A Rescue at U.N. Headquarters, as Others Wait and Hope
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By GINGER THOMPSON and NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: January 17, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, on Sunday made his first visit to Haiti since the earthquake that flattened much of the capital last week and plunged the international agency's already beleaguered mission here into crisis.
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Michael Appleton for The New York Times
A woman held food given to her Sunday by the United Nations at a tent village in Port-au-Prince. More Photos »
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The day was one of trials and triumphs for the agency. One United Nations official, missing in the rubble of the Christopher Hotel, the mission's collapsed headquarters, was pulled alive from the debris, five days after the catastrophe. Meanwhile, the relatives of so many others whose fates remained unknown pressed Mr. Ban to move faster. And efforts to deliver food to tens of thousands of those left homeless and hungry came close to inciting riots in a few places.
Mr. Ban had just left the site of the Christopher Hotel when rescue workers pulled Jens Kristensen, a Danish civilian employee, from underneath giant slabs of stone. A rush of applause was followed by tears as Mr. Kristensen was pulled into the sunlight, his khaki shirt open to the waist, revealing a skinny dirt-caked body.
He raised his hand feebly above his head as the rescuers from Virginia and Brazil formed a human chain and carried him out of the rubble. Just feet away from where paramedics checked Mr. Kristensen's vital signs, a little knot of people whose spouses and friends remained trapped in the building, including one man sitting in a wheelchair, cried and cried, hoping their loved ones would be the next to be rescued.
Theirs were the voices that echoed through Mr. Ban's visit to Haiti. Everywhere he went during his six-hour visit here, he was greeted by people who urged the United Nations to do more, act faster and plan more carefully.
Nieves Alvarez, a staff member wearing a Unicef key chain around her neck, begged Mr. Ban to speed the rescue attempts for her husband, Philippe Dewez, a Belgian civilian adviser.
She also said she was appalled by what she described as the apparent nationalism of the rescue efforts. The Chinese team came and found a few Chinese and the bodies of their eight-member police delegation, then left. Some American rescuers came and looked around and left too, she said, although Americans were again working at the site.
Mr. Ban told her: "The situation is overwhelming. I know we are fighting against time." He said he would try to better coordinate the work of 27 teams.
When Mr. Ban's 17-vehicle convoy stopped outside the wreckage of the presidential palace, a group of young men shouted out their demands. "We don't need military aid," said one. "What we need is food and shelter."
Mr. Ban might have gotten another earful if he had gone out to a food distribution site in the devastated community of Peguyville, where residents pleaded for assistance that would do more than stop the day's hunger pangs.
"We need more than cookies," said Solly Lazard, 37, referring to the rations that were distributed in Peguyville, where residents had erected plastic hovels in the clearing above where their houses once stood. "You see where we live? We have no water, no toilets, no food."
Hundreds of ravenous people gathered around the convoy, shoving their way to the trucks loaded with rations. Looking at the mob, Mr. Lazard said, "If people go too long without food, they will fight for it."
Mr. Ban got a good look at the troubles confronting his own mission here, which has been as devastated by the quake as Port-au-Prince itself.
The agency has lost dear loved ones. Many officials have lost all their belongings.
There are still tearful reunions of officials and Haitian staff members who had initially been feared lost. In the first days after the quake, some United Nations workers, armed with knives or small arms, said they slept on the streets with their Haitian neighbors to protect them from gangs.
Some United Nations section chiefs, officials said, are still sleeping in their cars. Water is so scarce that taking a bottle off someone's desk can lead to hurtful confrontations. And workers said food was in such short supply the agency was considering charging for their daily rations.
"The other day we were writing up requests to headquarters, telling them what we need to help Haiti recover, and I told them to write a request for us, too," said one Canadian official who asked not to be identified because she was not authorized to speak to the press. "We need relief."
For 45,000 Americans in Haiti, the Quake Was 'a Nightmare That's Not Ending'
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By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. and CATHARINE SKIPP
Published: January 17, 2010
MIAMI — One was a 22-year-old volunteer from Washington State who was teaching youngsters with mental handicaps. Another was a Dallas woman who was fitting impoverished Haitians for eyeglasses. A third was a California landscape architect who had just arrived with three other men to work on a project to build playgrounds and athletic fields.
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Marsha Halper/The Miami Herald, via Associated Press
John Scarboro, now recovering in Miami, was in Haiti working for a New York company and was hurt when his hotel collapsed. More Photos »
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Haitians Pray for Relief
Related
Rescues Beat Dimming Odds in Haiti but Fall Short of Need (January 18, 2010)
A Parish Tested: Haitian New Yorkers Hold On to Their Hope (January 18, 2010)
News Analysis: Experts Mull U.S. Role in Haiti After Cameras Leave (January 18, 2010)
Amid Rubble, Seeking a Refuge in Faith (January 18, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
Interactive: The Missing | Connecting to Those Affected
More Haiti Quake Multimedia
Enlarge This Image
More Photos >
Tens of thousands of Haitians died in crumbling buildings when an earthquake struck last week. But there were also more than 45,000 United States citizens on the island when the catastrophe occurred, from missionaries and aid workers to businessmen and tourists.
The State Department says at least 16 Americans have been confirmed dead, among them the cultural attaché at the embassy, Victoria J. DeLong, 57, who was at home when the temblor struck. Thousands of Americans are missing, and their families are trapped in painful limbo, waiting for a telephone call that could bring elation or loss.
"It's a nightmare that's not ending," said Lisa Birch of Salida, Calif., whose husband, Jim Birch, a 50-year-old landscaper, is among the missing. "We are running out of time. They are running out of time."
Mr. Birch and three other men from a Long Island-based company called the Landtek Group had just arrived in Haiti. They went to scout sites for new gymnasiums and basketball courts for the children of Haiti. The quake struck just moments after they had checked into the Hotel Montana, which crumbled in a heap.
One of the other Landtek employees, John Scarboro of Sparks, Ga., told reporters that the roof of his fifth-floor room had collapsed. "It just fell on top of me," he recalled at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. "It was a matter of seconds. I thought I would be buried alive."
Mr. Scarboro escaped with minor injuries. The other three men — Mr. Birch, David Apperson, 45, and Joe Guercia, 71 — are lost in the rubble. "Now we need a miracle," said Mr. Apperson's wife, Lori.
Many of the Americans who died in the disaster were young idealists who had gone to do good works in the hemisphere's poorest nation.
Molly Mackenzie Hightower, 22, of Port Orchard, Wash., had decided to spend a year before graduate school tutoring mentally disabled children for a charity called Friends of Orphans International.
Ms. Hightower's parents said she had left the charity's building last Sunday to travel to an orphanage in the Pétionville section of Port-au-Prince, the Father Wasson Center. Her body was pulled from the rubble of the building early Friday morning, her parents said.
Even some of those who were dug out of debris did not survive.
Jean Arnwine, 49, of Dallas was one of a dozen people from Highland Park United Methodist Church working for a week at an eye care clinic that the church sponsors in Petit Goave, about 20 miles west of Port-au-Prince, said a spokesman for the church, Kim Gifford. When the quake hit, the clinic crashed in on itself.
Four members of the team were trapped inside, and a fifth, Dr. Gary Fish, an ophthalmologist, just barely escaped with several broken ribs. Members of the group tried to dig their colleagues out by hand. An unidentified American man arrived with a jackhammer and managed to free the trapped Texans.
Though Ms. Arnwine was transported to the airport at Port-au-Prince and put on a flight out, she died from internal injuries, Ms. Gifford said. She had a husband and two children.
Many of the survivors arriving back in the United States told stories of surviving hellish scenes. Among the patients at the Ryder Trauma Center in Miami was Gilg Phanor, a 42-year-old American citizen who was born in Haiti and lives with his wife and two children in north Miami.
Mr. Phanor had traveled to Haiti to invest in land for an apartment building, and ended up trapped in the ruins of his room on the first floor of the Hotel Montana. He was buried for seven hours, with only one arm free, before members of a United Nations peacekeeping unit dug him out.
During that time, he listened to another guest and his daughter trapped in the rubble nearby. The man sang to his daughter until he died, said Mr. Phanor, who was flown to Miami with a broken arm, a fractured leg, a broken clavicle, a punctured lung and damage to his liver and spleen.
Christa Brelsford, 25, a graduate student from Arizona State University, also just barely escaped with her life. She had been in Haiti with her brother, Julian, 27, for 10 days of work with Heads Together Haiti to engineer a plan for a soil erosion project. They were staying about 12 miles south of Port-au-Prince.
When the quake hit, Ms. Brelsford's lower legs were crushed by debris. For 30 minutes, her brother and two other people worked with a pickaxe to free her.
Her brother made a tourniquet with a length of electrical wire. Riding on a motorcycle through the destroyed town, they made it to Leogane, where Sri Lankan peacekeeping forces treated Ms. Brelsford. She, too, was flown to Miami for medical treatment, and she lost her right foot.
"I'll still get to live my life," she said. "There are a lot of people in Haiti who won't."
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By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. and CATHARINE SKIPP
Published: January 17, 2010
MIAMI — One was a 22-year-old volunteer from Washington State who was teaching youngsters with mental handicaps. Another was a Dallas woman who was fitting impoverished Haitians for eyeglasses. A third was a California landscape architect who had just arrived with three other men to work on a project to build playgrounds and athletic fields.
