakened Haitian government is in no position to handle the crisis alone. The quake destroyed the presidential palace and knocked out communications and power. President Rene Preval is living and working from the judicial police headquarters.
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Hillary Clinton told Haitians the United States will ensure their country emerges "stronger and better" from the disaster. "We will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead," she said after meeting Preval at the airport.
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The U.S. State Department confirmed 15 Americans had died in the temblor, including one of its employees in Haiti. Dozens of countries have sent planes with rescue teams, doctors, tents, food, medicine and other supplies, but faced a bottleneck at Port-au-Prince's small airport.
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The American Red Cross said 50-bed field hospitals and water purification equipment that were rerouted to neighboring Dominican Republic arrived by truck convoy, allowing it to start distributing water and first aid in Port-au-Prince.
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Air traffic control in Port-au-Prince, hampered by damage to the airport's tower, was taken over by the U.S. military with backup from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, which arrived off Haiti on Friday. Navy helicopters are taking water and rations ashore and ferrying injured people to a field hospital near the airport.
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The Pan American Health Organization said at least eight hospitals and health centers in Port-au-Prince had collapsed or sustained damage and were unable to function. The president of the Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Alberto Moreno, will visit Haiti on Monday and attend a donors meeting in the Dominican Republic to start analyzing Haiti's reconstruction needs, a bank spokesman said.
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(Reporting by Tom Brown, Joseph Guyler Delva and Eduardo Munoz in Port-au-Prince, Andrew Quinn in Washington and Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations; writing by Anthony Boadle and Jane Sutton; editing by Eric Beech)

Four food distributions in and around Port-au-Prince on Saturday reached 39,000 beneficiaries, giving out nearly 20 metric tons of High Energy Biscuits. On Sunday, we aim to reach some 60,000 people.
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One of Saturday's distributions was in Leogane, west of Port-au-Prince, near earthquake epicentre. It was the first food to reach this area where nearly all buildings were destroyed and tens of thousands are reported dead.
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We have started the distribution of hot meals in some places, such as hospitals and schools. We have also begun to set up kitchens in distribution sites.
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A plane carrying High Energy Biscuits (HEBs) from El Salvador has landed in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. HEBs have been loaded onto trucks and are currently being transported to Port-au-Prince. Another plane is about to leave El Salvador with more HEBs.
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A third plane carrying non-food items (wikhals, generators and other humanitarian cargo from UNICEF) departed from Panama on Saturday. Cargo was from UNHRD Panama. This cargo was free of charge thanks to Ericsson. The two previous flights were sponsored by the Spanish Cooperation.
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Three IT emergency responders are on their way to Haiti re-establish communication facilities for WFP and the entire humanitarian community as part of WFP's Emergency Telecommunication Cluster mandate. They will be joining two IT officers already in Port-au-Prince

By BILL CLINTON and GEORGE W. BUSH
Published: January 16, 2010
New York Times
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This weekend, President Obama asked us to spearhead private-sector fund-raising efforts in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that ravaged Haiti. We are pleased to answer his call.
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hroughout both our careers in public service, we have witnessed firsthand the amazing generosity of the American people in the face of calamity. From the Oklahoma City bombings to 9/11, from the tsunami in South Asia to Hurricane Katrina, Americans have rallied to confront disaster — natural or man-made, domestic or abroad — with the determination, compassion and unity that have defined our nation since its founding.
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After the tsunami, Americans gave more than $1 billion to help the people of South Asia. The recent earthquake in Haiti is estimated to have had an impact on nearly three million people — 30 percent of Haiti’s population. We know the American people will respond again. Just as any of us would reach out to a neighbor in need here at home, we will do everything we can to give aid, care and comfort to our neighbors in the Caribbean, now and in the months and years to come.
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With advances in technology, giving to relief efforts is easier than ever before. Organizations like the Red Cross have been stunned at the amount of money pouring in through an innovative fund-raising effort that allows cellphone users to text a $10 donation that will be added to their cellphone bills. The State Department raised more than $1 million in the first 24 hours, with millions more coming in the days since the earthquake. This money is being channeled to reliable charities with long experience in disaster relief, ensuring that Americans’ contributions are put to effective use.
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Our first priority will be to raise funds to meet the urgent needs of those who are hurt, homeless and hungry, and to ensure that the organizations and relief workers on the ground have the resources to do their jobs effectively. In the first two weeks, the needs are very simple: food, water, shelter, first aid supplies. Once relief workers have gone through all the rubble and every person — living and dead — has been recovered, once the streets have been cleared and communications and power restored, then Haiti is going to have to get back on its feet again.
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It’s a long road to full recovery, but we will not leave the Haitian people to walk it alone. When the rebuilding begins, we will need even more support to make Haiti stronger than ever before: new, better schools; sturdier, more secure buildings that can withstand future natural disasters; solutions that address the inequalities in health care and education; new, diverse industries that create jobs and foster opportunities for greater trade; and development of clean energy.
