As Haitians Flee, the Dead Go Uncounted
Damon Winter/The New York Times
A WAY OUT People on Monday crowded into a bus bound for Les Cayes, in southwestern Haiti, far from Port-au-Prince. More Photos >
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By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: January 18, 2010
TITANYEN, Haiti — A few miles north of the busted-down buildings in Port-au-Prince, up a hillside where cows graze, an empty hole awaits the dead. Rectangular, 20 feet deep and wide, 100 feet long, it is one of the newest mass graves, but there are many more.
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In Haiti, a Struggle Barely Begun
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Michael Appleton for The New York Times
A coffin was carried through the streets of Port-au-Prince on Monday, six days after the quake. More Photos »
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Chris Hondros/Getty Images
A truck dumped rubble Saturday into a mass grave in Titanyen, a village on the outskirts of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. More Photos >
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"Without the ability to find, grieve, and bury the bodies of those you love, I'm not sure how a human being can be expected to find their way back to life."
Tamsin, Columbus, OH
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The government's dump trucks have been dropping off bodies here since Friday. No one counts, takes pictures or searches for names. In some places, legs and arms of strangers are knotted together in a frozen dance, but here the ground has been leveled by a backhoe that has erased all but the tiniest scraps of life.
Look and see: a torn photo of a mustached man in a silver tie; a canceled American passport for an infant born in Stamford, Conn.; and a shred of purple pantyhose never to lure a lover again.
"They have buried so many people here," said Voissine Careas, 60, a farmer chopping brush nearby with a machete. "And now, they are digging holes for more."
Along with everything else stolen by last week's earthquake, Haitians must now add another loss: the ability to identify and bury the dead. Funeral rites are among the most sacred of all ceremonies to Haitians, who have been known to spend more money on their burial crypts than on their own homes.
It is the product in part of familiarity with death — the average life span of a Haitian is 44 — but also the widespread voodoo belief that the dead continue living and that families must stay connected forever to their ancestors.
"Convening with the dead is what allows Haitians to link themselves, directly by bloodline, to a pre-slave past," said Ira Lowenthal, an anthropologist who has lived in Haiti for 38 years. He added that with so many bodies denied rest in family burial plots, where many rituals take place, countless spiritual connections would be severed.
"It is a violation of everything these people hold dear," Mr. Lowenthal said. "On the other hand, people know they have no choice."
In and around Port-au-Prince, the usually high standard for memorials and burials has been upended. The streets have fewer bodies now but the morgue is overwhelmed, and funeral parlors — those that have not collapsed — have more bodies than they can possibly embalm.
The wooden coffins seen in the first few days after the earthquake, lashed to trucks and station wagons, have also become harder to find. In the narrow streets behind the national cemetery where most of them are built, carpenters said they lacked wood and electricity to make more.
"They bury you like a dog," said Pegles Fleurigine, 51, in an alleyway where he has built coffins for more than a decade. "They don't bury you in caskets."
Wood chips hung in his wide mustache. Thin and tall, with a white mask on his forehead, he stood next to a blue and silver coffin, lacquered like a souped-up Cadillac.
"The people this belongs to, they are trying to get money so they can come and get it," he said.
An even starker contrast between death as it was and death post-earthquake could be seen through a fallen wall leading into the national cemetery a few blocks away. Far into the distance, there were above-ground crypts freshly painted powder blue, with elaborate crosses and poetic names like Famille Leonon Maxi. Up close, there was a hole with the teeth marks of a backhoe and a half-dozen decaying bodies dumped and left.
Some were too swollen to be recognizable, but at one point on Sunday, a young girl in a white flowered dress stared at a dead young man. He had the frame of an athlete, and he wore designer jeans with a wide stylish belt.
Asked if she knew him, the girl turned away.
In the hills of Titanyen, on the outskirts of the capital, there are no young girls wandering. The low-lying swampland here smells of sulfur on a good day, and was once the preferred dumping ground for political opponents of the Duvaliers, Haiti's brutal rulers from the 1950s to the '80s. It is considered cursed ground by most Haitians. Only a handful of people live nearby, and on Monday most seemed to be climbing on buses to get out.
Indeed, the name of this place is so notorious that it has been a threat doled out by parents for generations: "If you're bad, you'll go to Titanyen."
Now it has become the home for Haiti's latest victims. It appears that at first, the dumpings occurred haphazardly. By the roadside, small piles of rubble sit on the grass near horses, looking innocent except for the sight of a human limb poking out.
Farther up on the paved road, and up a dirt road into the hills, the operation looks more organized. Here, there is a backhoe with a goateed driver unwilling to talk. A pole with two large lights, giant glaring eyes, allows for work at night.
The farmers say at least six trucks arrive with deliveries at all hours. Workers paid $100 a day to collect the bodies from the streets of Port-au-Prince said in interviews that they were given no guidance beyond where to go.
After the 2004 tsunami in Asia, aid groups and governments established a system in which people were photographed before being buried so loved ones could search for them. Here, all the dead are anonymous. Mr. Lowenthal, the anthropologist, said this did not reflect callousness on the part of Haitians, but rather an unprecedented catastrophe that has overwhelmed the country and the aid groups.
"This is worse than the tsunami," he said. "Look at the concentration of destruction."