Enlarge This Image
Marsha Halper/The Miami Herald, via Associated Press
John Scarboro, now recovering in Miami, was in Haiti working for a New York company and was hurt when his hotel collapsed. More Photos »
Multimedia
Photographs
Haitians Pray for Relief
Related
Rescues Beat Dimming Odds in Haiti but Fall Short of Need (January 18, 2010)
A Parish Tested: Haitian New Yorkers Hold On to Their Hope (January 18, 2010)
News Analysis: Experts Mull U.S. Role in Haiti After Cameras Leave (January 18, 2010)
Amid Rubble, Seeking a Refuge in Faith (January 18, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
Interactive: The Missing | Connecting to Those Affected
More Haiti Quake Multimedia
Enlarge This Image
More Photos >
Tens of thousands of Haitians died in crumbling buildings when an earthquake struck last week. But there were also more than 45,000 United States citizens on the island when the catastrophe occurred, from missionaries and aid workers to businessmen and tourists.
The State Department says at least 16 Americans have been confirmed dead, among them the cultural attaché at the embassy, Victoria J. DeLong, 57, who was at home when the temblor struck. Thousands of Americans are missing, and their families are trapped in painful limbo, waiting for a telephone call that could bring elation or loss.
"It's a nightmare that's not ending," said Lisa Birch of Salida, Calif., whose husband, Jim Birch, a 50-year-old landscaper, is among the missing. "We are running out of time. They are running out of time."
Mr. Birch and three other men from a Long Island-based company called the Landtek Group had just arrived in Haiti. They went to scout sites for new gymnasiums and basketball courts for the children of Haiti. The quake struck just moments after they had checked into the Hotel Montana, which crumbled in a heap.
One of the other Landtek employees, John Scarboro of Sparks, Ga., told reporters that the roof of his fifth-floor room had collapsed. "It just fell on top of me," he recalled at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. "It was a matter of seconds. I thought I would be buried alive."
Mr. Scarboro escaped with minor injuries. The other three men — Mr. Birch, David Apperson, 45, and Joe Guercia, 71 — are lost in the rubble. "Now we need a miracle," said Mr. Apperson's wife, Lori.
Many of the Americans who died in the disaster were young idealists who had gone to do good works in the hemisphere's poorest nation.
Molly Mackenzie Hightower, 22, of Port Orchard, Wash., had decided to spend a year before graduate school tutoring mentally disabled children for a charity called Friends of Orphans International.
Ms. Hightower's parents said she had left the charity's building last Sunday to travel to an orphanage in the Pétionville section of Port-au-Prince, the Father Wasson Center. Her body was pulled from the rubble of the building early Friday morning, her parents said.
Even some of those who were dug out of debris did not survive.
Jean Arnwine, 49, of Dallas was one of a dozen people from Highland Park United Methodist Church working for a week at an eye care clinic that the church sponsors in Petit Goave, about 20 miles west of Port-au-Prince, said a spokesman for the church, Kim Gifford. When the quake hit, the clinic crashed in on itself.
Four members of the team were trapped inside, and a fifth, Dr. Gary Fish, an ophthalmologist, just barely escaped with several broken ribs. Members of the group tried to dig their colleagues out by hand. An unidentified American man arrived with a jackhammer and managed to free the trapped Texans.
Though Ms. Arnwine was transported to the airport at Port-au-Prince and put on a flight out, she died from internal injuries, Ms. Gifford said. She had a husband and two children.
Many of the survivors arriving back in the United States told stories of surviving hellish scenes. Among the patients at the Ryder Trauma Center in Miami was Gilg Phanor, a 42-year-old American citizen who was born in Haiti and lives with his wife and two children in north Miami.
Mr. Phanor had traveled to Haiti to invest in land for an apartment building, and ended up trapped in the ruins of his room on the first floor of the Hotel Montana. He was buried for seven hours, with only one arm free, before members of a United Nations peacekeeping unit dug him out.
During that time, he listened to another guest and his daughter trapped in the rubble nearby. The man sang to his daughter until he died, said Mr. Phanor, who was flown to Miami with a broken arm, a fractured leg, a broken clavicle, a punctured lung and damage to his liver and spleen.
Christa Brelsford, 25, a graduate student from Arizona State University, also just barely escaped with her life. She had been in Haiti with her brother, Julian, 27, for 10 days of work with Heads Together Haiti to engineer a plan for a soil erosion project. They were staying about 12 miles south of Port-au-Prince.
When the quake hit, Ms. Brelsford's lower legs were crushed by debris. For 30 minutes, her brother and two other people worked with a pickaxe to free her.
Her brother made a tourniquet with a length of electrical wire. Riding on a motorcycle through the destroyed town, they made it to Leogane, where Sri Lankan peacekeeping forces treated Ms. Brelsford. She, too, was flown to Miami for medical treatment, and she lost her right foot.
"I'll still get to live my life," she said. "There are a lot of people in Haiti who won't."
U.S. Mulls Role in Haiti After the Crisis
Michael Appleton for The New York Times
United Nations soldiers controlled access to a tent village in Port-au-Prince on Sunday as the World Food Program distributed aid. The United States is sending some 10,000 Marines and soldiers. More Photos >
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By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER
Published: January 17, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama's aggressive response to the deadly earthquake in Haiti has led to criticism from the far right that the United States is taking on too much, at a time when its foreign-policy plate is already full.
Multimedia
Photographs
Haitians Pray for Relief
Related
Rescues Beat Dimming Odds in Haiti but Fall Short of Need (January 18, 2010)
A Rescue at U.N. Headquarters, as Others Wait and Hope (January 18, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
More Haiti Quake Multimedia
Is the U.S. Doing Enough for Haiti?
What are America's obligations to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake?
Join the Discussion »
But the more relevant question, experts on the region say, is whether the United States will maintain a muscular role in the reconstruction of Haiti once the news cameras go home. The United States has a history of either political domination or neglect in its backyard, and administration officials acknowledge that for Mr. Obama, striking the right balance in Haiti will be crucial.
"The classic U.S. role in the whole hemisphere is either complete neglect, or we come in and run the show," said Sarah Stephens, executive director for the Center for Democracy in the Americas. But with Haiti, a mere 700 miles from Miami, "there is a great opportunity for the United States to do this in a new way," she said.
Mr. Obama has pledged that the United States is in Haiti for the long haul. On Sunday, he mobilized military reserves — particularly medical staff for hospital ships — signing an executive order that said it was necessary to back up active-duty troops "for the effective conduct of operational missions, including those involving humanitarian assistance, related to relief efforts in Haiti."
American troops have taken control of the airport at Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, and are helping to provide security for the enormous international relief effort. A steady stream of administration officials have headed south, from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — who cut short a trip to the South Pacific, rushed home, and then flew to Haiti on Saturday — to one of Mr. Obama's closest aides, Denis R. McDonough, the National Security Council's chief of staff.
"We will be here today, tomorrow, and for the time ahead," Mrs. Clinton said to Haitian journalists in Port-au-Prince, standing alongside President René Préval.
With so many others in the Haitian government missing or dead, the Obama administration is already facing questions of whether the United States is the only entity capable of bringing order to Port-au-Prince. Beyond that is the question of whether Mr. Obama can handle Haiti at a time when he is already grappling with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The short answer is yes," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois and a frequent visitor to Haiti. "As challenging as it is, there is no question about it straining our capacities at home. This is a tiny country. It's close, and it's not going to be our job alone to rebuild."
Mr. Obama has indicated that the amount the United States has pledged so far to Haiti, $100 million, is bound to go up significantly. Still, it is well below the $350 million that President Bush pledged in the early weeks of the Asian tsunami, which killed 226,000 people after it struck in December 2004.
And while Mr. Obama has increased the number of American troops in Afghanistan by 30,000 to just below 100,000, and promised ambitious efforts to stabilize Yemen and Pakistan, the number of American troops being sent to Haiti is of course smaller — some 10,000 Marines and soldiers by Monday, military officials said.
The bigger issue may be sustaining the effort. In 2009, much of the administration's energy was focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, with little time on this hemisphere. The administration's new point man for Latin America and the Caribbean — Arturo Valenzuela, the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere — was confirmed only in November.
In the past, American interest in Haiti has waxed and waned. President Clinton sent 20,000 troops there in 1994 to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, an intervention still viewed today as producing, at best, mixed results.
If Haiti's only problem were poverty, American officials discovered at the time, the job of building its economy would have been one thing. But endemic government corruption and a history of post-colonial abandonment left Haiti in shambles 10 years later, when Mr. Aristide was finally driven from power in 2004.
In the years since 1994, Haiti has resurfaced in the American conscience only during times of crisis: the Aristide meltdown; and after four devastating storms in 2008 that wiped out most of the country's food crops and damaged irrigation systems, causing acute hunger for millions.
Some Haiti experts say that despite the criticism from conservative commentators — Glenn Beck complained that Mr. Obama spent more time reacting to the Haiti earthquake than he did to the attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack — the heart-rending tragedy in Haiti may make it impossible for the United States to ignore it once the news media attention goes away.
Mr. McDonough, the national security aide, spoke to that in a call with reporters on Sunday, saying that the administration was determined to do everything it could to alleviate the suffering in Haiti. "The more we hear criticism, the more we are intent on trying to improve the lot of the Haitian people," he said.
What is more, the administration and the international community appear to be uniform in their belief that Mr. Préval, unlike Mr. Artistide, is someone with whom they can deal. They credit him with taking steps in recent years to develop the economy.
Mrs. Clinton said a major reason for her four-hour visit to Port-au-Prince was to buck up Mr. Préval. At one point on Saturday, the Haitian president walked through the makeshift American command center at the airport, appearing dazed by the clamor.
