The New Dark Age

13 January, 2010 — KONPAY

The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY. It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization. This service is intended to create a better understanding of the situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide a variety of perspectives on the situation. Please visit our website to learn more about KONPAY and Haiti: www.konpay.org

To make a donation to support this service, visit our site or mail personal checks to: Konbit Pou Ayiti, 7 Wall Street, Gloucester, MA, 01930.

IN THIS REPORT:
– U.S. Southern Command will deploy a team of 30 people to Haiti
– U.S. to halt deportations of undocumented Haitians due to earthquake
– Haiti Chief Says Thousands May Be Dead
– Aid Workers Scramble Amid Haiti’s Chaos
– BAN CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT IN WAKE OF DEVASTATING HAITI QUAKE 
– SOME ON THE GROUND REPORTS

ALSO OF NOTE:
– Website to look for loved ones in PAP: http://koneksyon.com/
– Photos of damage in Jacmel: http://bit.ly/8K8bPN

U.S. Southern Command will deploy a team of 30 people to Haiti:
The team, which includes U.S. military engineers, operational planners, and a command and control group and communication specialists, will arrive in Haiti today on two C-130 Hercules aircraft.    The team will work with U.S. Embassy personnel as well as Haitian, United Nations and international officials to assess the situation and facilitate follow on U.S. military support. Other immediate response activities include;

– At first light today, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter evacuated four critically injured U.S. Embassy staff to the Naval Station Guantanamo, Cuba, hospital for further treatment.
– Elements of the U.S. Air Force 1st Special Operations Wing are deploying today to the international airport at Port au Prince, Haiti, to provide air traffic control capability and airfield operations.  They are expected to arrive in Haiti this afternoon.
– A U.S. Navy P-3 Orion aircraft from the Forward Operating Location at Comalapa, El Salvador, took off early this morning to conduct an aerial reconnaissance of the area affected by the earthquake.
– The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, is underway and expected to arrive off the coast of Haiti Thursday.  Additional U.S. Navy ships are underway to Haiti.

SOUTHCOM is closely monitoring the situation and is working with the U.S. State Department, United States Agency for International Development and the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and other national and international agencies to determine how to best respond to this crisis.   SOUTHCOM is well versed at providing humanitarian assistance in the region.  Since 2005, the command has led U.S. military support to 14 major relief missions, including assistance to Haiti in September 2008.  During that mission, U.S. military forces from USS Kearsarge and other units airlifted 3.3 million pounds of aid to communities that were devastated by a succession of major storms. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Haitian people and all those affected by this devastating earthquake,” said U.S. Army Col. James Marshall, command spokesman for SOUTHCOM. For more information about U.S. Southern Command visit http://www.southcom.mil or contact the Public Affairs Office at 305-437-1213. Also connect with us at Facebook and Twitter. (SouthCom 1/13)

U.S. to halt deportations of undocumented Haitians due to earthquake:
The Obama administration is temporarily suspending deportations of undocumented Haitian nationals who are in the United States, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said Wednesday at a news conference in Miami. But there are no immediate indications from the Obama administration that it would grant Haitian nationals Temporary Protected Status in the aftermath of Tuesday’s earthquake. Better known by its acronym TPS, the immigration benefit is given to certain immigrants in the United States who cannot safely return to their countries because of armed conflicts, natural disasters or other emergencies. Those eligible for TPS are allowed to remain in the United States. Haitian activists have sought TPS for years to no avail. Speaking at the Miami-Dade County Emergency Operations Center in Doral, Crist said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told him by telephone that her department was halting removals of undocumented Haitian immigrants to the earthquake-devastated country. “In my conversations with Secretary Napolitano, she indicated that that was already in effect,” said Crist, who spoke with Napolitano on Wednesday morning.  ‘According to the secretary, no one will be sent back.” Department of Homeland Security Department officials officially announced the move in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon: “Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton today halted all removals to Haiti for the time being in response to the devastation caused by yesterday’s earthquake.” The move marks the first time federal officials have moved in a significant way to stop all deportations to Haiti. In the past, U.S. immigration officials have temporarily halted removals at a time of natural disasters, like floods or hurricanes. But they usually resume deportation as soon as the emergencies end. Some Haitian community activists have said in recent weeks that deportations of noncriminals have essentially been halted for months.