The hills of Titanyen are a place no Haitian wants to go, he added. Now, once again, they are filled with hidden horrors.
A long walk down a windy path led first to a mound of rubble filled with passport-size photographs of children, probably from a collapsed school. Over a hill, there was a clearing with dirt piles the size of parking lot snowbanks, all covering the dead. A farmer in a red shirt who acted as a guide stayed a safe distance away from the stench.
At least 35 bodies were clearly visible. Women with shirts stripped off, men with their faces caught in odd grimaces, and near the back, a young child with his arms on the ground above his head.
Some were probably related, others were strangers, maybe even enemies. But in death they shared what for Haitians amounts to the most elemental insult: the lack of a dignified goodbye.
Escaping the Capital as Help Is Arriving
Damon Winter/The New York Times
Haitians climbed through a hole in a wall to get materials from a home supplies store. Pockets of looting were reported as people sought goods for survival. More Photos >
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By SIMON ROMERO and MARC LACEY
Published: January 18, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Wharf Jérémie on this city's edge was all chaos and destruction on Monday, with upturned shipping containers lying in the sea and pigs foraging on piles of refuse. But for a thousand or more seeking a ride on rickety boats away from the ruined capital, the wharf was a means to something hopeful: escape.
Multimedia
Slide Show
In Haiti, a Struggle Barely Begun
Video
Haiti Earthquake Day 7: N.Y. to Haiti
Video
Haiti Quake Day 7: Aid, by Sea
Map
Assessing the Damage in Haiti
Related
As Haitians Flee, the Dead Go Uncounted (January 19, 2010)
Defiant Vow to Rebuild Amid Ruins and Bodies (January 19, 2010)
Aid Arrives but Few Are Lucky to Get It (January 19, 2010)
Homeless Haitians Told Not to Flee to U.S. (January 19, 2010)
U.N. Likely to Send More Security (January 19, 2010)
A Deluge of Donations via Text Messages (January 19, 2010)
For 9/11 Team, Haiti Brings It All Back (January 19, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
Interactive: The Missing | Connecting to Those Affected
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (83) »
"Our home is destroyed," said Yanique Verly, 33, who sells vegetables on the street. She waited for a boat to take her and her three children to her home on Haiti's western coast. "My only hope is to return to my family's arms."
Ms. Verly joined thousands of others, as the exodus from the capital accelerated on Monday, by boat, bus, car and truck, in uncertain quest for shelter, fresh water and stability in the countryside. They sought to leave an anarchic city marked by acute shortages of basic goods and aid efforts hampered by bottlenecks and security fears.
There seemed to be no certainty on any front, not even on the death toll from the huge earthquake that struck last Tuesday. Alain Le Roy, the United Nations peacekeeping chief, said he could not confirm estimates of as many as 200,000 dead.
He said that as far as he knew, the toll had not surpassed 50,000 dead. "I don't think anybody knows, to be frank," he told reporters in New York.
One clear thing was the need to leave. Bus after bus lined up at gas stations throughout the city, hoping to fill up with fuel before beginning the long trek into Haiti's interior. Some people lugged overstuffed suitcases; others carried little more than the clothes they were wearing and enough money to pay the new, higher fares.
At one gas station, the messages on some buses, painted in bright colors above their windshields, evoked something more than hope: Christ Est la Réponse (Christ Is the Answer) and Courage Mon Frère (Courage, My Brother).
"I don't know if I'm coming back," said Marcelaine Calixte, 20, a student whose house and college had collapsed, sitting on a crowded bus Monday afternoon headed to Les Cayes, a southern town.
Lt. Cmdr. Christopher O'Neil said the Coast Guard had not spotted any boats Monday leaving Haiti with refugees.
"None, zero," he said when asked about Haitians taking to the sea, "and no indication of anyone making preparations to do so."
He said it was highly unlikely that migrants would attempt the journey with five cutters right off the coast, not to mention the presence of an aircraft carrier and other ships from the United States Navy. He said anyone caught leaving the island and heading toward Florida would be returned to Haiti.
Nevertheless, Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, said the United States would permit orphaned children from Haiti to enter the country temporarily to make sure that they received necessary medical care. The policy will apply to children who are being adopted by American citizens or who have been identified as eligible for adoption in the United States.
For every person who found an option for shelter or food outside the capital, many more did not or could not.
"I would like for my family to escape the misery in this city, but I need painkillers for my child first," said Manuel Lamy, 28, a plumber whose 5-year-old daughter, Yvenca, had lost her left hand. Mr. Lamy and his wife, Sagine Oscar, 30, took her to a triage center set up by Cuban doctors.
The displaced were streaming out of Port-au-Prince even as more relief, aid workers and American troops were arriving. Some hospitals along the border with the Dominican Republic were swamped with earthquake victims.
The United Nations World Food Program said it planned to distribute 200 tons of food on Monday to 95,000 people at eight locations and appealed anew for public donations. Aid workers, mobile clinics and other supplies continued to be flown in to the airport and come overland from the Dominican Republic.
Rescue workers from around the world searched for any last survivors, sometimes clashing over which team ought to be in charge of what.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, requested Monday that the Security Council immediately approve an additional 3,500 security officers for Haiti, both to maintain public order and to guard deliveries as the aid effort gathers steam.