But he seemed comforted by the presence of Cheryl D. Mills, Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff, who is in charge of the Haiti portfolio at the State Department and who has made multiple visits to Port-au-Prince over the last few months.
Administration officials say the White House can handle Haiti without neglecting its other concerns. They noted that Mr. Obama convened a National Security Council on meeting on Friday to discuss the implementation of his new Afghanistan policy.
"It's only a problem if the whole government isn't functioning properly," a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to publicly discuss internal matters. "What you see here is a good example of the government functioning well."
Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Mark Landler from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Michael Appleton for The New York Times
United Nations soldiers controlled access to a tent village in Port-au-Prince on Sunday as the World Food Program distributed aid. The United States is sending some 10,000 Marines and soldiers. More Photos >
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By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER
Published: January 17, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama's aggressive response to the deadly earthquake in Haiti has led to criticism from the far right that the United States is taking on too much, at a time when its foreign-policy plate is already full.
Multimedia
Photographs
Haitians Pray for Relief
Related
Rescues Beat Dimming Odds in Haiti but Fall Short of Need (January 18, 2010)
A Rescue at U.N. Headquarters, as Others Wait and Hope (January 18, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
More Haiti Quake Multimedia
Is the U.S. Doing Enough for Haiti?
What are America's obligations to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake?
Join the Discussion »
But the more relevant question, experts on the region say, is whether the United States will maintain a muscular role in the reconstruction of Haiti once the news cameras go home. The United States has a history of either political domination or neglect in its backyard, and administration officials acknowledge that for Mr. Obama, striking the right balance in Haiti will be crucial.
"The classic U.S. role in the whole hemisphere is either complete neglect, or we come in and run the show," said Sarah Stephens, executive director for the Center for Democracy in the Americas. But with Haiti, a mere 700 miles from Miami, "there is a great opportunity for the United States to do this in a new way," she said.
Mr. Obama has pledged that the United States is in Haiti for the long haul. On Sunday, he mobilized military reserves — particularly medical staff for hospital ships — signing an executive order that said it was necessary to back up active-duty troops "for the effective conduct of operational missions, including those involving humanitarian assistance, related to relief efforts in Haiti."
American troops have taken control of the airport at Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, and are helping to provide security for the enormous international relief effort. A steady stream of administration officials have headed south, from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — who cut short a trip to the South Pacific, rushed home, and then flew to Haiti on Saturday — to one of Mr. Obama's closest aides, Denis R. McDonough, the National Security Council's chief of staff.
"We will be here today, tomorrow, and for the time ahead," Mrs. Clinton said to Haitian journalists in Port-au-Prince, standing alongside President René Préval.
With so many others in the Haitian government missing or dead, the Obama administration is already facing questions of whether the United States is the only entity capable of bringing order to Port-au-Prince. Beyond that is the question of whether Mr. Obama can handle Haiti at a time when he is already grappling with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The short answer is yes," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois and a frequent visitor to Haiti. "As challenging as it is, there is no question about it straining our capacities at home. This is a tiny country. It's close, and it's not going to be our job alone to rebuild."
Mr. Obama has indicated that the amount the United States has pledged so far to Haiti, $100 million, is bound to go up significantly. Still, it is well below the $350 million that President Bush pledged in the early weeks of the Asian tsunami, which killed 226,000 people after it struck in December 2004.
And while Mr. Obama has increased the number of American troops in Afghanistan by 30,000 to just below 100,000, and promised ambitious efforts to stabilize Yemen and Pakistan, the number of American troops being sent to Haiti is of course smaller — some 10,000 Marines and soldiers by Monday, military officials said.
The bigger issue may be sustaining the effort. In 2009, much of the administration's energy was focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, with little time on this hemisphere. The administration's new point man for Latin America and the Caribbean — Arturo Valenzuela, the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere — was confirmed only in November.
In the past, American interest in Haiti has waxed and waned. President Clinton sent 20,000 troops there in 1994 to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, an intervention still viewed today as producing, at best, mixed results.
If Haiti's only problem were poverty, American officials discovered at the time, the job of building its economy would have been one thing. But endemic government corruption and a history of post-colonial abandonment left Haiti in shambles 10 years later, when Mr. Aristide was finally driven from power in 2004.
In the years since 1994, Haiti has resurfaced in the American conscience only during times of crisis: the Aristide meltdown; and after four devastating storms in 2008 that wiped out most of the country's food crops and damaged irrigation systems, causing acute hunger for millions.
Some Haiti experts say that despite the criticism from conservative commentators — Glenn Beck complained that Mr. Obama spent more time reacting to the Haiti earthquake than he did to the attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack — the heart-rending tragedy in Haiti may make it impossible for the United States to ignore it once the news media attention goes away.
Mr. McDonough, the national security aide, spoke to that in a call with reporters on Sunday, saying that the administration was determined to do everything it could to alleviate the suffering in Haiti. "The more we hear criticism, the more we are intent on trying to improve the lot of the Haitian people," he said.
What is more, the administration and the international community appear to be uniform in their belief that Mr. Préval, unlike Mr. Artistide, is someone with whom they can deal. They credit him with taking steps in recent years to develop the economy.
Mrs. Clinton said a major reason for her four-hour visit to Port-au-Prince was to buck up Mr. Préval. At one point on Saturday, the Haitian president walked through the makeshift American command center at the airport, appearing dazed by the clamor.
But he seemed comforted by the presence of Cheryl D. Mills, Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff, who is in charge of the Haiti portfolio at the State Department and who has made multiple visits to Port-au-Prince over the last few months.
Administration officials say the White House can handle Haiti without neglecting its other concerns. They noted that Mr. Obama convened a National Security Council on meeting on Friday to discuss the implementation of his new Afghanistan policy.
"It's only a problem if the whole government isn't functioning properly," a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to publicly discuss internal matters. "What you see here is a good example of the government functioning well."
Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Mark Landler from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Amid Rubble, Seeking a Refuge in Faith
Damon Winter/The New York Times
A church service was held outdoors in the courtyard at St. Martine de Tour church in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. More Photos >
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By DEBORAH SONTAG
Published: January 17, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Five days after Haiti's devastating earthquake, an evangelical pastor in a frayed polo shirt, his church crushed but his spirit vibrant, sounded a siren to summon the newly homeless residents of a tent city to an urgent Sunday prayer service.
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Before and After: The Destruction in Port-Au-Prince
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Haiti Quake Day 6: Success and Failure
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Haiti Quake Day 6: Steps Toward Normalcy
Related
Rescues Beat Dimming Odds in Haiti but Fall Short of Need (January 18, 2010)
A Parish Tested: Haitian New Yorkers Hold On to Their Hope (January 18, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
Interactive: The Missing | Connecting to Those Affected
More Haiti Quake Multimedia
Voice scratchy, eyes bloodshot, arms raised to the sky, the Rev. Joseph Lejeune urged the hungry, injured and grieving Haitians who gathered round to close their eyes and elevate their beings up and out of the fetid Champ de Mars square where they now scrambled to survive.
"Think of our new village here as the home of Jesus Christ, not the scene of a disaster," he called out over a loudspeaker. "Life is not a disaster. Life is joy! You don't have food? Nourish yourself with the Lord. You don't have water? Drink in the spirit."
And drink they did, singing, swaying, chanting and holding their noses to block out the acrid stench of the bodies in a collapsed school nearby. Military helicopters buzzed overhead, and the faithful reached toward them and beyond, escaping for a couple of hours from the grim patch of concrete where they sought shelter under sheets slung over poles.
In varying versions, this scene repeated itself throughout the Haitian capital on Sunday. With many of their churches flattened and their priests and pastors killed, Haitians desperate for aid and comfort beseeched God to ease their grief. Carrying Bibles, they traversed the dusty, rubble-filled streets searching for solace at scattered prayer gatherings. The churches, usually filled with passionate parishioners on a Sunday morning, stood empty if they stood at all.
In a sign of the importance of churches here, President René Préval gathered religious leaders along with political and business leaders at the police station that has become his headquarters. He asked the churches in particular to focus on feeding people, but he gave little guidance on what the government would do to help.
Not far from the makeshift evangelical church at Champ de Mars, parishioners gathered outside the ruins of the capital city's main cathedral to hear an appeal for forbearance from a bishop.
"We have to keep hoping," said Bishop Marie Eric Toussaint, although he acknowledged that he had no resources to help the many who were suffering and that he found it hard to state with any confidence whether the cathedral would ever be rebuilt.
Built in 1750, the cathedral, once an architectural centerpiece of the city, is now but a giant pile of twisted metal, shattered stained glass and cracked concrete. Bishop Toussaint said the quake had toppled the residences where priests stayed, crushing many of them.
The Sacre Coeur cathedral, another grand structure, also lay in ruin, with a large, perfectly preserved Christ on a cross bearing witness to the destruction below — and a woman's body lying across the street atop a mattress, her head resting on a pillow, sheeting draping over her.
"It may seem like a strange moment to have faith," said Georges Verrier, 28, an unemployed computer expert, his eyes moving from the body to the church. "But you can't blame God. I blame man. God gave us nature, and we Haitians, and our governments, abused the land. You cannot get away without consequences."
Sounding a similar note, a self-appointed preacher at Champ de Mars stood on a crate during the makeshift service and proclaimed the earthquake punishment for a long list of sins that he enumerated in a singsong. "We have to kneel down and ask forgiveness from God," he said.