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There are great reasons to hope. For the first time in our lifetimes, Haiti’s government is committed to building a modern economy, and it has a comprehensive economic plan to create jobs. Haitian leaders have shown determination in confronting the challenges of AIDS, with strong support from private organizations and the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Per capita, there are more nongovernmental organizations in Haiti than in any other country except India. The members of the Haitian diaspora, in Miami, New York, Toronto and other cities overseas, are involved in and committed to the future of their native country. And the world’s attention is focused on this tiny island nation that has been overlooked for too long.
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Crises have the power to bring out the best in people, and we have seen many examples of this over the years, especially after the tsunami. Conflict in Aceh, Indonesia, was laid to rest while people focused on rebuilding together. In communities along the Indian coast, women who had lost their husbands learned marketable skills like arts and crafts and emerged better able to provide for themselves and their children than they were before the disaster.
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We should never forget the damage done and the lives lost, but we have a chance to do things better than we once did; be a better neighbor than we once were; and help the Haitian people realize their dream for a stronger, more secure nation. But we need more than just support from governments — we need the innovation and resources of businesses; the skills and the knowledge of nongovernmental organizations, including faith-based groups; and the generosity and support of individuals to fill in the gaps. Visit www.clintonbushhaitifund.org to make a donation and learn more about our efforts. It’s the least we can do, and the least the people of Haiti deserve. At our best, we can help Haiti become its best.
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Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States. George W. Bush was the 43rd president.

BY FRANCES ROBLES AND JACQUELINE CHARLES
frobles@MiamiHerald.com
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PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Jasmine Pierre and 10 members of her family have been camped out in a park since Tuesday. She has not seen any food deliveries, spotted rescue workers or noticed any signs of international relief.
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``Nobody is coming,'' she said. ``I think only God is in charge. The government should be here, any government. There is no government in the palace right now. I don't even really know if Haiti has a government today.''
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U.S. Southern Command in Miami reported Friday afternoon that some aid was finally trickling into the ravaged city of 2 million.
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But the 22-year-old's feelings of frustration were shared by many aid workers, relief agencies and medics, who say that three full days after an earthquake devastated this nation it is still not clear who is in charge of relief efforts.
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Nobody had seen any. No single federal government office building is still standing, and officials are looking for a proper headquarters from which to organize relief operations, first lady Elizabeth Préval said.Some Haitian leaders lost their lives. Others lost family or property, leaving a grief-stricken leadership awaiting an international community that Friday was still mobilizing to fill the void.
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``The government seems to be just waiting for help,'' said Gregory Gue, a Jacmel doctor who came to Port-au-Prince to volunteer for the Red Cross and was aghast at the conditions he encountered.
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``People die waiting for help. I am angry. Angry, but everyone is also very sad. It is clear the government had no emergency plan.''
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Gue was providing aid Friday to the injured, including a woman who needed an emergency C-section to remove her dead 8-month-old fetus. He was working out of a muddy parking lot.
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Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, however, defended the pace of progress. ``The international community reacted quite quickly in view of the circumstances and the scale of the hit,'' he said.
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``Everyone is still today in the streets -- and that includes the government. Because three-quarters of the government buildings are destroyed, that doesn't mean the government isn't doing its work.''
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Moreover, starting a day after the quake, Bellerive said, the remnants of the government held morning coordination meetings with U.N. representatives, foreign ambassadors and international agencies.
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Still, the outlook was grim from the ground. Businessman Gesner Champaigne said he has 16 trucks ready to distribute 600,000 gallons of water a day. On Thursday, the government used just four trucks.
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``We don't know who is doing what. Where is the nerve center?'' he said. ``There is a lot of confusion.'' He said the main delay was over security. It would be foolhardy for Champaigne to show up unescorted in quake-ravaged areas desperate for water.
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``We found out that, as far as a police force goes, it is gone,'' said Champaigne's sister Sophia Mortelly, who runs a foundation here. ``We are going to knock on the United Nations' door.''
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U.N. headquarters in the Christopher Hotel collapsed during the earthquake. The United Nations has confirmed that 37 are dead and more than 300 are still missing, including the chief of mission.
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The first lady, who served as an advisor to president René Préval, acknowledged that aid distribution has been ``very slow.''
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``We have a lot of people who have not eaten in three days,'' she said. `I don't know whether the amount of food is insufficient or there is a problem with who is handling it. This has been a major trauma, even for the ministers handling the crisis.''
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Many ministers lost family and their chiefs of staff, she said. ``The challenge is to distribute food soon so that we do not have violence,'' she said. ``The Parliament collapsed, the Justice Palace collapsed, the National Palace collapsed,'' Preval said. ``Those are the three symbols of state and those are all collapsed.''
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As Haitian officials cope with their own devastating losses -- the finance minister's son died -- aid workers say it appears nobody in the Haitian government or the international community has stepped in to take charge.
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Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime acknowledged the breakdown, saying that traditionally the U.N. Stabilization Force coordinated relief efforts.