Mr. Ban requested that the Council send 1,500 more police officers and 2,000 troops for at least six months to augment the 9,000 already here. So far, violence has been scattered, with the security situation over all fairly calm. But senior United Nations officials said it might boil over at any moment as the difficulties of living without water, food and shelter mount.
"We need to be very much careful and vigilant against any possibility," Mr. Ban said in an interview. "When their patience level becomes thinner — that is when we have to be concerned."
Damon Winter/The New York Times
Haitians climbed through a hole in a wall to get materials from a home supplies store. Pockets of looting were reported as people sought goods for survival. More Photos >
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By SIMON ROMERO and MARC LACEY
Published: January 18, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Wharf Jérémie on this city's edge was all chaos and destruction on Monday, with upturned shipping containers lying in the sea and pigs foraging on piles of refuse. But for a thousand or more seeking a ride on rickety boats away from the ruined capital, the wharf was a means to something hopeful: escape.
Multimedia
Slide Show
In Haiti, a Struggle Barely Begun
Video
Haiti Earthquake Day 7: N.Y. to Haiti
Video
Haiti Quake Day 7: Aid, by Sea
Map
Assessing the Damage in Haiti
Related
As Haitians Flee, the Dead Go Uncounted (January 19, 2010)
Defiant Vow to Rebuild Amid Ruins and Bodies (January 19, 2010)
Aid Arrives but Few Are Lucky to Get It (January 19, 2010)
Homeless Haitians Told Not to Flee to U.S. (January 19, 2010)
U.N. Likely to Send More Security (January 19, 2010)
A Deluge of Donations via Text Messages (January 19, 2010)
For 9/11 Team, Haiti Brings It All Back (January 19, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
Interactive: The Missing | Connecting to Those Affected
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (83) »
"Our home is destroyed," said Yanique Verly, 33, who sells vegetables on the street. She waited for a boat to take her and her three children to her home on Haiti's western coast. "My only hope is to return to my family's arms."
Ms. Verly joined thousands of others, as the exodus from the capital accelerated on Monday, by boat, bus, car and truck, in uncertain quest for shelter, fresh water and stability in the countryside. They sought to leave an anarchic city marked by acute shortages of basic goods and aid efforts hampered by bottlenecks and security fears.
There seemed to be no certainty on any front, not even on the death toll from the huge earthquake that struck last Tuesday. Alain Le Roy, the United Nations peacekeeping chief, said he could not confirm estimates of as many as 200,000 dead.
He said that as far as he knew, the toll had not surpassed 50,000 dead. "I don't think anybody knows, to be frank," he told reporters in New York.
One clear thing was the need to leave. Bus after bus lined up at gas stations throughout the city, hoping to fill up with fuel before beginning the long trek into Haiti's interior. Some people lugged overstuffed suitcases; others carried little more than the clothes they were wearing and enough money to pay the new, higher fares.
At one gas station, the messages on some buses, painted in bright colors above their windshields, evoked something more than hope: Christ Est la Réponse (Christ Is the Answer) and Courage Mon Frère (Courage, My Brother).
"I don't know if I'm coming back," said Marcelaine Calixte, 20, a student whose house and college had collapsed, sitting on a crowded bus Monday afternoon headed to Les Cayes, a southern town.
Lt. Cmdr. Christopher O'Neil said the Coast Guard had not spotted any boats Monday leaving Haiti with refugees.
"None, zero," he said when asked about Haitians taking to the sea, "and no indication of anyone making preparations to do so."
He said it was highly unlikely that migrants would attempt the journey with five cutters right off the coast, not to mention the presence of an aircraft carrier and other ships from the United States Navy. He said anyone caught leaving the island and heading toward Florida would be returned to Haiti.
Nevertheless, Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, said the United States would permit orphaned children from Haiti to enter the country temporarily to make sure that they received necessary medical care. The policy will apply to children who are being adopted by American citizens or who have been identified as eligible for adoption in the United States.
For every person who found an option for shelter or food outside the capital, many more did not or could not.
"I would like for my family to escape the misery in this city, but I need painkillers for my child first," said Manuel Lamy, 28, a plumber whose 5-year-old daughter, Yvenca, had lost her left hand. Mr. Lamy and his wife, Sagine Oscar, 30, took her to a triage center set up by Cuban doctors.
The displaced were streaming out of Port-au-Prince even as more relief, aid workers and American troops were arriving. Some hospitals along the border with the Dominican Republic were swamped with earthquake victims.
The United Nations World Food Program said it planned to distribute 200 tons of food on Monday to 95,000 people at eight locations and appealed anew for public donations. Aid workers, mobile clinics and other supplies continued to be flown in to the airport and come overland from the Dominican Republic.
Rescue workers from around the world searched for any last survivors, sometimes clashing over which team ought to be in charge of what.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, requested Monday that the Security Council immediately approve an additional 3,500 security officers for Haiti, both to maintain public order and to guard deliveries as the aid effort gathers steam.
Mr. Ban requested that the Council send 1,500 more police officers and 2,000 troops for at least six months to augment the 9,000 already here. So far, violence has been scattered, with the security situation over all fairly calm. But senior United Nations officials said it might boil over at any moment as the difficulties of living without water, food and shelter mount.