Vladimir Arisson brushed the self-appointed preacher away with rolled eyes. Mr. Arisson stood propping up his severely wounded girlfriend, Darphcat Charles, whose head was wrapped in bloody gauze, her eyes bruised and her face swollen, infected and grimacing. "My position is God bless, and send us, please, oh Lord, a doctor to plug the hole in my beloved's head."
Another man attending the evangelical service introduced his wife, eight months pregnant, who sat on the pavement blank-faced. "A concrete block fell on her stomach, and we don't know if the baby is still alive," said the man, Ricot Calixte, 28. "Prayer can help, I think. As I still breathe, I have faith."
Around them at the service, the clapping and amens intensified in the tent city that boasted no real tents, only tarps at best. The central encampment at Champ de Mars is Mr. Lejeune's makeshift church, which in its now destroyed home counted 200 active members, three of whom had been killed and many of whom are missing.
"Here we start every day with what I call my 'cup of hot coffee service,' " he said before the Sunday prayers. "We don't have the real beverage, of course. This is a prayer to wake us up and fortify us as we look ahead and think, 'What, oh what, next?' "
He paused, wrinkling his nose at the wafting odor of human waste, and added: "A church in a bathroom, that's what we are. For the moment."
Marc Lacey and Damien Cave contributed reporting.
Damon Winter/The New York Times
A church service was held outdoors in the courtyard at St. Martine de Tour church in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. More Photos >
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By DEBORAH SONTAG
Published: January 17, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Five days after Haiti's devastating earthquake, an evangelical pastor in a frayed polo shirt, his church crushed but his spirit vibrant, sounded a siren to summon the newly homeless residents of a tent city to an urgent Sunday prayer service.
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Voice scratchy, eyes bloodshot, arms raised to the sky, the Rev. Joseph Lejeune urged the hungry, injured and grieving Haitians who gathered round to close their eyes and elevate their beings up and out of the fetid Champ de Mars square where they now scrambled to survive.
"Think of our new village here as the home of Jesus Christ, not the scene of a disaster," he called out over a loudspeaker. "Life is not a disaster. Life is joy! You don't have food? Nourish yourself with the Lord. You don't have water? Drink in the spirit."
And drink they did, singing, swaying, chanting and holding their noses to block out the acrid stench of the bodies in a collapsed school nearby. Military helicopters buzzed overhead, and the faithful reached toward them and beyond, escaping for a couple of hours from the grim patch of concrete where they sought shelter under sheets slung over poles.
In varying versions, this scene repeated itself throughout the Haitian capital on Sunday. With many of their churches flattened and their priests and pastors killed, Haitians desperate for aid and comfort beseeched God to ease their grief. Carrying Bibles, they traversed the dusty, rubble-filled streets searching for solace at scattered prayer gatherings. The churches, usually filled with passionate parishioners on a Sunday morning, stood empty if they stood at all.
In a sign of the importance of churches here, President René Préval gathered religious leaders along with political and business leaders at the police station that has become his headquarters. He asked the churches in particular to focus on feeding people, but he gave little guidance on what the government would do to help.
Not far from the makeshift evangelical church at Champ de Mars, parishioners gathered outside the ruins of the capital city's main cathedral to hear an appeal for forbearance from a bishop.
"We have to keep hoping," said Bishop Marie Eric Toussaint, although he acknowledged that he had no resources to help the many who were suffering and that he found it hard to state with any confidence whether the cathedral would ever be rebuilt.
Built in 1750, the cathedral, once an architectural centerpiece of the city, is now but a giant pile of twisted metal, shattered stained glass and cracked concrete. Bishop Toussaint said the quake had toppled the residences where priests stayed, crushing many of them.
The Sacre Coeur cathedral, another grand structure, also lay in ruin, with a large, perfectly preserved Christ on a cross bearing witness to the destruction below — and a woman's body lying across the street atop a mattress, her head resting on a pillow, sheeting draping over her.
"It may seem like a strange moment to have faith," said Georges Verrier, 28, an unemployed computer expert, his eyes moving from the body to the church. "But you can't blame God. I blame man. God gave us nature, and we Haitians, and our governments, abused the land. You cannot get away without consequences."
Sounding a similar note, a self-appointed preacher at Champ de Mars stood on a crate during the makeshift service and proclaimed the earthquake punishment for a long list of sins that he enumerated in a singsong. "We have to kneel down and ask forgiveness from God," he said.
Vladimir Arisson brushed the self-appointed preacher away with rolled eyes. Mr. Arisson stood propping up his severely wounded girlfriend, Darphcat Charles, whose head was wrapped in bloody gauze, her eyes bruised and her face swollen, infected and grimacing. "My position is God bless, and send us, please, oh Lord, a doctor to plug the hole in my beloved's head."
Another man attending the evangelical service introduced his wife, eight months pregnant, who sat on the pavement blank-faced. "A concrete block fell on her stomach, and we don't know if the baby is still alive," said the man, Ricot Calixte, 28. "Prayer can help, I think. As I still breathe, I have faith."
Around them at the service, the clapping and amens intensified in the tent city that boasted no real tents, only tarps at best. The central encampment at Champ de Mars is Mr. Lejeune's makeshift church, which in its now destroyed home counted 200 active members, three of whom had been killed and many of whom are missing.
"Here we start every day with what I call my 'cup of hot coffee service,' " he said before the Sunday prayers. "We don't have the real beverage, of course. This is a prayer to wake us up and fortify us as we look ahead and think, 'What, oh what, next?' "
He paused, wrinkling his nose at the wafting odor of human waste, and added: "A church in a bathroom, that's what we are. For the moment."
Marc Lacey and Damien Cave contributed reporting.
Rescues Beat Dimming Odds in Haiti but Fall Short of Need
Damon Winter/The New York Times
Port-au-Prince residents beckoned on Sunday, near where the police were firing into a building in which they said looters were hiding. Four men reportedly were shot on suspicion of looting. More Photos >
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By DAMIEN CAVE and DEBORAH SONTAG
Published: January 17, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Despite dimming odds, rescue workers pulled more people alive from the rubble — including a 7-year-old girl who survived more than four days eating dried fruit rolls in the supermarket that collapsed around her — as water and emergency aid deliveries improved on Sunday, though not nearly enough to meet Haiti's desperate need.
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Haitians Pray for Relief
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Amid Rubble, Seeking a Refuge in Faith (January 18, 2010)
News Analysis: Experts Mull U.S. Role in Haiti After Cameras (January 18, 2010)
A Rescue at U.N. Headquarters, as Others Wait and Hope (January 18, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
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The mood managed to stay mostly calm, as residents carried leather-bound Bibles to pray outside their ruined churches. But there were reports of more looting and shootings, including of four men who witnesses said were shot by the police on suspicion of looting. There were fewer bodies in the streets, though in some places residents began burning corpses left behind.
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, arrived to offer a promise of improvement from his organization, which was itself badly hit by the quake but was still heavily criticized for the slow pace of the emergency response.
"I am here with a message of hope that help is on the way," Mr. Ban told a crowd of Haitians in front of the severely damaged National Palace.
On the fifth day after the earthquake, there were signs of improvement, possibly even hope that the worst was passing. Traffic at the airport continued to increase, and there were 27 rescue teams on the ground, with 1,500 people searching for survivors.
The best news came in the form of a small voice from deep in a pile of rubble at the Caribbean Supermarket in the Delmas neighborhood, heard overnight late Saturday or early Sunday. As the odds of finding more survivors fell steeply, American and Turkish rescue workers were stunned to discover a small Haitian girl, who proudly told them that she made it through with hope and leathery fruit snacks.
She was the first of five people to be pulled from the wreckage during a search spanning the weekend, some of whom sent desperate text messages to let loved ones know they were trapped. She was deeply shaken, having been trapped for days in a small space in a devastated market, with death in every aisle. But she had not been pinned down by debris and was not hurt, according to Capt. Joseph Zahralban of the South Florida search and rescue team.
"If you have to be trapped in a collapsed building, a stocked supermarket is probably the best place to be," Captain Zahralban said.
Among the rescuers at the store were members of a joint New York police and fire rescue team, who had arrived in Haiti on Saturday, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly of New York said Sunday in a telephone interview. He said the team included 80 people and several rescue dogs.
There were several other reported rescues around the city, including a 2-month-old baby, CNN reported, and Jens Kristensen, a Danish civilian employee of the United Nations peacekeeping forces at the Christopher Hotel, the organization's headquarters here, where perhaps 100 of its workers remained buried.
At the airport, American military officials said that waiting times for landing had declined, while traffic had increased. Each day, there are 100 slots for incoming planes — well exceeding the 30 to 35 flights that the airport handled before the earthquake. But in a sign of both Haiti's needs and the response, even that is not close to handling the number of planes waiting to come in.
"There is certainly more demand than 100 a day," said Maj. Matthew Jones of the Air Force, operations officer of the joint task force running the airport. "However, no one has been denied a slot, but there may be a delay. Sometimes if it's not today, it's tomorrow."
The military has established a priority list for providing slots, Major Jones said. At the top are planes bringing in water. Next is equipment for distributing supplies, followed by food and then medical personnel and medicine.
In Port-au-Prince, the stepped-up effort appeared to be paying off and aid was finally reaching at least some of Haiti's desperate, with varying degrees of order.
On Sunday morning, a United Nations truck appeared in the park near the presidential palace, where hundreds of families have been squatting since the earthquake. They handed out bags of water to a crowd mostly appreciative, with only a little shoving.
The World Food Program also sent at least three convoys to different locations badly affected by the earthquake, with a goal of delivering enough nourishment to last 65,000 people five days.