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``There is no leader emerging from anywhere,'' said longtime aid worker Regine Alexandre. ``You have that sense of statelessness. Maybe people are too weak to give a strong sense of direction.''
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Audry Mullings, a spokeswoman for the International Federation of the Red Cross, said emergency relief mobile units that were expected Thursday were rerouted when their plane was not allowed to land. They were expected late Friday.
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``This is quite a peculiar disaster,'' she said. She could not say what agency or ministry was organizing relief efforts or giving orders.
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``I can tell you the Haitian Red Cross has been hard at work since the earthquake took place,'' she said

BY TRENTON DANIEL AND ANDRES VIGLUCCI
aviglucci@MiamiHerald.com
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The roads to Jacmel are blocked and the only way to travel is by foot or motorcycle.
While the world's attention focused on earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince, a catastrophe of parallel magnitude has been unfolding in isolation on the country's southern coast, which the quake left littered with smashed buildings and extensive casualties.
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Stranded and increasingly desperate residents of Jacmel, a quaint, historic Caribbean port city that suffered widespread damage and has been cut off from Port-au-Prince to the north, complain they have been forgotten. Four days after the quake struck Jacmel with equal force, they say they are still awaiting food, water, medical supplies and relief workers.
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``We need so much help because there are a lot of people injured at the hospital, because there are a lot of bodies under the buildings,'' said Phen Lafondse, 34, an electrician.
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In scene after scene that eerily echoes the destruction seen the world over in Port-au-Prince, two-story buildings throughout downtown Jacmel -- a tourism center of some 40,000 people known for its art, French Colonial architecture and a spellbinding carnival -- have been reduced to concrete rubble. Residents walk through the streets with bandannas covering their faces because of the pervasive odor of decomposition that hangs over the city.
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A vocational and auto-repair school, the Eunasmoh Institute, points to the severity of the local disaster: At least 100 students were crushed when the building collapsed in the quake, neighbors said. The trapped bodies of the victims could still be seen Friday, crushed arms and stiff legs protruding from the ruins.
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But piles of dirt and fallen boulders block the narrow, winding road through the mountains from Port-au-Prince to Jacmel, and residents say help has yet to make it through. They wonder if the outside world is even aware of what happened here.
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Miami Herald journalists who provided the first news accounts out of Jacmel traveled to the city Friday from Port-au-Prince partway by car, briefly hiked closer to the city on foot and entered on motorcycle taxis Jacmel is known for. Before dusk fell Friday, a government bulldozer had begun working to clear the road.
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The epicenter of Tuesday's quake was located between Jacmel and Port-au-Prince, which are about 25 miles apart. The destruction in Jacmel may have initially escaped outside notice because of U.N. briefings that said damage from the quake appeared mostly restricted to Port-au-Prince.
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The desperation in Jacmel is perhaps nowhere more evident than at a makeshift medical treatment facility in the city center. Forced here after the adjacent hospital suffered severe damage, doctors and local relief workers scrambled to treat more than 100 victims.
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``Tomorrow, the medicine, everything we have, is going to be gone,'' said Jean Prophete Baptichon, a hospital administrator.
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Doctors and relief workers say they've seen about 300 patients since the quake. Six people, including two children, died from injuries, they said.
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As they wrap bandages on broken arms and legs, doctors resort to improvisation -- an ophthalmologist, for example, treats fractured bones and concocts splints with what he can.
And they worry that the hospital next door could collapse at any moment. Tremors from an aftershock rattled Jacmel for a few seconds Friday afternoon and sent people dashing away from buildings still standing.
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They worry about the generator running out of fuel. And they worry about running empty on medical supplies, medicine and antibiotics.
There is a small relief presence in Jacmel -- many of them here since before the earthquake -- but it in no way matches the size of that in Port-au-Prince.
UNICEF workers are trying to coordinate with authorities in the neighboring Dominican Republic to helicopter in medicine and other supplies. They also may evacuate patients to the Dominican Republic.
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`It's almost impossible to send people to Port-au-Prince,'' said Tameka Donatien, a UNICEF coordinator from Cameroon. ``It's a complete mess and we don't want to complicate things.''
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In fact, some injured residents of Port-au-Prince fled the city for treatment in Jacmel. Brothers Vladimir and Stanley Desir opted to bear hours of agony and took motorcycle taxis to Jacmel, where they have family, after their Port-au-Prince home came down on them. Two sisters died.
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``The hospitals in Port-au-Prince couldn't help us,'' said Vladimir, 24, a student.
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The city's near-destruction may prove especially troubling for Haiti's future because it was widely seen as one of the impoverished nation's few bright spots. Picturesque and long regarded as the safest city in Haiti, Jacmel had managed to keep a steady tourism trade going even as international visitors avoided the rest of the country -- enough to establish annual film and music festivals.
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Just this month, the announcement that Choice Hotels International, owners of Comfort Inn, would be franchising its brand to two hotels in Jacmel was hailed as a sign of optimism and growing foreign investment interest.