"We need to be very much careful and vigilant against any possibility," Mr. Ban said in an interview. "When their patience level becomes thinner — that is when we have to be concerned."
Many business owners have not opened their doors for fear of mobs ransacking their operations and stealing their merchandise. Those fears were stoked by pockets of looting in downtown commercial areas in recent days.
Multimedia
Slide Show
In Haiti, a Struggle Barely Begun
Video
Haiti Earthquake Day 7: N.Y. to Haiti
Video
Haiti Quake Day 7: Aid, by Sea
Map
Assessing the Damage in Haiti
Related
As Haitians Flee, the Dead Go Uncounted (January 19, 2010)
Defiant Vow to Rebuild Amid Ruins and Bodies (January 19, 2010)
Aid Arrives but Few Are Lucky to Get It (January 19, 2010)
Homeless Haitians Told Not to Flee to U.S. (January 19, 2010)
U.N. Likely to Send More Security (January 19, 2010)
A Deluge of Donations via Text Messages (January 19, 2010)
For 9/11 Team, Haiti Brings It All Back (January 19, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
Interactive: The Missing | Connecting to Those Affected
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (83) »
"I have 450 employees who I would like to get working again, but I'm afraid of being attacked when word on the street gets out that we have water," said Roger Parisot, 48, an owner of Sotresa, a company in the Portail Léogâne district that sells purified water in small plastic pouches.
"We need American troops here to instill order immediately, or no bank, no company will reopen its doors," Mr. Parisot said. "Right now there is no way we can get the things of life — food or water — to those who need them."
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the United States expected by Monday to have around 5,000 troops arriving here. Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton, the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, arrived Monday afternoon.
"It is astonishing what they're accomplishing," said Mr. Clinton, emerging from a tour of Haiti's general hospital, which has been overwhelmed with patients. They filled its rooms and hallways, and even open areas in the yard outside. Mr. Clinton said he heard of vodka being used to sterilize and of operations performed without lights.
One of the patients outside, Vladamir Tanget, 24, lay on a mattress with a broken leg.
"The government is not doing anything," he complained. "We need outsiders to come."
More United Nations peacekeepers were visible on the streets of the capital on Monday morning after reports of a rash of lootings and shootings a day earlier.
As scavengers searched the rubble for scrap metal they might sell, rescue teams continued their search for survivors despite dwindling odds and rising estimates of the dead.
Thousands of American citizens, including many Haitian-Americans, rushed to the airport in recent days to be evacuated on military planes leaving for the United States.
Bus Terminal No. 1 has been busier than ever before, according to Dieumetra Sainmerita, who manages the station's traffic. He said that the cost of bus tickets had risen 20 percent since last week, and that people were selling whatever they had left of value to buy them.
"First there were the people who lost their houses," he said of the passengers. "Then there were people who lost relatives. Now the people I see, they are afraid of the thieves trying to steal from them in the night."
Thieves were on the prowl at the station. Marceson Romen said two men tried to make off with his suitcase, but fled when they saw police officers.
Mr. Romen, a 27-year-old plumber, was on his way to his native Artibone region. He had left his hometown to make a good life for himself. But after pulling his three children out of the rubble that was once their home, he packed them up and now hoped to build them a place on the property once occupied by his parents.
"I thought one day I would go home a rich man," he said, carrying one black suitcase and a bar of Irish Spring soap in his shirt pocket. "Instead, I am going back with nothing."
Multimedia
Slide Show
In Haiti, a Struggle Barely Begun
Video
Haiti Earthquake Day 7: N.Y. to Haiti
Video
Haiti Quake Day 7: Aid, by Sea
Map
Assessing the Damage in Haiti
Related
As Haitians Flee, the Dead Go Uncounted (January 19, 2010)
Defiant Vow to Rebuild Amid Ruins and Bodies (January 19, 2010)
Aid Arrives but Few Are Lucky to Get It (January 19, 2010)
Homeless Haitians Told Not to Flee to U.S. (January 19, 2010)
U.N. Likely to Send More Security (January 19, 2010)
A Deluge of Donations via Text Messages (January 19, 2010)
For 9/11 Team, Haiti Brings It All Back (January 19, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
Interactive: The Missing | Connecting to Those Affected
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (83) »
"I have 450 employees who I would like to get working again, but I'm afraid of being attacked when word on the street gets out that we have water," said Roger Parisot, 48, an owner of Sotresa, a company in the Portail Léogâne district that sells purified water in small plastic pouches.
"We need American troops here to instill order immediately, or no bank, no company will reopen its doors," Mr. Parisot said. "Right now there is no way we can get the things of life — food or water — to those who need them."
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the United States expected by Monday to have around 5,000 troops arriving here. Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton, the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, arrived Monday afternoon.
"It is astonishing what they're accomplishing," said Mr. Clinton, emerging from a tour of Haiti's general hospital, which has been overwhelmed with patients. They filled its rooms and hallways, and even open areas in the yard outside. Mr. Clinton said he heard of vodka being used to sterilize and of operations performed without lights.
One of the patients outside, Vladamir Tanget, 24, lay on a mattress with a broken leg.
"The government is not doing anything," he complained. "We need outsiders to come."