Crist spoke during an appearance with Haitian-born state Rep. Yolly Roberson and other public officials, including U.S. Sen. George LeMieux. The comment about deportations came in response to a reporter’s question about the long-running lobbying effort to get the White House to grant TPS to Haitians. TPS allows foreign nationals in the category to get work permits and stay in the country temporarily, typically 12 to 18 months. Then the benefit is usually renewed, often indefinitely.(Miami Herald, 1/13)

Haiti Chief Says Thousands May Be Dead:
The wailing of survivors pierced the air in pockets of this devastated city on Wednesday as people dug desperately through the rubble of collapsed buildings and piled bodies of the dead on roadsides under white sheets. Huge swaths of the capital, Port-au-Prince, lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid offices and shantytowns. Limbs protruded from piles of disintegrated concrete, and muffled cries emanated from deep inside the wrecks of buildings, as this impoverished nation struggled to grasp the grim, still unknown toll from its worst earthquake in more than 200 years. Scenes of destruction defined the city. Concrete homes collapsed on hillsides. Hospitals overflowed with victims. The Canape Vert hospital was surrounded by collapsed buildings. With the electricity and phone service out and supplies of fresh water dwindling, The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said Haiti was facing a “major humanitarian emergency.” The Haitian president, René Préval, told The Miami Herald that the toll was “unimaginable” and estimated that thousands had died. Among those feared dead were the chief of the United Nations mission in Haiti and Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, the archbishop of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The quake struck just before 5 p.m. Tuesday about 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, ravaging the infrastructure of Haiti’s fragile government and destroying some of its most important cultural symbols. The domed white presidential palace and the cathedral collapsed, the Ministry of Justice was destroyed, and the country’s national prison suffered extensive damage, a United Nations spokesman said. “Parliament has collapsed,” Mr. Préval was quoted as saying. “The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.” “All of the hospitals are packed with people,” he added. “It is a catastrophe.”

The earthquake left the country in a shambles, tangling efforts to provide relief to an estimated 3 million people who the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said had been affected by the quake. President Obama promised that Haiti would have the “unwavering support” of the United States. Mr. Obama said United States aid agencies were moving swiftly to get help to Haiti and that search-and-rescue teams were already en route. He described the reports of destruction as “truly heart-wrenching,” made more cruel given Haiti’s long-troubled circumstances. Mr. Obama did not make a specific aid pledge, and administration officials said they were still trying to figure out what the island needed. But he urged Americans to dig into their pockets and to go to the White House’s Web site, http://www.whitehouse.gov, to find ways to donate money. “This is a time when we are reminded of the common humanity that we all share,” Mr. Obama said, speaking in the morning in the White House diplomatic reception room with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. at his side. Aid agencies said they would open their storehouses of food and water inside Haiti, and the World Food Program was flying in nearly 100 tons of ready-to-eat meals and high-energy biscuits from El Salvador. The United Nations said it was freeing up $10 million in emergency relief funds, the European Union pledged $4.4 million, and groups like Doctors Without Borders were setting up clinics in tents and open-air triage centers to treat the injured. Supplies began filtering in from the Dominican Republic, as charter flights were restarted between Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince. But efforts to administer emergency services and distribute food and water were halting, and in some places, seemingly nonexistent. A few S.U.V.’s driven by United Nations personnel plied streets clogged with rubble, pedestrians and other vehicles. Fuel shortages emerged as an immediate concern as motorists sought to find gas stations with functioning fuel pumps.

Hundreds of people camped under the shade of trees in the prime minister’s office compound, while others milled about in open spaces, hesitant to return to their homes after the powerful earthquake that struck Tuesday afternoon, followed by seemingly endless aftershocks.

“This is the worst tragedy I have seen in Haiti in my 54 years,” said Lubini Hermano, a driver employed by a hotel in the hills above the capital. The hotel, Villa Creole, was deeply damaged but still a focal point, as doctors tended to a flow of injured people who appeared at its gate. Some aid groups with offices in Haiti’s capital were also busy searching for their own dead and missing. Five workers with the United Nations mission in Haiti were killed and more than 100 more missing after the office’s headquarters collapsed in one of the deadliest single days for United Nations employees. The Tunisian head of the group’s Haitian mission, Hedi Annabi, and his deputy were among the missing, said Alain LeRoy, the United Nations peacekeeping chief. Earlier Wednesday, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said in radio interviews that Mr. Annabi had been killed in the collapse. The Brazilian Army, which has one of the largest peacekeeping presences in Haiti, said that 11 of its soldiers had been killed in the quake and seven had been injured, with seven more unaccounted for.

In addition to the human toll, the heavy damage sustained by Haiti’s presidential palace and the United Nations headquarters were a blow to the two major symbols of authority in the country.