But the scene at one delivery site suggested that the food — rations of fortified biscuits, each one about the size of a graham cracker — would hardly last the ravenous victims one night. And the agency's distribution methods nearly started a riot when throngs of people who had lost everything mobbed one of the trucks in the convoy.
"It's not their fault," said Guerrier Ernso, looking on at the mob. "They are hungry."
Damon Winter/The New York Times
Port-au-Prince residents beckoned on Sunday, near where the police were firing into a building in which they said looters were hiding. Four men reportedly were shot on suspicion of looting. More Photos >
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By DAMIEN CAVE and DEBORAH SONTAG
Published: January 17, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Despite dimming odds, rescue workers pulled more people alive from the rubble — including a 7-year-old girl who survived more than four days eating dried fruit rolls in the supermarket that collapsed around her — as water and emergency aid deliveries improved on Sunday, though not nearly enough to meet Haiti's desperate need.
Multimedia
Photographs
Haitians Pray for Relief
Graphic
Expanding Needs, Expanding Tent Cities
Video
Haiti Quake Day 6: Steps Toward Normalcy
Video
Haiti Quake Day 6: Faith and Healing
Related
Amid Rubble, Seeking a Refuge in Faith (January 18, 2010)
News Analysis: Experts Mull U.S. Role in Haiti After Cameras (January 18, 2010)
A Rescue at U.N. Headquarters, as Others Wait and Hope (January 18, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
Interactive: The Missing | Connecting to Those Affected
More Haiti Quake Multimedia
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (63) »
The mood managed to stay mostly calm, as residents carried leather-bound Bibles to pray outside their ruined churches. But there were reports of more looting and shootings, including of four men who witnesses said were shot by the police on suspicion of looting. There were fewer bodies in the streets, though in some places residents began burning corpses left behind.
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, arrived to offer a promise of improvement from his organization, which was itself badly hit by the quake but was still heavily criticized for the slow pace of the emergency response.
"I am here with a message of hope that help is on the way," Mr. Ban told a crowd of Haitians in front of the severely damaged National Palace.
On the fifth day after the earthquake, there were signs of improvement, possibly even hope that the worst was passing. Traffic at the airport continued to increase, and there were 27 rescue teams on the ground, with 1,500 people searching for survivors.
The best news came in the form of a small voice from deep in a pile of rubble at the Caribbean Supermarket in the Delmas neighborhood, heard overnight late Saturday or early Sunday. As the odds of finding more survivors fell steeply, American and Turkish rescue workers were stunned to discover a small Haitian girl, who proudly told them that she made it through with hope and leathery fruit snacks.
She was the first of five people to be pulled from the wreckage during a search spanning the weekend, some of whom sent desperate text messages to let loved ones know they were trapped. She was deeply shaken, having been trapped for days in a small space in a devastated market, with death in every aisle. But she had not been pinned down by debris and was not hurt, according to Capt. Joseph Zahralban of the South Florida search and rescue team.
"If you have to be trapped in a collapsed building, a stocked supermarket is probably the best place to be," Captain Zahralban said.
Among the rescuers at the store were members of a joint New York police and fire rescue team, who had arrived in Haiti on Saturday, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly of New York said Sunday in a telephone interview. He said the team included 80 people and several rescue dogs.
There were several other reported rescues around the city, including a 2-month-old baby, CNN reported, and Jens Kristensen, a Danish civilian employee of the United Nations peacekeeping forces at the Christopher Hotel, the organization's headquarters here, where perhaps 100 of its workers remained buried.
At the airport, American military officials said that waiting times for landing had declined, while traffic had increased. Each day, there are 100 slots for incoming planes — well exceeding the 30 to 35 flights that the airport handled before the earthquake. But in a sign of both Haiti's needs and the response, even that is not close to handling the number of planes waiting to come in.
"There is certainly more demand than 100 a day," said Maj. Matthew Jones of the Air Force, operations officer of the joint task force running the airport. "However, no one has been denied a slot, but there may be a delay. Sometimes if it's not today, it's tomorrow."
The military has established a priority list for providing slots, Major Jones said. At the top are planes bringing in water. Next is equipment for distributing supplies, followed by food and then medical personnel and medicine.
In Port-au-Prince, the stepped-up effort appeared to be paying off and aid was finally reaching at least some of Haiti's desperate, with varying degrees of order.
On Sunday morning, a United Nations truck appeared in the park near the presidential palace, where hundreds of families have been squatting since the earthquake. They handed out bags of water to a crowd mostly appreciative, with only a little shoving.
The World Food Program also sent at least three convoys to different locations badly affected by the earthquake, with a goal of delivering enough nourishment to last 65,000 people five days.
But the scene at one delivery site suggested that the food — rations of fortified biscuits, each one about the size of a graham cracker — would hardly last the ravenous victims one night. And the agency's distribution methods nearly started a riot when throngs of people who had lost everything mobbed one of the trucks in the convoy.
"It's not their fault," said Guerrier Ernso, looking on at the mob. "They are hungry."
Mr. Ernso, a 25-year-old linguistics student, introduced himself to a World Food Program official and suggested that it might have been more effective if the agency had called ahead to advise community leaders that it was coming. Then he and four other brawny young men dived into the mob and began pulling people apart. Within five minutes the people had been arranged in three neat lines. "They have to create another way to deliver food," Mr. Ernso said of the World Food Program official, speaking in English. "The way they are doing it now, they will not help us out of our misery."
Multimedia
Photographs
Haitians Pray for Relief
Graphic
Expanding Needs, Expanding Tent Cities
Video
Haiti Quake Day 6: Steps Toward Normalcy
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Haiti Quake Day 6: Faith and Healing
Related
Amid Rubble, Seeking a Refuge in Faith (January 18, 2010)
News Analysis: Experts Mull U.S. Role in Haiti After Cameras (January 18, 2010)
A Rescue at U.N. Headquarters, as Others Wait and Hope (January 18, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
Interactive: The Missing | Connecting to Those Affected
More Haiti Quake Multimedia
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Read All Comments (63) »
Meanwhile, Col. Cormi Bartal, a doctor in the Israeli Army's newly established field hospital here, pulled back the flap of a tent serving as the hospital's pediatric section and pointed to a woman, Guerlande Jean Michel, 24. She identified a sleeping newborn on her cot, one of the first born in the city after the earthquake, and spoke in a halting voice. "This is my child," said Ms. Jean Michel, a primary school teacher. "His name is Israel."
Colonel Bartal said the hospital had carried out amputations on 10 people, treated patients with burns on 70 percent of their bodies, and saved two people with gunshot wounds. "There are the injuries from the earthquake, but those are subsiding," he explained. "Now we're treating those affected by the aftermath, not from the earthquake."
Still, away from where aid trucks happened to appear — no one seemed to know where or when to expect them — pressure has been building, and with President René Préval still holed up in a police station, without having made a national address, frustration with the government was growing. He and his cabinet held a meeting on Sunday on plastic chairs outside the station.
Signs popping up across the city called for the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former president who was ousted in 2004, and even for the Duvaliers, who ruled the country brutally from the 1950s to the 1980s.
In the main market downtown, prices had skyrocketed. A small bottle of water cost $6. And residents have grown more desperate. "We need water," said Joseph Jean René, a round man in a Hawaiian shirt standing near a scrum of money changers. "We are dying of thirst and hunger. Even the children are dying."
Just a few blocks away, nearly a hundred sweaty young men with empty gasoline cans bunched together and shouted for their share of diesel. The pump could barely be seen because it was covered with people. "He already got some," one shouted. Said another, "Come on, we've been here for two hours." A security guard, thick as a tree, walked back and forth with a shotgun swinging in his left hand. The back of his blue T-shirt said in Creole, "If we put our hands together, life could be better."
Violence and looting, unheard of just after the earthquake, also seemed to be spreading. Several reports of the police catching thieves and shooting them on the spot moved across the city, though at times, what happened and why were difficult to divine.
At the national cemetery, three new bodies appeared just after lunch, with wet blood on at least one of their faces. A fourth young man wearing Adidas high tops lay in a fetal position a few yards away on the sidewalk. Vomit and blood spread out from his chest.
Witnesses said they were thieves. "The police brought them here and shot them," said Andre Pierre, 25. He stood over the fourth man, with a growing crowd. "He tried to fight the police," said Maxime Nerestant, 22, a tae kwon do teacher with a shaved head and a beard. " 'Help me, help me,' he said, 'I'm innocent.' "
Suddenly, the man who was believed to be dead lifted his right arm. People asked him what happened, and where he was from. "La Lou," he said quietly. A truck from Doctors Without Borders drove by. The crowd of Haitians did not notice, nor did they try to help the young man in his final moments. "The police shouldn't kill innocent people, but with what's happening in Haiti right now, people shouldn't be stealing," Mr. Nerestant said.
The police at the local precinct in the market area said they knew nothing of the theft or the shooting, though it occurred less than a mile away. Twelve of the station's 29 officers were missing.
Pierrot Givens wore a hat and a black collarless shirt shiny as satin. He said that if there was more violence, it was because criminals from the prison had escaped. "There are a lot more bad people out there," he said. "A lot of craziness."