More United Nations peacekeepers were visible on the streets of the capital on Monday morning after reports of a rash of lootings and shootings a day earlier.
As scavengers searched the rubble for scrap metal they might sell, rescue teams continued their search for survivors despite dwindling odds and rising estimates of the dead.
Thousands of American citizens, including many Haitian-Americans, rushed to the airport in recent days to be evacuated on military planes leaving for the United States.
Bus Terminal No. 1 has been busier than ever before, according to Dieumetra Sainmerita, who manages the station's traffic. He said that the cost of bus tickets had risen 20 percent since last week, and that people were selling whatever they had left of value to buy them.
"First there were the people who lost their houses," he said of the passengers. "Then there were people who lost relatives. Now the people I see, they are afraid of the thieves trying to steal from them in the night."
Thieves were on the prowl at the station. Marceson Romen said two men tried to make off with his suitcase, but fled when they saw police officers.
Mr. Romen, a 27-year-old plumber, was on his way to his native Artibone region. He had left his hometown to make a good life for himself. But after pulling his three children out of the rubble that was once their home, he packed them up and now hoped to build them a place on the property once occupied by his parents.
"I thought one day I would go home a rich man," he said, carrying one black suitcase and a bar of Irish Spring soap in his shirt pocket. "Instead, I am going back with nothing."
A Deluge of Donations via Text Messages
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
An American soldier carried an injured girl in for care in Port-au-Prince on Monday.
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By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: January 18, 2010
A push by celebrities, athletes and the first lady encouraging text-message donations for earthquake relief in Haiti has contributed to a fund-raising bonanza for the American Red Cross, which a little over a year ago turned to Congress for a bailout.
Multimedia
Video
Haiti Earthquake Day 7: N.Y. to Haiti
Video
Haiti Quake Day 7: Aid, by Sea
Related
Aid Arrives but Few Are Lucky to Get It (January 19, 2010)
Escaping the Capital as Help Is Arriving (January 19, 2010)
Defiant Vow to Rebuild Amid Ruins and Bodies (January 19, 2010)
For 9/11 Team, Haiti Brings It All Back (January 19, 2010)
U.N. Likely to Send More Security (January 19, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
More Haiti Quake Multimedia
As of late Sunday, the organization had collected pledges of $103 million, about $22 million of which came through the text-messaging program. The National Football League's promotion of text-message donations during its weekend playoff games produced stunning results, with money "coming in at the rate of $500,000 an hour," said Roger Lowe, a Red Cross spokesman.
"I need a better word than 'unprecedented' or 'amazing' to describe what's happened with the text-message program," Mr. Lowe said.
The Red Cross is the biggest relief organization with a system in place to receive such donations, which are sent by cellphone to 90999 and billed at $10 each to the cellphone account. The total raised, a small portion of which will be shared with other members of the Red Cross federation, puts the organization well ahead of other relief groups in fund-raising for operations in Haiti.
The contributions come despite well-publicized controversies over the Red Cross's performance and financial accountability after other major disasters.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for example, representatives from the British, German, Colombian, Dutch and other international Red Cross organizations criticized their American counterpart for inadequate planning, poor management of supplies and faulty record-keeping and logistics. And after the Sept. 11 attacks the organization struggled to deploy some $1 billion in donations.
While no one has suggested that the organization has mishandled its response to the earthquake in Haiti, Red Cross officials said they were fully aware that all eyes were on them. Mr. Lowe said transparency and accountability were among the organization's major priorities for this disaster. He noted that Gail J. McGovern, the new Red Cross president, has placed an emphasis on those aspects of its operations.
In almost every major disaster, the American Red Cross collects the bulk of donations, in part because of its recognized brand name and its presence in communities throughout the country where small chapters are staffed by local volunteers.
"The Red Cross is simply the default group for donors when a disaster like this occurs," said Richard Walden, chief executive and founder of Operation USA, a relief organization based in Los Angeles that also is involved in the emergency response to the Haitian earthquake. Mr. Walden has been critical of the Red Cross's management of its money as well as its on-ground operations in the past.
"They Hoover up all the private funds," he said, "but I can understand that. Because as a donor, you're thinking if your house burns down or there's an earthquake, you might need them, too."
The Red Cross is one of a handful of nonprofit groups that hold a Congressional charter, and the president serves as its honorary chairman, in addition to appointing the chairman of its board. The Red Cross also has officially mandated responsibilities and roles to play during disasters under the National Response Framework.
"They are a quasi-governmental organization, and that's a tremendous benefit when it comes to fund-raising for something like this," said Robert Sharpe, a fund-raising consultant.
President Obama and Michelle Obama, who made her pitch for the organization on YouTube and in a television public service announcement, visited the Red Cross headquarters in Washington on Monday.
But perhaps the most valuable support the administration offered the Red Cross was in getting the organization's "Text to Help" program off to a speedy start. The Red Cross had experimented with mobile fund-raising in the past with limited success, Mr. Lowe said, but the State Department stepped in with assistance this time.
It was the State Department that initiated the text-messaging program shortly after the earthquake hit, said Tony Aiello, chief executive of mGive.com, which processes the contributions for the program.