“The palace was like something out of a fairy tale in a country that had nothing,” said Johanna Mendelson Forman, a former adviser to the United Nations mission, who now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “It had red carpets and gold ropes. It was a symbol of one of the few institutions that works there, and that’s the presidency.” On Wednesday the palace looked like a collapsed wedding cake, with its column-lined facade crumpled and its white domed roof caving in. During a driving tour of the capital today, Bernice Robertson, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said she saw at least 30 dead bodies, most covered with plastic bags or sheets. She also witnessed heroic recovery efforts. “There are people digging with their hands, searching for people in the rubble,” she said in an interview by Skype. “There was unimaginable destruction.” Paul McPhun, operations manager for Doctors Without Borders, described scenes of chaos. When staff members tried to travel by car “they were mobbed by crowds of people,” Mr. McPhun said. “They just want help, and anybody with a car is better off than they are.” Some roads had been torn apart in the quake or were blocked by debris, making it more difficult to transport food, fresh water and first aid supplies, and hospitals were overwhelmed by the injured. In a place where there are constant blackouts, the electricity remained out during the early hours Wednesday, and telephones were not working.

More than 30 significant aftershocks of a 4.5 magnitude or higher rattled Haiti through the night and into the early morning, according to Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey. “We’ve seen a lot of shaking still happening,” she said. Bob Poff, a Salvation Army official, said in a written account posted on the Salvation Army’s Web site how he had loaded injured victims — “older, scared, bleeding and terrified” — into the back of his truck and set off in search of help. In two hours, he managed to travel less than a mile, he said. The account described how Mr. Poff and hundreds of neighbors spent the night outside, in the playground near a children’s home run by the group. Every tremor sent ripples of fear through the survivors, providing “another reminder that we are not yet finished with this calamity,” he wrote. “And when it comes, all of the people cry out and the children are terrified,” he wrote.

Louise Ivers, the clinical director of the aid group Partners in Health, said in an e-mail to her colleagues: “Port-au-Prince is devastated, lot of deaths. SOS. SOS …Temporary field hospital by us at UNDP needs supplies, pain meds, bandages. Please help us.” A hospital collapsed in Pétionville, a hillside district in Port-au-Prince that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians, a videographer for The Associated Press said. Photos from Haiti on Wednesday showed a hillside scraped nearly bare of its houses, which had tumbled into the ravine below. Immigration officials at the Port-au-Prince airport refused to allow incoming journalists into the terminal, fearing that it could collapse; instead they were taken a side exit of the airport, where taxis began showing up late Wednesday morning. Tequila Minsky, a photographer who was in Port-au-Prince, said a wall at the front of the Hotel Oloffson had fallen, killing a passer-by. A number of nearby buildings had crumbled, trapping people, she said, and a Unibank bank building was badly damaged. People were screaming.

“It was general mayhem,” Ms. Minsky said. Haiti’s many man-made woes — its dire poverty, political infighting and history of insurrection — have been worsened repeatedly by natural disasters. At the end of 2008, four hurricanes flooded whole towns, knocked out bridges and left a destitute population in even more desperate conditions. (New York Times, 1/14)

Aid Workers Scramble Amid Haiti’s Chaos:
Governments and aid agencies around the world began marshaling supplies and manpower to send to Haiti on Wednesday, while overwhelmed rescue workers already living in the earthquake-devastated capital of Port-au-Prince scrambled to set up makeshift clinics beside the rubble that used to be hospitals.

Everywhere they went, medical personnel from Doctors Without Borders said they were mobbed by people who had suffered severe traumas and crushed limbs, and by others begging for help in rescuing trapped relatives. “It’s a very chaotic situation,” said Paul McPhun, a director of the emergency management team for Doctors Without Borders, based in Toronto. Most of the medical centers in Port-au-Prince had collapsed or were unusable, Mr. McPhun said. Electricity and communication lines were down, so it was difficult to assess the damage and locate lost aid workers. Many international relief agencies have had large presences in Haiti, not only for disaster relief from two hurricanes in 2008, but to assist in AIDS education and other social and economic issues plaguing the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. On Wednesday, the organizations rapidly developed aid plans from their headquarters outside of Haiti and quickly raised millions of dollars through social networking sites and donations by cellphone. But they were still struggling to get relief workers and supplies into Haiti and then distribute the aid, with the country turned upside down by its worst earthquake in two centuries. The runway at the capital’s main airport was open but functioning only to a limited extent on Wednesday because the tower had crumbled.. Roadways were damaged, and it was unclear whether ships could penetrate the harbor.

“We’re looking at private charter options, looking at getting people through the Dominican Republic,” Mr. McPhun said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning. “We need to get people in, and get people fast. There’s not a shortage of getting people to go, but it’s how to get them there.”