Multimedia
Photographs
Haitians Pray for Relief
Graphic
Expanding Needs, Expanding Tent Cities
Video
Haiti Quake Day 6: Steps Toward Normalcy
Video
Haiti Quake Day 6: Faith and Healing
Related
Amid Rubble, Seeking a Refuge in Faith (January 18, 2010)
News Analysis: Experts Mull U.S. Role in Haiti After Cameras (January 18, 2010)
A Rescue at U.N. Headquarters, as Others Wait and Hope (January 18, 2010)
Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating
Interactive: The Missing | Connecting to Those Affected
More Haiti Quake Multimedia
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (63) »
Meanwhile, Col. Cormi Bartal, a doctor in the Israeli Army's newly established field hospital here, pulled back the flap of a tent serving as the hospital's pediatric section and pointed to a woman, Guerlande Jean Michel, 24. She identified a sleeping newborn on her cot, one of the first born in the city after the earthquake, and spoke in a halting voice. "This is my child," said Ms. Jean Michel, a primary school teacher. "His name is Israel."
Colonel Bartal said the hospital had carried out amputations on 10 people, treated patients with burns on 70 percent of their bodies, and saved two people with gunshot wounds. "There are the injuries from the earthquake, but those are subsiding," he explained. "Now we're treating those affected by the aftermath, not from the earthquake."
Still, away from where aid trucks happened to appear — no one seemed to know where or when to expect them — pressure has been building, and with President René Préval still holed up in a police station, without having made a national address, frustration with the government was growing. He and his cabinet held a meeting on Sunday on plastic chairs outside the station.
Signs popping up across the city called for the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former president who was ousted in 2004, and even for the Duvaliers, who ruled the country brutally from the 1950s to the 1980s.
In the main market downtown, prices had skyrocketed. A small bottle of water cost $6. And residents have grown more desperate. "We need water," said Joseph Jean René, a round man in a Hawaiian shirt standing near a scrum of money changers. "We are dying of thirst and hunger. Even the children are dying."
Just a few blocks away, nearly a hundred sweaty young men with empty gasoline cans bunched together and shouted for their share of diesel. The pump could barely be seen because it was covered with people. "He already got some," one shouted. Said another, "Come on, we've been here for two hours." A security guard, thick as a tree, walked back and forth with a shotgun swinging in his left hand. The back of his blue T-shirt said in Creole, "If we put our hands together, life could be better."
Violence and looting, unheard of just after the earthquake, also seemed to be spreading. Several reports of the police catching thieves and shooting them on the spot moved across the city, though at times, what happened and why were difficult to divine.
At the national cemetery, three new bodies appeared just after lunch, with wet blood on at least one of their faces. A fourth young man wearing Adidas high tops lay in a fetal position a few yards away on the sidewalk. Vomit and blood spread out from his chest.
Witnesses said they were thieves. "The police brought them here and shot them," said Andre Pierre, 25. He stood over the fourth man, with a growing crowd. "He tried to fight the police," said Maxime Nerestant, 22, a tae kwon do teacher with a shaved head and a beard. " 'Help me, help me,' he said, 'I'm innocent.' "
Suddenly, the man who was believed to be dead lifted his right arm. People asked him what happened, and where he was from. "La Lou," he said quietly. A truck from Doctors Without Borders drove by. The crowd of Haitians did not notice, nor did they try to help the young man in his final moments. "The police shouldn't kill innocent people, but with what's happening in Haiti right now, people shouldn't be stealing," Mr. Nerestant said.
The police at the local precinct in the market area said they knew nothing of the theft or the shooting, though it occurred less than a mile away. Twelve of the station's 29 officers were missing.
Pierrot Givens wore a hat and a black collarless shirt shiny as satin. He said that if there was more violence, it was because criminals from the prison had escaped. "There are a lot more bad people out there," he said. "A lot of craziness."
Haiti quake severely strains telecom services
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By David Lieberman, USA TODAY
Telecommunications providers in Haiti will continue through the weekend to try to accommodate the enormous demand for phone and broadband services as they struggle to overcome massive damage to the island's infrastructure from Tuesday's 7.0 earthquake.
"The logistics and the security situation are really bad," says Paul Margie, U.S. representative for international relief organization Télécoms Sans Frontières (Telecommunications Without Borders). "There's so much rubble in the street, it's hard to drive places."
The group plans to set up a site in Port-au-Prince where people can make free, two-minute phone calls via satellite to anywhere. It also will offer broadband service to relief workers from the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.
INTERNET: Haiti dominates blogs, Twitter, Facebook
COMPANIES PITCH IN: $16 million donated so far
The island's leading wireless phone provider, Jamaica-based Digicel Group, wants to send technicians to the island to work on its network, which is damaged but still operational. Antonia Graham, who is head of public relations, says the network is severely congested "because of the number of people making calls and trying to receive calls."
Digicel couldn't do much Thursday. "We've been trying to get into Haiti but our plane got turned back because the airport's full," she says.
Officials in the U.S. also are trying to find answers to Haiti's communications needs.
The Federal Communications Commission said, in a release, that it is contacting providers as it tries to "determine their operating status and to offer technical assistance."
The needs likely will be enormous.
Even before the earthquake, the Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook called Haiti's phone system "barely adequate" with an infrastructure that's "among the least developed in Latin America and the Caribbean."
Haiti's government-owned Télécommunications d'Haiti controls the land-line phone service. But cellphone sales soared after 2006 when Digicel, Comcel and Haitel began to offer low-price services.
The earthquake could accelerate demand for wireless and satellite communications.
After massive natural disasters, "Countries don't have many alternatives, or the resources to build a new infrastructure," says Jay Yass, vice president of network services at Intelsat, which provides satellite services to video, data and voice providers in many countries, including Haiti. "Satellite is able to be rapidly deployed."
Share
Yahoo! Buzz
Add to Mixx
More
Subscribe
myYahoo
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By David Lieberman, USA TODAY
Telecommunications providers in Haiti will continue through the weekend to try to accommodate the enormous demand for phone and broadband services as they struggle to overcome massive damage to the island's infrastructure from Tuesday's 7.0 earthquake.
"The logistics and the security situation are really bad," says Paul Margie, U.S. representative for international relief organization Télécoms Sans Frontières (Telecommunications Without Borders). "There's so much rubble in the street, it's hard to drive places."
The group plans to set up a site in Port-au-Prince where people can make free, two-minute phone calls via satellite to anywhere. It also will offer broadband service to relief workers from the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.
INTERNET: Haiti dominates blogs, Twitter, Facebook
COMPANIES PITCH IN: $16 million donated so far
The island's leading wireless phone provider, Jamaica-based Digicel Group, wants to send technicians to the island to work on its network, which is damaged but still operational. Antonia Graham, who is head of public relations, says the network is severely congested "because of the number of people making calls and trying to receive calls."
Digicel couldn't do much Thursday. "We've been trying to get into Haiti but our plane got turned back because the airport's full," she says.
Officials in the U.S. also are trying to find answers to Haiti's communications needs.
The Federal Communications Commission said, in a release, that it is contacting providers as it tries to "determine their operating status and to offer technical assistance."
The needs likely will be enormous.
Even before the earthquake, the Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook called Haiti's phone system "barely adequate" with an infrastructure that's "among the least developed in Latin America and the Caribbean."
Haiti's government-owned Télécommunications d'Haiti controls the land-line phone service. But cellphone sales soared after 2006 when Digicel, Comcel and Haitel began to offer low-price services.
The earthquake could accelerate demand for wireless and satellite communications.
After massive natural disasters, "Countries don't have many alternatives, or the resources to build a new infrastructure," says Jay Yass, vice president of network services at Intelsat, which provides satellite services to video, data and voice providers in many countries, including Haiti. "Satellite is able to be rapidly deployed."
Aid frustration: 'We're racing against the clock'
Updated 43m ago | Comments 1,176 | Recommend 9 E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions |
EARLIER HAITI COVERAGE
Haiti: Country's outlook had been improving | Geology points to big quakes
Washington: Obama pledges starter of $100M in relief | Special status will halt deportations from U.S. | Clinton, Bush join together for aid
Reaction: Haiti tragedy hits Iowa | News slowly reaching loved ones in U.S. | Haitian Americans await word | Facebook becomes 'lifeline'
Aid: Haiti donations on track to break records | Private donations critical to relief | U.S. agencies coordinate rescue efforts | World mobilizes relief
Interactive: Photos from Haiti | Interactive map of earthquake zone | Quakes with 1,000 or more deaths since 1900
Enlarge By Olivier Laban Mattei, AFP/Getty Images
Looters steal everything they can from buildings Sunday near the Hypolite Market in Port-au-Prince. "It's a challenging, challenging situation," USAID administrator Rajiv Shah said.
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By Marisol Bello and Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY
PORT-au-PRINCE, Haiti — The worldwide effort to rescue battered Haiti entered its second week Monday with thousands of frustrated Haitians saying they are still waiting for food, water and medical care and many are worried about violence.
As the United States and other nations stepped up their efforts to get aid to millions of people in need the European Union nations pledged over $575 million on Monday to help quake survivors and rebuilding efforts in Haiti.
The European Union Commission said it would contribute $474 million in emergency and long-term aid to Haiti. EU member states also poured $132 million in emergency aid alone. In addition, the EU was moving toward sending 150 people to be part of a police force to beef up security in the quake-hit Caribbean nation.
"We have taken swift action," said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton after an emergency meeting of the 27-nation EU's development ministers.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked the U.N. Security Council on Monday to raise the ceiling for the U.S. peacekeeping force, which currently has about 7,000 troops and 2,100 police. He wants to beef up the force with 1,500 additional police and 2,000 troops that would be needed for six months.