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But at least one of the city's leading small inns, The Florita Hotel, a New Orleans-style house built of brick in 1888, was heavily damaged, with half of the structure lying in a heap. It was one of several surviving period homes in Jacmel.
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``It survived a lot of hurricanes, including some bad storms last year, but this earthquake did it in,'' said owner Joe Cross by phone from New Jersey, where he was when the quake hit. ``Jacmel was by far the nicest town in Haiti, and this was one of the sturdiest of the old houses -- but I don't know how charming it is now.''
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Five resident staff members have been sleeping outside the hotel for fear the rest would collapse, though neither workers nor some 15 guests suffered any serious injuries, Cross said.
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``Jacmel is going to require a lot of time before it comes back to normal,'' said Jean-Ruid Senatus, La Florita's manager, outside the shattered inn.
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Stranded tourists and missionaries, meanwhile, were trying to map exit plans amid a growing and worrisome shortage of food, water and fuel.
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At the 32-room Hotel Cap Lamandou -- one of the hotels slated to become a Comfort Inn -- some 30 church-group workers and a few Haitian tourists were holed up until they could find a safe way out.
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Melanie Piard, a graphic designer from Montreal, came to Haiti to bury her mother and headed to
Jacmel afterward for some respite from bereavement. But then the earthquake happened.
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Piard said she and her family learned of relief efforts under way in Port-au-Prince on the Internet.
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``But what about us?'' asked Piard, 30. ``We're stuck here.'' Daniel reported from Jacmel and Viglucci from Miami.

Associated Press Writers Alfred De Montesquiou And Mike Melia, Associated Press Writers
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Precious water, food and early glimmers of hope began reaching parched and hungry earthquake survivors Saturday on the streets of the ruined Haitian capital, but the island's despair threatened to spark a frenzy in places.
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"People are so desperate for food that they are going crazy," said accountant Henry Ounche, standing in a crowd of hundreds who fought one another as U.S. military helicopters clattered overhead carrying aid.
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Across the hilly, steamy city, people choked on the stench of death, and hope faded by the hour for finding many more victims alive in the rubble, four days after Tuesday's catastrophic earthquake.
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Still, here and there, the murmur of buried victims spurred rescue crews on, even as aftershocks threatened to finish off crumbling buildings.
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"No one's alive in there," a woman sobbed outside the wrecked Montana Hotel.
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But hope wouldn't die. "We can hear a survivor!" search crew chief Alexander Luque of Namibia later reported. His men dug on.
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Nobody knew how many were dead. In a fresh estimate, the Pan American Health Organization said 50,000 to 100,000 people perished in the quake. Haiti's prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, told The Associated Press that 100,000 would "seem to be the minimum." Truckloads of corpses were being trundled to mass graves.
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A U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman declared the quake the worst disaster the international organization has ever faced, since so much government and U.N. capacity in the country was demolished. In that way, Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva, it's worse than the cataclysmic Asian tsunami of 2004: "Everything is damaged."
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Also Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Port-au-Price to pledge more American assistance, and President Obama met with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to urge Americans to donate to Haiti relief efforts.
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The U.N. also announced that the body of Haiti mission chief Hedi Annabi had been found in the rubble of collapsed headquarters.
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Yet, despite the obstacles, the pace of aid delivery was picking up.
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The Haitian government had established 14 distribution points for food and other supplies, and U.S. Army helicopters were reconnoitering for more. With eight city hospitals destroyed or damaged, aid groups opened five emergency health centers. Vital gear, such as water-purification units, was arriving from abroad.
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On a hillside golf course overlooking the stricken capital, paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division set up a base for handing out water and food.
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After the initial frenzy among the waiting crowd, when helicopters could only hover and toss out their cargo, a second flight landed and soldiers passed food out to an orderly line of Haitians.
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More American help was on the way: The U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort steamed from the port of Baltimore on Saturday and was scheduled to arrive here Thursday. More than 2,000 Marines were set to sail from North Carolina, to support aid delivery and provide security.
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Hillary Clinton offered assurances that the U.S. would be "as responsive as we need to be."
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But for the estimated 300,000 newly homeless in the streets, plazas and parks of Port-au-Prince, help was far from assured.
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"They're already starting to deliver food and water, but it's mayhem. People are hungry, everybody is asking for water," said Alain Denis, a resident of the Thomassin district.
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Denis's home was intact, and he and his elderly parents have some reserves, but, he said, "in a week, I don't know."
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Aid delivery was still bogged down by congestion at the Port-au-Prince airport, quake damage at the seaport, poor roads and the fear of looters and robbers.
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The problems at the overloaded airport forced a big Red Cross aid mission to strike out overland from Santo Domingo, almost 200 miles away in the Dominican Republic. The convoy included up to 10 trucks carrying temporary shelters, a 50-bed field hospital and some 60 medical specialists.
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"It's not possible to fly anything into Port-au-Prince right now. The airport is completely congested," Red Cross spokesman Paul Conneally said from the Dominican capital.