The Pentagon said it was sending an aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson based in Norfolk, Va., to Haiti. It is expected to arrive by Friday and serve as an offshore staging area for helicopters and air support for the island. General Douglas Fraser, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, said he was also considering sending an amphibious assault ship with an expeditionary unit of roughly 2,000 marines to help maintain security in the Haitian capital, which he said was “a serious concern.” The United States Coast Guard dispatched four cutters, some equipped with helicopters, to Haiti early Wednesday morning. France said it would send three military transport planes, including one from nearby Fort de France, Martinique, with aid supplies, and that 100 troops based in the French West Indies would be sent to help, according to TF1, a French television network. Britain and Germany were sending governmental assessment teams, and Germany said it would make 1.5 million euros, or about $2.2 million, available for emergency assistance. The death tolls could not be accurately determined with so many people still missing, but the devastation was omnipresent, fanning out from Port-au-Prince to the southern rural areas of the country.

Robyn Fieser, the regional information officer for Catholic Relief Services, said her office was able to make contact with some of its 300 relief workers in Haiti overnight. Its office in Port-au-Prince was still standing, and some workers slept outside overnight there, afraid or unable to get through rubble-blocked streets.

“All they heard last night was chanting and praying,” Ms. Fieser said by telephone from her office in Baltimore, Md.. “They did not hear any emergency vehicles or emergency efforts at all. All they saw was people doing rescue work on their own, with their bare hands.”

About 800 people from Doctors Without Borders, the medical aid group, were already in Haiti when the quake struck. They treated more than 600 patients in various locations for fractures and other injuries and for burns, many of them caused by domestic cooking-gas containers that exploded as buildings collapsed.

But even as Doctors Without Borders tried to mobilize staff and supplies, they could not get very far, Mr. McPhun said. Any roads that were not strewn by rubble were made impassible during the night by people sleeping or lying wounded there. Caring for children was of immediate concern to at least two organizations with offices already in Haiti. Caryl Stern, chief executive officer of the U.S. Fund for Unicef, said that all but three of the 100 workers were accounted for on Wednesday. After helping communities with rescue efforts, she said her agency would gather unaccompanied children and “create safe havens,” for them and then focus on curbing diseases and providing clean water. Save the Children, which has 54 staff members in Haiti (16 are still missing), will also be distributing hygiene kits, trying to locate parents for unaccompanied minors, and helping to ensure the nutrition of the young population, according to spokeswoman, Kate Conradt. For those organizations that worked with medical centers outside the capital which were not damaged in the quake, the prospect for immediate relief seemed a little more optimistic. But even travel within the country was difficult.. Partners in Health said it was trying to send supplies to the capital from its nine medical centers in the Central Plateau of Haiti, about 100 miles from Port-au-Prince. “The important thing is getting what we already have in country to the place that it’s needed,” said Andrew Marx, a spokesman for the agency. “There has to be a ‘there’ there.”

The World Food Program said it was airlifting additional food supplies from its emergency hub in El Salvador, which will provide more than half a million emergency meals. Military and charter flights were not the only aircraft trying on Wednesday to land at the Port-au-Prince airport, where the control tower was reportedly destroyed by the quake. JetBlue said it would provide supplies and equipment to transport aid workers, the Haitian consul general in New York, Felix Augustin, said at a news conference. “Most needed are medical supplies and water,” Mr. Augustin said. Spirit Airlines, which operates flights between Port-au-Prince and Fort Lauderdale, said it planned to resume service as soon as possible. The airline, based in Miramar, Fla., said it was reaching out to early-stage relief organizations, and also planned to participate in transporting aid workers and equipment to Haiti, while major efforts by the United States government and humanitarian groups are being mobilized. “Our hearts go out to all the people of Haiti,” the airline said.

Donations flowed into aid organizations over the Internet and through mobile giving services, where people could give small donations in $5 or $10 amounts through text-messaging. The musician Wyclef Jean, who was raising money for his Yele Foundation to rebuild Haiti, had one of the most popular Twitter feeds on Wednesday. The American Red Cross said it had raised more than $500,000 through its mobile giving service, and more than $1 million online.