MEDICAL AID: Docs, nurses 'just keep going'
ORPHANAGE: Supplies and water are scarce
COMFORT: Churches offer solace and hope
Aid groups say the effort to get aid to people is in disarray.
"I'm satisfied that we're doing everything we can," said Army Gen. Ken Keen, who heads the military effort and was at an outpost with the 82nd Airborne. "Is there frustration? Absolutely. We see it. We feel it. We understand it. ... We need to do more, and we're going to do more."
On Monday, the head of the U.N. food agency World Food Program said the United Nations has reached an agreement with the U.S.-run airport in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince to give humanitarian flights priority in landing. Executive director Josette Sheeran said an air slot system, similar to one used during the Indonesian tsunami emergency, has been established to ensure that aid flights get priority in landing.
"Even though the slots are limited and the need is great, we now have the coordination mechanism to prioritize the humanitarian flights coming in," Sheeran said.
The agreement is in response to the logjam at the airport with planes trying to land with aid only to be turned away.
Doctors Without Borders said one of its cargo planes carrying an inflatable surgical hospital was blocked from landing at Port-au-Prince Saturday and diverted to the Dominican Republic, causing a 24-hour delay. A second plane landed Sunday.
Aircraft also have been barred from landing if they can't take off with the fuel they have on board, said George Hood of the Salvation Army.
"You have to fly in with enough fuel to get out," he said. His group has 1 million meals waiting in Miami to be shipped once transit can be arranged.
FAITH & REASON: From the ruins, Haitians pray and praise God
U.S. AID: Relief effort ramps up
MILITARY: U.S. Air Force steps in
MISSION: Lessons of war utilized
CONDITIONS: Stench of dead bodies mounts
Throughout the country, injured victims still await the arrival of doctors and medical supplies.
Haitian physician Reginald Lubin wanted to help quake victims at a hospital in Petionville, a suburb of the capital, but medical supplies and equipment were scarce.
"What would I say to the patient?" Lubin lamented. "Look at them and say, 'You are hurt?'"
"The government is decapitated," Lubin said. "People come here to help, and they do now know what to do or where to go. This is terrible."
Doctors Without Borders teams are working in five Port-au-Prince hospitals, but only two are fully functional. A third "operating theater" has been created for minor surgeries only.
Those lucky enough to escape injury face the rising threat of disease and death while awaiting food, water and medicine. Sunday, a makeshift camp in Petionville with 450 displaced people received its first aid since the earthquake: packets of crackers and bottles of water.
Clemente Dirre, 29, a mechanic, said aid has yet to reach his neighborhood. "People are dying. They are thirsty. They are hungry."
In Dirre's neighborhood and others, people asked the same question: When would aid arrive? Handwritten signs hung at the entrance to tent camps announced the obvious: "We need help."
"The kids are barefoot. They are poor. They don't have anyone to direct the aid people their way," he said. "The problems are from the top."
Obama administration officials in charge of the relief effort defended the decisions, noting the airport is the only major hub in Haiti.
"It's a challenging, challenging situation," U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Rajiv Shah said. "We're aware that we're racing against the clock."
An amphibious force with 2,200 Marines arrived Monday. Over the weekend U.S. forces arrived with more than 600,000 humanitarian rations. Keen said paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne delivered more than 70,000 bottles of water and 130,000 rations Saturday, a pace that should accelerate each day. More supplies are arriving at the airport than can be delivered because of transportation issues.
"As we move other equipment in here, we'll be able to get more ground transportation to increase our tentacles out into the countryside," Keen said.
U.S. officials also began distributing 250,000 liters of water to 52 distribution sites over the weekend. On Sunday, six water purification units arrived from Dubai, for a total of 10 since the earthquake hit.
Some relief agency officials say the first days of a disaster are always tough, particularly when aid workers have been affected by the disaster.
"Everybody here went through the earthquake," said David Toycen, president of World Vision Canada, which has Haitian staffers who lost relatives and homes. "They are traumatized at some level. I'm reluctant to be overly critical."
Caryl Stern, president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, said Haiti's density presents the opposite problem posed by the 2004 tsunami, spread among 14 countries. Unlike Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there are no nearby airports, hospitals or stores to use.
"None of that exists in Haiti," Stern said. "I think they're doing the absolute best they can with what they have to work with."
Veterans of relief efforts and experts on the process say there's a disconnect between an operation's effectiveness and what people see on TV.
"You can't mobilize that fast," said Andrew Natsios, who headed the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2004 when the Indian Ocean tsunami killed nearly 230,000 people. "That does not mean the relief effort is not working. It simply means it takes time to put everything in place."
Shah, the USAID administrator, told USA TODAY during a visit Saturday that he shares people's frustrations, but he defended the response so far.
"We went ahead and identified what is needed and are working with the president of Haiti and with the United Nations to provide it," Shah said.
Some private relief groups sympathize with U.S. officials and say everything possible is being done to reach victims. The problem, said Joy Portella of Mercy Corps, is that "no one can get in or out or move around" because of logistical problems.
"It's hard to reach people," said Henrietta Fore, USAID administrator in 2007-09. "The transportation is an enormous limitation."
Jack Harrald, a Virginia Tech professor and expert in disaster management, said the problems begin with Haiti's geography. "First of all, it's an island," he said. "It's not like we can drive a bunch of 18-wheelers down there."
With the main port decimated by the earthquake and the main airport slowly returning to life, all relief materials are "going through a very small pipeline," Harrald said.
That would be the airport, which is operating without a tower and terminal that have been condemned. It has one runway. Despite that, U.S. military forces have supervised more than 600 takeoffs and landings in five days, said Col. Buck Elton, who arrived Wednesday to take charge of the airport. "As soon as one aircraft departs, we have another one arrive," he said.
Roads are slowing aid down as well. Along Haiti's eastern border with the Dominican Republic, only two roads are passable, said Ben Hemingway, director of international operations for the International Medical Corps. A bottleneck is forming as refugees stream toward the border. Dominican authorities, fearing an influx of refugees, have clamped down on border crossings.
"All of these things are slowing down their ability to process large convoys," Hemingway said.
'Going to get more difficult'
Government officials past and present agree on one thing: The problems will only mount.With the Haitian government severely hampered, a central question must be answered: Who's in charge?
The Obama administration refuses to step forward, insisting it is helping Haiti and the United Nations, along with other international partners. But there's little question it is playing the dominant role.
The United States has "very appropriately taken the lead internationally," said Tom Ridge, the nation's first secretary of Homeland Security. "There's no country better positioned to help orchestrate it or lead it than the United States."
With Port-au-Prince prisoners on the loose and residents desperate for food and water, safety is becoming an ever-present concern.
Looting spread to more parts of downtown Port-au-Prince on Monday as hundreds of young men and boys clambered up broken walls to break into shops to take whatever they could find. Especially prized was toothpaste, which people smear under their noses to fend off the stench of decaying bodies.
At one place, youths fought over a stock of rum with broken bottles, machetes and razors and police fired shots into the air to break up the crowd.
"I am drinking as much as I can. It gives courage," said Jean-Pierre Junior, wielding a broken wooden plank with nails to protect his bottle of rum.
"We've been ordered not to shoot at people unless completely necessary," said Pierre Roger, a Haitian police officer who spoke as yet another crowd of looters ran by. "We're too little, and these people are too desperate."
The U.S. ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Merten, acknowledged that "the security situation is obviously not perfect," but told NBC television on Monday that new troops scheduled to arrive during the day are meant to back up Haitian police and U.N. personnel, not replace them.
Even so, the U.S. Army's on-the-ground commander, Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, said the city is seeing less violence than before the earthquake. "Is there gang violence? Yes. Was there gang violence before the earthquake? Absolutely."
After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, hundreds of thousands of residents fled to Houston, Atlanta and other cities for shelter and services. In Haiti, there's nowhere to go.
Former FEMA official Mark Ghilarducci, who responded to an earthquake in Kobe, Japan, in 1995, said military-style tent cities may be needed first.
"This is a very complicated situation because of the fact that Haiti's so isolated," he said. "There may be a segment that needs to be moved to another place in the world."
Faced with all those problems, Kerline Auguste, 16, sees no hope for Haiti. She survived two days under the rubble of her house with her 18-month-old son; her parents and her son's father perished.
"The only thing I dream about is leaving this country, because I have no hope in the future," she said. "Even God can't help us. The situation is too bad."
Contributing: Jim Michaels and Ken Dilanian in Port-au-Prince; Mimi Hall in Washington; Richard Wolf and Oren Dorell in McLean, Va.; Associated Press
Updated 43m ago | Comments 1,176 | Recommend 9 E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions |
EARLIER HAITI COVERAGE
Haiti: Country's outlook had been improving | Geology points to big quakes
Washington: Obama pledges starter of $100M in relief | Special status will halt deportations from U.S. | Clinton, Bush join together for aid
Reaction: Haiti tragedy hits Iowa | News slowly reaching loved ones in U.S. | Haitian Americans await word | Facebook becomes 'lifeline'
Aid: Haiti donations on track to break records | Private donations critical to relief | U.S. agencies coordinate rescue efforts | World mobilizes relief
Interactive: Photos from Haiti | Interactive map of earthquake zone | Quakes with 1,000 or more deaths since 1900
Enlarge By Olivier Laban Mattei, AFP/Getty Images
Looters steal everything they can from buildings Sunday near the Hypolite Market in Port-au-Prince. "It's a challenging, challenging situation," USAID administrator Rajiv Shah said.