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Another convoy from the Dominican Republic steered toward a U.N. base in Port-au-Prince without stopping, its leaders fearful of sparking a riot if they handed out aid themselves.
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The airport congestion touched off diplomatic rows between the U.S. military and other donor nations.
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France and Brazil both lodged official complaints that the U.S. military, in control of the international airport, had denied landing permission to relief flights from their countries.
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Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, who has 7,000 Brazilian U.N. peacekeeping troops in Haiti, warned against viewing the rescue effort as a unilateral American mission.
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The squabbling prompted Haitian President Rene Preval, speaking with the AP, to urge all to "keep our cool and coordinate and not throw accusations."
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At a simpler level, unending logistical difficulties dogged the relief effort.
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A commercial-sized jet landed with rescue and medical teams from Qatar, only to find problems offloading food aid. They asked the U.S. military for help, surgeon Dr. Mootaz Aly said, and were told: "We're busy."
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As relief teams grappled with on-the-ground obstacles, the U.S. leadership promised to step up aid efforts. In Washington, Obama joined with his two most recent White House predecessors to appeal for Americans to donate to the cause.
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"We stand united with the people of Haiti, who have shown such incredible resilience," he said.
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Their resilience was truly being tested, however.
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On a back street in Port-au-Prince, a half-dozen young men ripped water pipes off walls to suck out the few drops inside. "This is very, very bad, but I am too thirsty," said Pierre Louis Delmar.
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Outside a warehouse, hundreds of desperate Haitians simply dropped to their knees when workers for the agency Food for the Poor announced they would distribute rice, beans and other supplies. "They started praying right then and there," said project director Clement Belizaire.
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Children and the elderly were asked to step first into line, and some 1,500 people got food, soap and rubber sandals until supplies ran out, he said.
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The aid official was overcome by the tragic scene. "This was the darkest day of everybody living in Port-au-Prince," he said.

Jonathan Katz (AP)
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LEOGANE, Haiti – As aid masses in Haiti's devastated capital, time is running out in rural areas where the damage is no less severe. In Leogane, frustrated men gathered Saturday with machetes and clubs, ready to fight for a town they said the world has forgotten.
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All along the cracked highway heading west from Port-au-Prince along the bay, people begged for help. "SOS," declared a sign near Leogane. "We don't understand why everything is going to Port-au-Prince, because Leogane was broken too."
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That is putting it lightly. Leogane's city center is a rubble pile spiderwebbed with fallen power lines, coastal Haiti re-landscaped as a post-apocalyptic film set. Two mass graves line the road to the capital, a few yellowed bodies thrown in to start a third.
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At the corner of Rue La Croix and Pere Thevenot, a charming two-story built in 1922 that housed a pharmacy and a florist last week is a brickyard sepulcher for the couple who died trying to escape.
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Blocks away a group of men gathered to defend a health clinic-turned-shelter against all comers: The local government, which wants to dig another mass grave there, criminals loosed from the capital's broken penitentiary, and looters as hungry as they are.
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They said they do not want violence, but carried machetes, typical of this sugar-growing town, and clutched wooden pins and poles.
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"There is no one in the police station. We haven't seen aid," said 28-year-old Philip Pierre, who manages a yogurt plant. "We are ready to die fighting if they don't listen to us."
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Death has done brisk business here already, in a town where roaming Carnival bands were just getting in gear when the quake struck Tuesday, its epicenter just 12 miles (25 kms) to the east.
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The stench emanating from rubble is intense, and among the residents' demands are the "big shovels" working in the capital to excavate bodies.
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In a charitable move, casket-maker Yvon Lochard put his wares on sale, dropping the price of a wooden coffin from $450 to $100.
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"Before business was slow," he said matter-of-factly. "Now I'm selling these quickly."
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Even Lochard's prices, however, are too steep for most in a country where half the population lives on $1 a day. They carry their bodies atop pieces of tin and drop them in a mass grave.
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The living, meanwhile, are trying hard to stay that way. There is food in the markets, but the price of a 50-pound bag of rice has risen about 25 percent to $27.50 since the quake struck. In the mountains that ring the town, cisterns broke, leaving many without drinking water.
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A nearly collapsed corner store had $6,000 worth of rice, spaghetti and other food in the basement, its owner said, but he was too scared of collapse to go in and get it, despite increasingly terse demands from neighbors that he do so.
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U.N. peacekeepers from Sri Lanka were delivering water to about 1,000 people and sharing their own rations, Maj. Chandima Beligasooabba said. They were told the U.N. would be bringing in food supplies later Saturday.
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A team from Kansas City, Missouri-based Crisis Response International roamed the downtown area near the structurally unstable Sainte Croix Hospital, looking for any non-governmental organization to give supplies to. None was immediately apparent.
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Within Leogane, individual neighborhoods are on the lookout against each other. Leaders of each suspect the others might get violent — but promise they won't start trouble themselves.
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The first few protesters straggling into the streets were tense. One machete-wielding young man briefly collapsed from what his neighbors said was hypertension. And as the daze wears off from the shock wave that hit the town, older frustrations and the ordinary complications of Haitian life are creeping back in.