It normally takes a couple of weeks to get a text- message-based giving program up and running, he said, but after the State Department placed a call to James Eberhard, chairman of mGive's parent company, the process was streamlined.
MGive also waived the fees it would normally charge the Red Cross for processing texted donations. Some mobile carriers are similarly waiving their fees and pledging to forward the money donated right away, rather than waiting until customers pay their bills.
"It really has been the quality of the call to action that made a difference," Mr. Aiello said. "When you're talking about the government in the form of the State Department and the White House working together with an organization like the Red Cross, they're able to get so many media outlets and individuals to get behind the program."
Mobile charitable donations have grown as the use of cellphones has expanded. Mobile donations for Hurricane Katrina, for instance, were $250,000, said Jim Manis, chief executive of the Mobile Giving Foundation, a nonprofit that works with wireless companies and charities to set standards for text-message donations.
While the growth is generally seen as a boon for charities, there have been some questions about whether it reduces individual donations because of the $10 set amount.
The Red Cross response in Haiti includes delivering basic supplies like tarps, blankets and hygiene kits to people gathering in makeshift camps, building latrines and training Creole-speaking volunteers to work as translators aboard a United States Navy ship where Haitians will be taken for medical care.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
An American soldier carried an injured girl in for care in Port-au-Prince on Monday.
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By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: January 18, 2010
A push by celebrities, athletes and the first lady encouraging text-message donations for earthquake relief in Haiti has contributed to a fund-raising bonanza for the American Red Cross, which a little over a year ago turned to Congress for a bailout.
Multimedia
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Haiti Earthquake Day 7: N.Y. to Haiti
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As of late Sunday, the organization had collected pledges of $103 million, about $22 million of which came through the text-messaging program. The National Football League's promotion of text-message donations during its weekend playoff games produced stunning results, with money "coming in at the rate of $500,000 an hour," said Roger Lowe, a Red Cross spokesman.
"I need a better word than 'unprecedented' or 'amazing' to describe what's happened with the text-message program," Mr. Lowe said.
The Red Cross is the biggest relief organization with a system in place to receive such donations, which are sent by cellphone to 90999 and billed at $10 each to the cellphone account. The total raised, a small portion of which will be shared with other members of the Red Cross federation, puts the organization well ahead of other relief groups in fund-raising for operations in Haiti.
The contributions come despite well-publicized controversies over the Red Cross's performance and financial accountability after other major disasters.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for example, representatives from the British, German, Colombian, Dutch and other international Red Cross organizations criticized their American counterpart for inadequate planning, poor management of supplies and faulty record-keeping and logistics. And after the Sept. 11 attacks the organization struggled to deploy some $1 billion in donations.
While no one has suggested that the organization has mishandled its response to the earthquake in Haiti, Red Cross officials said they were fully aware that all eyes were on them. Mr. Lowe said transparency and accountability were among the organization's major priorities for this disaster. He noted that Gail J. McGovern, the new Red Cross president, has placed an emphasis on those aspects of its operations.
In almost every major disaster, the American Red Cross collects the bulk of donations, in part because of its recognized brand name and its presence in communities throughout the country where small chapters are staffed by local volunteers.
"The Red Cross is simply the default group for donors when a disaster like this occurs," said Richard Walden, chief executive and founder of Operation USA, a relief organization based in Los Angeles that also is involved in the emergency response to the Haitian earthquake. Mr. Walden has been critical of the Red Cross's management of its money as well as its on-ground operations in the past.
"They Hoover up all the private funds," he said, "but I can understand that. Because as a donor, you're thinking if your house burns down or there's an earthquake, you might need them, too."
The Red Cross is one of a handful of nonprofit groups that hold a Congressional charter, and the president serves as its honorary chairman, in addition to appointing the chairman of its board. The Red Cross also has officially mandated responsibilities and roles to play during disasters under the National Response Framework.
"They are a quasi-governmental organization, and that's a tremendous benefit when it comes to fund-raising for something like this," said Robert Sharpe, a fund-raising consultant.
President Obama and Michelle Obama, who made her pitch for the organization on YouTube and in a television public service announcement, visited the Red Cross headquarters in Washington on Monday.
But perhaps the most valuable support the administration offered the Red Cross was in getting the organization's "Text to Help" program off to a speedy start. The Red Cross had experimented with mobile fund-raising in the past with limited success, Mr. Lowe said, but the State Department stepped in with assistance this time.
It was the State Department that initiated the text-messaging program shortly after the earthquake hit, said Tony Aiello, chief executive of mGive.com, which processes the contributions for the program.
It normally takes a couple of weeks to get a text- message-based giving program up and running, he said, but after the State Department placed a call to James Eberhard, chairman of mGive's parent company, the process was streamlined.
MGive also waived the fees it would normally charge the Red Cross for processing texted donations. Some mobile carriers are similarly waiving their fees and pledging to forward the money donated right away, rather than waiting until customers pay their bills.
"It really has been the quality of the call to action that made a difference," Mr. Aiello said. "When you're talking about the government in the form of the State Department and the White House working together with an organization like the Red Cross, they're able to get so many media outlets and individuals to get behind the program."