Share
Yahoo! Buzz
Add to Mixx
More
Subscribe
myYahoo
iGoogle
More
By Marisol Bello and Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY
PORT-au-PRINCE, Haiti — The worldwide effort to rescue battered Haiti entered its second week Monday with thousands of frustrated Haitians saying they are still waiting for food, water and medical care and many are worried about violence.
As the United States and other nations stepped up their efforts to get aid to millions of people in need the European Union nations pledged over $575 million on Monday to help quake survivors and rebuilding efforts in Haiti.
The European Union Commission said it would contribute $474 million in emergency and long-term aid to Haiti. EU member states also poured $132 million in emergency aid alone. In addition, the EU was moving toward sending 150 people to be part of a police force to beef up security in the quake-hit Caribbean nation.
"We have taken swift action," said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton after an emergency meeting of the 27-nation EU's development ministers.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked the U.N. Security Council on Monday to raise the ceiling for the U.S. peacekeeping force, which currently has about 7,000 troops and 2,100 police. He wants to beef up the force with 1,500 additional police and 2,000 troops that would be needed for six months.
MEDICAL AID: Docs, nurses 'just keep going'
ORPHANAGE: Supplies and water are scarce
COMFORT: Churches offer solace and hope
Aid groups say the effort to get aid to people is in disarray.
"I'm satisfied that we're doing everything we can," said Army Gen. Ken Keen, who heads the military effort and was at an outpost with the 82nd Airborne. "Is there frustration? Absolutely. We see it. We feel it. We understand it. ... We need to do more, and we're going to do more."
On Monday, the head of the U.N. food agency World Food Program said the United Nations has reached an agreement with the U.S.-run airport in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince to give humanitarian flights priority in landing. Executive director Josette Sheeran said an air slot system, similar to one used during the Indonesian tsunami emergency, has been established to ensure that aid flights get priority in landing.
"Even though the slots are limited and the need is great, we now have the coordination mechanism to prioritize the humanitarian flights coming in," Sheeran said.
The agreement is in response to the logjam at the airport with planes trying to land with aid only to be turned away.
Doctors Without Borders said one of its cargo planes carrying an inflatable surgical hospital was blocked from landing at Port-au-Prince Saturday and diverted to the Dominican Republic, causing a 24-hour delay. A second plane landed Sunday.
Aircraft also have been barred from landing if they can't take off with the fuel they have on board, said George Hood of the Salvation Army.
"You have to fly in with enough fuel to get out," he said. His group has 1 million meals waiting in Miami to be shipped once transit can be arranged.
FAITH & REASON: From the ruins, Haitians pray and praise God
U.S. AID: Relief effort ramps up
MILITARY: U.S. Air Force steps in
MISSION: Lessons of war utilized
CONDITIONS: Stench of dead bodies mounts
Throughout the country, injured victims still await the arrival of doctors and medical supplies.
Haitian physician Reginald Lubin wanted to help quake victims at a hospital in Petionville, a suburb of the capital, but medical supplies and equipment were scarce.
"What would I say to the patient?" Lubin lamented. "Look at them and say, 'You are hurt?'"
"The government is decapitated," Lubin said. "People come here to help, and they do now know what to do or where to go. This is terrible."
Doctors Without Borders teams are working in five Port-au-Prince hospitals, but only two are fully functional. A third "operating theater" has been created for minor surgeries only.
Those lucky enough to escape injury face the rising threat of disease and death while awaiting food, water and medicine. Sunday, a makeshift camp in Petionville with 450 displaced people received its first aid since the earthquake: packets of crackers and bottles of water.
Clemente Dirre, 29, a mechanic, said aid has yet to reach his neighborhood. "People are dying. They are thirsty. They are hungry."
In Dirre's neighborhood and others, people asked the same question: When would aid arrive? Handwritten signs hung at the entrance to tent camps announced the obvious: "We need help."
"The kids are barefoot. They are poor. They don't have anyone to direct the aid people their way," he said. "The problems are from the top."
Obama administration officials in charge of the relief effort defended the decisions, noting the airport is the only major hub in Haiti.
"It's a challenging, challenging situation," U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Rajiv Shah said. "We're aware that we're racing against the clock."
An amphibious force with 2,200 Marines arrived Monday. Over the weekend U.S. forces arrived with more than 600,000 humanitarian rations. Keen said paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne delivered more than 70,000 bottles of water and 130,000 rations Saturday, a pace that should accelerate each day. More supplies are arriving at the airport than can be delivered because of transportation issues.
"As we move other equipment in here, we'll be able to get more ground transportation to increase our tentacles out into the countryside," Keen said.
U.S. officials also began distributing 250,000 liters of water to 52 distribution sites over the weekend. On Sunday, six water purification units arrived from Dubai, for a total of 10 since the earthquake hit.
Some relief agency officials say the first days of a disaster are always tough, particularly when aid workers have been affected by the disaster.
"Everybody here went through the earthquake," said David Toycen, president of World Vision Canada, which has Haitian staffers who lost relatives and homes. "They are traumatized at some level. I'm reluctant to be overly critical."
Caryl Stern, president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, said Haiti's density presents the opposite problem posed by the 2004 tsunami, spread among 14 countries. Unlike Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there are no nearby airports, hospitals or stores to use.
"None of that exists in Haiti," Stern said. "I think they're doing the absolute best they can with what they have to work with."
Veterans of relief efforts and experts on the process say there's a disconnect between an operation's effectiveness and what people see on TV.
"You can't mobilize that fast," said Andrew Natsios, who headed the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2004 when the Indian Ocean tsunami killed nearly 230,000 people. "That does not mean the relief effort is not working. It simply means it takes time to put everything in place."
Shah, the USAID administrator, told USA TODAY during a visit Saturday that he shares people's frustrations, but he defended the response so far.
"We went ahead and identified what is needed and are working with the president of Haiti and with the United Nations to provide it," Shah said.
Some private relief groups sympathize with U.S. officials and say everything possible is being done to reach victims. The problem, said Joy Portella of Mercy Corps, is that "no one can get in or out or move around" because of logistical problems.
"It's hard to reach people," said Henrietta Fore, USAID administrator in 2007-09. "The transportation is an enormous limitation."
Jack Harrald, a Virginia Tech professor and expert in disaster management, said the problems begin with Haiti's geography. "First of all, it's an island," he said. "It's not like we can drive a bunch of 18-wheelers down there."
With the main port decimated by the earthquake and the main airport slowly returning to life, all relief materials are "going through a very small pipeline," Harrald said.
That would be the airport, which is operating without a tower and terminal that have been condemned. It has one runway. Despite that, U.S. military forces have supervised more than 600 takeoffs and landings in five days, said Col. Buck Elton, who arrived Wednesday to take charge of the airport. "As soon as one aircraft departs, we have another one arrive," he said.
Roads are slowing aid down as well. Along Haiti's eastern border with the Dominican Republic, only two roads are passable, said Ben Hemingway, director of international operations for the International Medical Corps. A bottleneck is forming as refugees stream toward the border. Dominican authorities, fearing an influx of refugees, have clamped down on border crossings.
"All of these things are slowing down their ability to process large convoys," Hemingway said.
'Going to get more difficult'
Government officials past and present agree on one thing: The problems will only mount.With the Haitian government severely hampered, a central question must be answered: Who's in charge?
The Obama administration refuses to step forward, insisting it is helping Haiti and the United Nations, along with other international partners. But there's little question it is playing the dominant role.
The United States has "very appropriately taken the lead internationally," said Tom Ridge, the nation's first secretary of Homeland Security. "There's no country better positioned to help orchestrate it or lead it than the United States."
With Port-au-Prince prisoners on the loose and residents desperate for food and water, safety is becoming an ever-present concern.
Looting spread to more parts of downtown Port-au-Prince on Monday as hundreds of young men and boys clambered up broken walls to break into shops to take whatever they could find. Especially prized was toothpaste, which people smear under their noses to fend off the stench of decaying bodies.
At one place, youths fought over a stock of rum with broken bottles, machetes and razors and police fired shots into the air to break up the crowd.
"I am drinking as much as I can. It gives courage," said Jean-Pierre Junior, wielding a broken wooden plank with nails to protect his bottle of rum.
"We've been ordered not to shoot at people unless completely necessary," said Pierre Roger, a Haitian police officer who spoke as yet another crowd of looters ran by. "We're too little, and these people are too desperate."
The U.S. ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Merten, acknowledged that "the security situation is obviously not perfect," but told NBC television on Monday that new troops scheduled to arrive during the day are meant to back up Haitian police and U.N. personnel, not replace them.
Even so, the U.S. Army's on-the-ground commander, Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, said the city is seeing less violence than before the earthquake. "Is there gang violence? Yes. Was there gang violence before the earthquake? Absolutely."
After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, hundreds of thousands of residents fled to Houston, Atlanta and other cities for shelter and services. In Haiti, there's nowhere to go.
Former FEMA official Mark Ghilarducci, who responded to an earthquake in Kobe, Japan, in 1995, said military-style tent cities may be needed first.
"This is a very complicated situation because of the fact that Haiti's so isolated," he said. "There may be a segment that needs to be moved to another place in the world."
Faced with all those problems, Kerline Auguste, 16, sees no hope for Haiti. She survived two days under the rubble of her house with her 18-month-old son; her parents and her son's father perished.
"The only thing I dream about is leaving this country, because I have no hope in the future," she said. "Even God can't help us. The situation is too bad."
Contributing: Jim Michaels and Ken Dilanian in Port-au-Prince; Mimi Hall in Washington; Richard Wolf and Oren Dorell in McLean, Va.; Associated Press
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