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"If the international community gives the government money, we're going to take to the streets," 51-year-old Maximillian Alfred said. "They won't do anything with it for the community."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced today the launch of a new tool on www.state.gov, the “Person Finder,” to allow people to find and share information on missing loved ones in Haiti.
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The tool can be found at http://www.state.gov/haitiquake.
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People around the world are turning to the Internet to search for information on friends and family in Haiti: however, accurate information is fragmented and difficult to locate. The State Department convened a call with NGOs and the tech community to brainstorm how to innovatively utilize technology in the ongoing search and rescue efforts. As a result of the call, a group of engineers from the private, public, and NGO sectors come together to build the “Person Finder.” It is a simple tool that allows people to locate and contribute information on people in Haiti. This tool is available in French and English, and can be embedded on any website.
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In addition to helping people find their loved ones, this tool will make the data accessible to other governments and private organizations in an easily manageable and accessible format.
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Anyone wishing to donate can text “HAITI” to “90999” and $10.00 will be sent to the Red Cross.

Rebecca Winthrop, Co-Director, Center for Universal Education
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The Brookings Institution
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The horrific images of the death and destruction after Haiti’s massive earthquake are both a call to action for the international community to provide immediate humanitarian assistance, and a sad but urgent reminder of the importance of disaster preparedness and risk reduction. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the impoverished country late Tuesday afternoon just outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. The quake was the worst in the region in more than 200 years. A day after the quake, there was no estimate on casualties, but thousands of people are believed to be dead.
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The quake left the country in shambles, without electricity or phone service, tangling efforts to provide relief to an estimated 3 million people whom the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said had been affected by the quake.
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While the horrors of the disaster are still unfolding, several realities have become clear. First, Haiti, which has suffered decades of conflict, poor governance and crippling poverty, needs immediate assistance from the international community. President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and other U.S. officials have responded immediately, pledging support, organizing assistance and finding ways to quickly deploy search and rescue teams and deliver relief and reconstruction aid.
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Getting international assistance to Haiti, a small tropical island in the Caribbean, is not easy since the airport is barely functional, with the air traffic control system knocked out and destroyed roads leading to and from it. But the international community appears to be working closely together to do their best.
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In relative terms, the international community responds fairly well to humanitarian emergencies caused by natural disasters once the disaster has occurred. However, the international community performs quite poorly in helping countries prepare for those disasters and implement strategies to minimize death and destruction. The field of disaster risk reduction is certainly growing and there are numerous strategies (many of them low-cost) that can be used to make, for example, construction of buildings – especially schools and hospitals – safer and less prone to collapse when disasters do hit. The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies – Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery guidelines on safer school construction is an excellent example of these types of strategies.
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Still, global funding for disaster risk reduction is woefully low. Official assistance commitments from all donor countries for disaster prevention and preparedness totaled a mere $339.5 million in 2008, compared to the $9,548.6 million official donors spent on emergency response that same year, according to the OECD statistical database. This is not enough to meet the needs of disaster prevention and preparedness. The number of natural disasters has increased, with current averages of 400-500 per year in 2007 compared to the average of 125 in the early 1980s. In 2009 alone, 55 million people were affected by extreme weather, causing $15 billion in economic damages.
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Indeed, with internal improvements and assistance from the office of the U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti, amongst others, the situation in Haiti is improving and a disaster risk reduction plan is in the works. However, the earthquake in Haiti is a poignant and heartbreaking reminder for the U.S. and international community of the need to invest in disaster preparedness.

PORT-AU-PRINCE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is appealing for US$279 million to feed 2 million people and provide logistical support for a 6-month Emergency Operation in response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti.
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In the initial phase of the operation, WFP will provide one-week rations of ready-to-eat food to up to 2 million people who no longer have access to kitchens or cooking facilities;
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After the distribution of the ready-to-eat food rations, WFP will begin general distributions of basic food items such as rice, pulses and cooking oil to 2 million people;
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As soon as possible, WFP will move from general food distributions towards food for work activities that use food as an incentive for people to support reconstruction and rehabilitation work in areas damaged by the earthquake;
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WFP began food distributions in and around the capital, Port au Prince, in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Some 2900 people received high energy biscuits in Port au Prince on Thursday, and distributions are being scaled up in the coming days;
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WFP has deployed expert logistics and telecommunications teams in support of the coordinated humanitarian response to this disaster;
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WFP has established a logistics hub in neighbouring Dominican Republic and has begun acquiring logistical assets - such as mobile warehouses, trucks, helicopters and a coastal vessel;
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WFP is considering establishing a network of up to 200 kitchens in Port au Prince, with each providing up to 500 meals a day;
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Food assistance will be directed at vulnerable families that have lost their homes, families living in temporary shelters, and child-headed households;
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So far, WFP has received more than US$55 million from donor governments, and more than US$5 million from private companies;
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Government donors include the United States, Luxembourg, Italy, Greece, Australia, Colombia, and the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund.