Mobile charitable donations have grown as the use of cellphones has expanded. Mobile donations for Hurricane Katrina, for instance, were $250,000, said Jim Manis, chief executive of the Mobile Giving Foundation, a nonprofit that works with wireless companies and charities to set standards for text-message donations.
While the growth is generally seen as a boon for charities, there have been some questions about whether it reduces individual donations because of the $10 set amount.
The Red Cross response in Haiti includes delivering basic supplies like tarps, blankets and hygiene kits to people gathering in makeshift camps, building latrines and training Creole-speaking volunteers to work as translators aboard a United States Navy ship where Haitians will be taken for medical care.
Defiant Vow to Rebuild Amid Ruins and Bodies
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By DEBORAH SONTAG
Published: January 18, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Alain Villard was stuck in traffic when the earthquake devastated both his T-shirt factory in the rough-and-tumble neighborhood of Carrefour and his elegant boutique hotel in the Pétionville suburb.
Multimedia
Slide Show
In Haiti, a Struggle Barely Begun
Map
Assessing the Damage in Haiti
Related
A Deluge of Donations via Text Messages (January 19, 2010)
Escaping the Capital as Help Is Arriving (January 19, 2010)
Aid Arrives but Few Are Lucky to Get It (January 19, 2010)
Room for Debate: Is the U.S. Doing Enough for Haiti?
Rescue crews arrived too late to pull any survivors from the Palm Apparel factory, where, in what is probably one of the largest losses of life in a single location, at least 500 and perhaps closer to 1,000 workers were crushed at the end of their shift. The body of one woman, in a brilliant yellow blouse, her face decomposed, now dangles from the wreckage; the others are buried inside with their sewing machines.
At the Villa Therese, a hilltop hotel that has been reduced to a pile of limestone rubble, the loss of life included two Americans — a college student and the hotel's cook — and two Dutch couples and the Haitian children they had just adopted. Over the weekend, three wrapped, fly-swarmed bodies, one a tiny bundle obviously a baby, awaited pickup by the Dutch marines.
Amid this death and destruction, Mr. Villard is remarkably intent on moving forward as quickly as possible. "The first effort was to try to save human lives, and we did save a few at the hotel — my wife and some employees, by hand, dug out three survivors," he said. "But that part is over. Now, you know, we need to move on and rebuild."
Throughout the capital, stubborn determination is fueling the fight for survival. For businessmen like Mr. Villard, one of the biggest manufacturers in Haiti, that determination is girded by the optimism they felt before the earthquake struck: the feeling that Haiti, relatively calm and newly buoyed by substantial trade preferences granted its apparel and textile industry by the United States Congress, was poised to turn a corner.
"Until the earthquake hit us, we felt a new hope, and we cannot let it go," Mr. Villard said Sunday, standing, bleary-eyed, by the ruins of his hotel. He added, "I think maybe the reality has not hit me yet."
At his factory compound in Carrefour — he has another plant, unharmed, near the airport — the reality is grim. One building, still standing, reveals the panicked exodus of those who survived: the corridors between rows of sewing machines are strewn with the flip-flops that workers ran out of as they fled.
Charles Raynold, an electrician, had been heading to pick up his wife, a floor supervisor, when the ground began shaking. He watched as her building appeared to levitate — "like a car being raised by a jack" — and then collapsed. As the air filled with dust, debris struck and decapitated a fleeing worker. One woman, her arm pinned and snapped in two by a block of concrete, chewed through her flesh to free herself, he said.
His wife had managed to jump out a window onto an electricity pole, shimmy down and escape relatively unscathed. But returning home, they found their house had collapsed, killing their 4-year-old son, Mr. Raynold said. He removed from his wallet a picture of the chubby-cheeked boy, posing with a basketball.
Asked how he could bring himself to return so quickly to the factory, he said: "There are a lot of things that have to be fixed. We have so much work ahead of us."
Mr. Villard employed about 1,500 workers in Carrefour and 2,000 at his plant near the airport. They produced 180,000 T-shirts a day for a Canadian company. He was preparing to diversify into auto production, and to expand the Villa Therese, the second-ranked Port-au-Prince hotel on the TripAdvisor Web site and a favorite of Europeans adopting Haitian children.
In short, Mr. Villard was bullish on Haiti. "The international community was believing in us," he said, citing, among other examples, a Best Western that was rising in Pétionville, a rare international-brand hotel in Haiti.
Now the world is once again focused on Haiti as a country in crisis, not as an investment opportunity. But Mr. Villard said he hoped that in addition to emergency aid, donors remembered that no-interest and low-interest loans would help businesses rebuild, and create jobs.
Search and rescue teams from Guadeloupe; Fairfax, Va.; and Israel got to his factory in Carrefour on Saturday. They extricated dozens of cadavers but found no survivors. Earlier, American rescue teams were cautioned against going into neighborhoods southwest of downtown, including Carrefour, that were perceived as too dangerous.
On Monday, Mr. Villard drove through the gates of his plant compound in Carrefour, where dozens of workers were busy cleaning up the wasteland and securing the surviving piles of fabric and boxes of T-shirts.
He addressed about 15 employees, who sat at his feet on the ground. He told them that everything, even his own home, had been destroyed, but that they could not be defeated. He was determined to reopen the factory, he said, and would transfer many workers to his plant near the airport in the interim. "It is important to be strong," he said.
