- Dec 30, 2004
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/14/haiti.earthquake/index.html?hpt=T1
As leader of the most successful nation on earth, Obama, the man who can pass a $1T stimulus bill with pork and stimulus up the wazoo for constituents, needs to get on the ball with this one and actually provide some HELP to these people. Rescuing 200 Americans doesn't count.
Bodies line roads as Haiti waits for help
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Rescue crews came face to face with the stench of death Thursday in Haiti's quake-battered capital as they began the arduous task of pulling survivors from rubble, providing food and water to the homeless and treating thousands left injured.
"The vast majority of downtown Port-au-Prince is a mess of dead bodies, rebar and concrete," said Eric Marrapodi, part of a team of CNN journalists in Haiti.
Aid workers trickled into Haiti two days after a 7.0-magnitude quake walloped the teeming, hillside city of Port-au-Prince in an urgent relief effort rivaling the worldwide response to the 2004 tsunami.
What the aid workers and journalists landing in Haiti saw -- and smelled -- was shocking.
The stench of dead bodies wafted in the air, and throughout the sprawling capital people covered their faces to block the foul odor.
Outside a funeral home, a line stretched for half a block with people trying to get in to bury their dead. Piles of bodies were lined up on the sides of roads. On one body, the name was written on a foot in permanent marker to identify the person.
Roads leading from the dock into town were buckled about 5 feet high, and large cargo ships can't dock at the city's damaged port. The rubble-strewn roads, downed trees and the battered communications network hampered humanitarian groups trying to get supplies to victims, and thousands of homeless people lived on the streets.
The Haitian government has halted flights into the Port-au-Prince airport for now because ramp space is too crowded, and there is no fuel, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said Thursday.
The FAA's Laura Brown said no flights from the United States will be taking off until clearance is given.
Rescue efforts have become top priority across the globe.
President Obama on Thursday announced $100 million in aid, saying, "This is one of those moments that calls for American leadership."
"I can report that the first waves of our rescue and relief workers are on the ground and are at work," Obama said, calling the relief effort one of the largest in recent U.S. history.
"To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction, you will not be forsaken," he said. "You will not be forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands with you. The world stands with you."
Touching on the obstacles facing search and rescue units, Obama said, "Even as we move as quickly as possible, it will take hours and in many cases days, to get all of our people and resources on the ground. Right now in Haiti, roads are impassable, the main port is badly damaged, communications are just beginning to come online and aftershocks continue."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States was working to restore communications, and the Haitian ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph, said U.S. Marines were bringing heavy equipment to help clear streets.
The quake affected roughly one in three Haitians -- about 3 million people, the Red Cross estimated. It was so strong that it was felt in Cuba, more than 200 miles away.People around the world, desperate for news of survivors, have tapped into social media Web sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to keep up with the crisis.
Precise casualty estimates were impossible to determine.
Haitian President Rene Preval said Wednesday he had heard estimates of up to 50,000 dead, but that it was too early to know for sure. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said he worries that several hundred thousand people were killed.
And Felix Augustin, the Haitian consul general to the United Nations, said more than 100,000 may have perished.
At least 22 U.N. peacekeepers were killed in the quake as well as Joseph Serge Miot, Roman Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince. About 150 U.N. staff members remain unaccounted for in the earthquake's aftermath, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday.
The U.S. government on Thursday announced the death of a U.S. citizen in Haiti, while an Iowa seminary said one of its students apparently also had died.
A U.S. Embassy employee was among the dead, State Department officials said. Department spokesman P.J. Crowley declined to identify the victim, saying the family was being notified.
The Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa announced an apparent second death. A statement from President Duane Larson said student Benjamin Larson died. There was no official confirmation of Larson's death from Haiti.
The calamity has overwhelmed doctors. Hospitals in Port-au-Prince have collapsed, and the few open facilities can't handle all the injured, Clinton told CNN's "American Morning."
She said it would be a challenge as the U.S. and other countries dispatch medical supplies, facilities and personnel.
"This is a large area involving many, many, many millions of people who have been cut off from access. Just getting to people to provide the medical assistance they need is proving to be very difficult," Clinton said, adding the next 24 hours are "critical to save those lives that can be saved."
Clinton said search and rescue teams have begun work in Port-au-Prince to search for the missing, from residents sandwiched in homes to others unaccounted for, including members of U.N. staff and Doctors Without Borders.
But there is hope that trapped people are hanging on. For example, a U.N. security officer from Estonia was pulled from the rubble of the U.N. headquarters.
Ban said the Estonian officer's rescue was "a small miracle during the night which brought few other miracles." He was given water through a rubber pipe, pulled out of rubble and taken to an Argentinian hospital.
U.S., French and Chilean crews were working to remove a person trapped in the heavily damaged Hotel Montana in Petionville, and one man was dug out of his home in that Port-au-Prince suburb.
Saying there's "no higher priority than the safety of American citizens," Obama promised that crews will work to find and evacuate Americans.
About 160 Americans have been evacuated over a 24-hour period, and 370 were registered to depart Thursday, the State Department's Crowley said.
The overcrowded national penitentiary in the capital collapsed, and inmates escaped, prompting worries about looting, said Edmond Mulet, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations. But the prime minister said the population has remained relatively calm in the face of the disaster.
Clinton said the United States is providing security help to the United Nations, which was devastated by the collapse of its headquarters, a peacekeeping and police force established after the 2004 ouster of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
"The authorities that existed before the earthquake are not able to fully function. We'll try to support them as they re-establish authority," Clinton said.
The United States and France are sending military personnel to help the peacekeepers, and the United States is deploying Coast Guard vessels, the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, and the U.S. Navy's hospital ship, the Comfort.
The United Nations announced $10 million in aid; the World Bank pledged $100 million. Agencies, celebrities and charities mobilized relief efforts.
As leader of the most successful nation on earth, Obama, the man who can pass a $1T stimulus bill with pork and stimulus up the wazoo for constituents, needs to get on the ball with this one and actually provide some HELP to these people. Rescuing 200 Americans doesn't count.
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