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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. In 2010, WFP aims to feed more than 90 million people in 73 countries.
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WFP now provides RSS feeds to help journalists keep up with the latest press releases, videos and photos as they are published on WFP.org. For more details see: http://www.wfp.org/rss
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WFP has a dedicated ISDN line in Italy for quality two-way interviews with WFP officials.
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For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
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Alejandro Chicheri, WFP/Panama, Mob. +1 917 392 6159 or +507 6675 0617
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Elio Rujano, WFP/Panama, Tel. +507 317 3930, Mob. + 507 66179261
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Natasha Scripture, WFP/Rome, Tel. + 39 06 6513 3146, Mob. +39 340 466 3480
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Caroline Hurford, WFP/London, Tel. +44-20-72409001, Mob. +44-7968-008474
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Emilia Casella, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41-22-9178564, Mob. +41-792857304
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Jennifer Parmelee, WFP/Washington, Tel. +1-202-6530010 ext. 1149, Mob. +1-202-4223383
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Bettina Luescher, WFP/New York, Tel. +1-646-5566909, Mob. +1-646-8241112

PORT-AU-PRINCE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is appealing for US$279 million to feed 2 million people and provide logistical support for a 6-month Emergency Operation in response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti.
.
In the initial phase of the operation, WFP will provide one-week rations of ready-to-eat food to up to 2 million people who no longer have access to kitchens or cooking facilities;
.
After the distribution of the ready-to-eat food rations, WFP will begin general distributions of basic food items such as rice, pulses and cooking oil to 2 million people;
.
As soon as possible, WFP will move from general food distributions towards food for work activities that use food as an incentive for people to support reconstruction and rehabilitation work in areas damaged by the earthquake;
.
WFP began food distributions in and around the capital, Port au Prince, in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Some 2900 people received high energy biscuits in Port au Prince on Thursday, and distributions are being scaled up in the coming days;
.
WFP has deployed expert logistics and telecommunications teams in support of the coordinated humanitarian response to this disaster;
.
WFP has established a logistics hub in neighbouring Dominican Republic and has begun acquiring logistical assets - such as mobile warehouses, trucks, helicopters and a coastal vessel;
.
WFP is considering establishing a network of up to 200 kitchens in Port au Prince, with each providing up to 500 meals a day;
.
Food assistance will be directed at vulnerable families that have lost their homes, families living in temporary shelters, and child-headed households;
.
So far, WFP has received more than US$55 million from donor governments, and more than US$5 million from private companies;
.
Government donors include the United States, Luxembourg, Italy, Greece, Australia, Colombia, and the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund.
.
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. In 2010, WFP aims to feed more than 90 million people in 73 countries.
.
WFP now provides RSS feeds to help journalists keep up with the latest press releases, videos and photos as they are published on WFP.org. For more details see: http://www.wfp.org/rss
.
WFP has a dedicated ISDN line in Italy for quality two-way interviews with WFP officials.
.
For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
.
Alejandro Chicheri, WFP/Panama, Mob. +1 917 392 6159 or +507 6675 0617
.
Elio Rujano, WFP/Panama, Tel. +507 317 3930, Mob. + 507 66179261
.
Natasha Scripture, WFP/Rome, Tel. + 39 06 6513 3146, Mob. +39 340 466 3480
.
Caroline Hurford, WFP/London, Tel. +44-20-72409001, Mob. +44-7968-008474
.
Emilia Casella, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41-22-9178564, Mob. +41-792857304
.
Jennifer Parmelee, WFP/Washington, Tel. +1-202-6530010 ext. 1149, Mob. +1-202-4223383
.
Bettina Luescher, WFP/New York, Tel. +1-646-5566909, Mob. +1-646-8241112

**In the face of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Hesperian urges everyone to forward and distribute the following health materials in Haitian Creole and English to every relief worker, resident, and traveler already in or leaving for Haiti.
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*HEALTH MATERIALS AVAILABLE IN HAITIAN CREOLE:*
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Here is a link to the pdf of the Haitian Creole edition of Where There is No Doctor, also available as a printed book through our partners: 4 The World Resource Distributers
Tel: 417-862-4448
Fax: 417-863-9994
orders@4wrd.org
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Pdf of the Haitian Creole edition of Where Women Have No Doctor.
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Pdf of the Haitian Creole edition of Sanitation and Cleanliness booklet, produced by our partners at SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods)
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Here’s a link to our CHOLERA PREVENTION FACTSHEET, in English
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Hesperian expresses our deepest sympathies to those who have been directly and indirectly affected by this disaster. Natural disasters are made worse by our very human-made systems that impoverish people and deny their right to health. As we encourage you to donate to the relief effort, Hesperian recommends these organizations which have redoubled their work in Haiti to address this most recent catastrophe:
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Haiti Action Network's Haiti Emergency Relief Fund
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Partners in Health
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Grassroots International, Earthquake Relief Fund for Haiti
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Ingrid Hawkinson
Book Publicity and Promotions
Hesperian
Ingrid@hesperian.org

Good to hear from you Nathan, pass on your email to me at bryan@haitiinnovation.org

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – It wasn't long after Tuesday's earthquake leveled nearly all of the houses next to Claude Surena's that neighbors started showing up at his doorstep.