The men listened without responding. Their faces were haggard, their eyes downcast. Some looked skeptical. "The boss told me, 'Three months, we'll be back on our feet,' " Saint Louis Kilio, a supervisor, said. Asked if he believed that, he laughed, and said, "I don't think so."
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Reprints
Share
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By DEBORAH SONTAG
Published: January 18, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Alain Villard was stuck in traffic when the earthquake devastated both his T-shirt factory in the rough-and-tumble neighborhood of Carrefour and his elegant boutique hotel in the Pétionville suburb.
Multimedia
Slide Show
In Haiti, a Struggle Barely Begun
Map
Assessing the Damage in Haiti
Related
A Deluge of Donations via Text Messages (January 19, 2010)
Escaping the Capital as Help Is Arriving (January 19, 2010)
Aid Arrives but Few Are Lucky to Get It (January 19, 2010)
Room for Debate: Is the U.S. Doing Enough for Haiti?
Rescue crews arrived too late to pull any survivors from the Palm Apparel factory, where, in what is probably one of the largest losses of life in a single location, at least 500 and perhaps closer to 1,000 workers were crushed at the end of their shift. The body of one woman, in a brilliant yellow blouse, her face decomposed, now dangles from the wreckage; the others are buried inside with their sewing machines.
At the Villa Therese, a hilltop hotel that has been reduced to a pile of limestone rubble, the loss of life included two Americans — a college student and the hotel's cook — and two Dutch couples and the Haitian children they had just adopted. Over the weekend, three wrapped, fly-swarmed bodies, one a tiny bundle obviously a baby, awaited pickup by the Dutch marines.
Amid this death and destruction, Mr. Villard is remarkably intent on moving forward as quickly as possible. "The first effort was to try to save human lives, and we did save a few at the hotel — my wife and some employees, by hand, dug out three survivors," he said. "But that part is over. Now, you know, we need to move on and rebuild."
Throughout the capital, stubborn determination is fueling the fight for survival. For businessmen like Mr. Villard, one of the biggest manufacturers in Haiti, that determination is girded by the optimism they felt before the earthquake struck: the feeling that Haiti, relatively calm and newly buoyed by substantial trade preferences granted its apparel and textile industry by the United States Congress, was poised to turn a corner.
"Until the earthquake hit us, we felt a new hope, and we cannot let it go," Mr. Villard said Sunday, standing, bleary-eyed, by the ruins of his hotel. He added, "I think maybe the reality has not hit me yet."
At his factory compound in Carrefour — he has another plant, unharmed, near the airport — the reality is grim. One building, still standing, reveals the panicked exodus of those who survived: the corridors between rows of sewing machines are strewn with the flip-flops that workers ran out of as they fled.
Charles Raynold, an electrician, had been heading to pick up his wife, a floor supervisor, when the ground began shaking. He watched as her building appeared to levitate — "like a car being raised by a jack" — and then collapsed. As the air filled with dust, debris struck and decapitated a fleeing worker. One woman, her arm pinned and snapped in two by a block of concrete, chewed through her flesh to free herself, he said.
His wife had managed to jump out a window onto an electricity pole, shimmy down and escape relatively unscathed. But returning home, they found their house had collapsed, killing their 4-year-old son, Mr. Raynold said. He removed from his wallet a picture of the chubby-cheeked boy, posing with a basketball.
Asked how he could bring himself to return so quickly to the factory, he said: "There are a lot of things that have to be fixed. We have so much work ahead of us."
Mr. Villard employed about 1,500 workers in Carrefour and 2,000 at his plant near the airport. They produced 180,000 T-shirts a day for a Canadian company. He was preparing to diversify into auto production, and to expand the Villa Therese, the second-ranked Port-au-Prince hotel on the TripAdvisor Web site and a favorite of Europeans adopting Haitian children.
In short, Mr. Villard was bullish on Haiti. "The international community was believing in us," he said, citing, among other examples, a Best Western that was rising in Pétionville, a rare international-brand hotel in Haiti.
Now the world is once again focused on Haiti as a country in crisis, not as an investment opportunity. But Mr. Villard said he hoped that in addition to emergency aid, donors remembered that no-interest and low-interest loans would help businesses rebuild, and create jobs.
Search and rescue teams from Guadeloupe; Fairfax, Va.; and Israel got to his factory in Carrefour on Saturday. They extricated dozens of cadavers but found no survivors. Earlier, American rescue teams were cautioned against going into neighborhoods southwest of downtown, including Carrefour, that were perceived as too dangerous.
On Monday, Mr. Villard drove through the gates of his plant compound in Carrefour, where dozens of workers were busy cleaning up the wasteland and securing the surviving piles of fabric and boxes of T-shirts.
He addressed about 15 employees, who sat at his feet on the ground. He told them that everything, even his own home, had been destroyed, but that they could not be defeated. He was determined to reopen the factory, he said, and would transfer many workers to his plant near the airport in the interim. "It is important to be strong," he said.
The men listened without responding. Their faces were haggard, their eyes downcast. Some looked skeptical. "The boss told me, 'Three months, we'll be back on our feet,' " Saint Louis Kilio, a supervisor, said. Asked if he believed that, he laughed, and said, "I don't think so."
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