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For years, the 59-year old pediatrician had treated the sick at his two-story hillside home near the center of the Haitian capital. Suddenly, he was running a triage center, treating more than 100 victims on his shaded, leafy patio with food and supplies salvaged from ruined homes.
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His undamaged house provides at least a minimum level of comfort away from the devastation — even for the dying — while thousands of others in the city lie in the dirt under a merciless sun waiting for attention from a handful of doctors.
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"I have to thank whoever brought me," said Steve Julien, who says the last thing he remembers before he blacked out was rescue workers calling his name as they dug through the rubble of his house.
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When he woke up, he was lying on a mattress inside Surena's soothing oasis. "It was a blessing from God my house is safe," he said. "We at least have been able to do something for everyone."
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The patients show physical and emotional wounds from having their homes collapse on them. Julien, 48, is among the least severely injured, with only a few scrapes and a sore body. Others have compound fractures and festering wounds. Surena said at least 10 patients are in critical need of more substantial help. The injured sing Christian hymns as they huddle close together beneath sheets strung up as tents, but the earthquake still haunts them. Aftershocks rattled the city as recently as Friday morning.
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"Sometimes they just start crying. We still get some movement," said Surena, who is also the local district chairman for Haiti's disaster relief agency.
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The conditions at his home are far from ideal. Plastic buckets serve as toilets, and for some patients Surena can do little more than change dressings on infected wounds. But they are better off then many in Port-au-Prince, the capital city of 3 million people. Surena earned his medical degree in Haiti and spent a year at the University of Illinois training in neonatology. He has been tending his ward with the help of two other doctors, including a Lake Worth, Florida-based gynecologist, Frantz Python, who was working in the area when the earthquake struck.
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Eighteen of their patients have died. No case hit Surena harder than a pregnant woman who died shortly after she started having contractions Tuesday night, likely from internal hemorrhaging. Despite a rudimentary Cesarean-section, they could not save the baby.
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"She was really suffering," Surena said. "The most difficult thing emotionally is that you know how to do it, but you don't have the materials do it."
The patients say they know Surena is doing his best.
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Florene Francois, 19, was trying to soothe her fussing 18-month-old son, Rick Joey, on blankets in a corner of the patio between Surena's grill and a built-in bar. She said she is fine despite the scrapes on her face, but she worries about a deep gash on the back of her son's head.
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"They just don't have what they need for the stitches," she said. A 39-year-old tailor, Roger Hubert, had bandages on wounds and a sling for a severely broken arm. His bones have not been reset because there is no X-ray machine available.
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"Considering the materials here, they are taking good care of us," Hubert said. The supplies of food, water and medicine were quickly running out. Surena drove himself to the airport Thursday after neighbors cleared away debris blocking the only road down the hill, but his hopes of finding help were dashed in the confusion of so many arriving aid flights.
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"So many planes. You don't know where to go and who to talk to," he said. Still, he is optimistic more help is coming. He said Rotary International has pledged to send supplies including shelter boxes for the patients, and he expects more doctors to come, too. Meanwhile, he keeps everyone at his house because they have nowhere else to go. He sent three patients in urgent need of surgery to a hospital on the airport road Thursday, but he took them back in after they were refused admission.
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"They would have left their bodies on the street," Surena said.

Haiti Quake Website Buckles
Posted on Thursday Jan 14th at 5:51pm
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The main Web site for distributing information about victims and relief efforts in earthquake-stricken Haiti has crashed under the strain of hits from millions of individuals worldwide seeking updates on the temblor.
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The Web site for the Center for International Disaster Information was non-responsive as of midday Thursday.
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The Center is operated through a grant from the United States Agency for International Development. It was established to provide urgent bulletins and real-time updates about conditions in disaster areas, as well as collect donations and other forms of assistance. On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) advised those looking to contribute to relief efforts to use the CIDI site, which apparently crashed under the traffic spike.
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The 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti's capital city of Port Au Prince late afternoon on Tuesday. The quake flattened a vast percentage of the city's low-rise, concrete offices and homes.
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Estimates are that fatalities may be in the tens of thousands, but confirmed information remained sketchy. Some worried relatives of those caught in the quake zone have turned to social networking tools such as Facebook or Twitter in an effort to reach their loved ones or find out information on their whereabouts. Several pages sprang up on Facebook almost immediately after the quake. One such page, Earthquake Haiti, now has more than 100,000 members. Another page promised to donate $1.00 to Haiti relief efforts for every individual that joined the group. It had more than 70,000 members as of midday Thursday.
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The U.S. Embassy estimates there are about 45,000 Americans living in Haiti. The fate of many of them remained unclear.
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http://www.cidi.org/