The 15 American Red Cross workers who were stationed in Haiti at the time of the earthquake will be working with more than 1,000 volunteers of the Haitian Red Cross, the group said. According to Eric Porterfield, an American Red Cross spokesman, supplies are being sent from the group’s warehouse in Panama — including enough tarpaulins, cooking sets and mosquito nets to assist 5,000 families left homeless by the destruction. (NYT, 1/14)

The devastating earthquake that struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Tuesday has cost hundreds of Haitian lives, based on reports so far, and destroyed thousands of homes and much of the basic infrastructure of the capital city. But it may also have killed some of the most experienced aid workers in the impoverished country, which could slow assistance efforts in the days ahead. Speaking late Wednesday morning, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the organization’s chief representative in Haiti, Hédi Annabi, and Mr. Annabi’s deputy Luiz Carlos da Costa remain unaccounted for since the UN headquarters at the Christopher Hotel were destroyed yesterday. France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Annabi had been killed, but the UN said that has not been confirmed. “The UN headquarters at the Christopher Hotel collapsed in the quake. Many people are still trapped inside,” Mr. Ban said. “Minustah troops have been working through the night to reach those trapped under the rubble. So far, several badly injured casualties have been retrieved and transported to the Minustah logistics base, which thankfully remains intact.” Minustah is the acronym for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti. Mr. Annabi, a Tunisian national, was meeting with a delegation of Chinese officials in the Christopher Hotel at the time the earthquake struck. The Chinese officials were still missing in the early afternoon. A massive aid effort for Haiti is currently gearing up, with Brazilian Air Force planes scheduled to land in Port-au-Prince with food and medical supplies later this afternoon. US President Barack Obama promised swift US action to deliver aid to the stricken capital. “It is now clear that the earthquake has had a devastating impact on the capital, Port-au-Prince,” Ban said. “The remaining areas of Haiti appear to be largely unaffected. (Christian Science Monitor, 1/13)

A spokesman for medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) said it was able only to offer basic care to the “massive influx” of survivors seeking help because all its buildings had been destroyed. “Unfortunately what we are seeing is a large number of patients in critical condition,” he said. There were some reports of looting overnight. With communications destroyed by the earthquake, it is not yet possible to confirm the extent of the destruction, although there were reports on Wednesday of many bodies piled in the streets. People in the capital were lifting sheets on bodies to try to identify loved ones. Damage has also been reported in the towns of Jacmel and Carrefour, near Port-au-Prince. Guido Cornale, a representative of the UN children’s agency Unicef, in Jacmel, said it estimated more than a fifth of buildings there had been destroyed. The Red Cross is dispatching a relief team from Geneva and the UN’s World Food Programme is flying in two planes with emergency food aid. The Inter-American Development Bank said it was immediately approving a $200,000 grant for emergency aid. The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it would co-ordinate with other international agencies to offer help as swiftly as possible.

The World Bank also said it was sending a team to assess the damage and plan recovery. It said its offices in Port-au-Prince had been destroyed but that most staff were accounted for. The UK said it was mobilising help and was “ready to provide whatever humanitarian assistance may be required”. Canada, Australia, France and a number of Latin American nations have also said they are mobilising their aid response. Pope Benedict XVI has called for a generous response to the “tragic situation” in Haiti.

Emmet Murphy, who works for a non-governmental organisation in Haiti, told the BBC: “I was driving through the mountains on my way home to Jacmel when the car started to shake. It was like a very strong wind was blowing and I nearly lost control of the car. “I drove further and found the road totally blocked by a massive landslide on the road. I just knew that if I had reached that spot five minutes earlier, I would have been killed.” Blogger Troy Livesay, in Port-au-Prince, wrote: “Thousands of people are currently trapped. To guess at a number would be like guessing at raindrops in the ocean. Precious lives hang in the balance.

“When pulled from the rubble there is no place to take them for care. I cannot imagine what the next few weeks and months will be like.”  (BBC, 1/13)

Haitian President René Préval issued an urgent appeal for his earthquake-shattered nation Wednesday, saying he had been stepping over dead bodies and hearing the cries of those trapped under the rubble of the national Parliament. Préval, in his first interview since the earthquake, said the country was destroyed and he believed there were thousands of people dead but was reluctant to provide a number. “We have to do an evaluation,” Préval said, describing the scene as “unimaginable.” “Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,” he said. “There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.” The U.N. said casualties were “vast” but impossible to calculate. The International Red Cross said a third of Haiti’s nine million people may need emergency aid and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge, the Associated Press reported.

Along the border with the Dominican Republic, Haitians were fleeing the devastation. “I don’t have work, I don’t have a future here,” said Antonio Bacevil, 39, a farmer wearing ragged shorts and muddy boat shoes who was on his way to Santiago. “What you see is what I have. . . . A lot of people are dead.” The U.S. State Department said there are 45,000 American citizens living in Haiti and efforts were being made to locate them. Of the more than 170 personnel at the U.S. Embassy, eight were injured, four of them seriously enough to be evacuated by the Coast Guard, officials said in a briefing. Préval said he had traveled through several neighborhoods and seen the damage. “All of the hospitals are packed with people. It is a catastrophe,” he said. While official details about the scope of the damage were scarce, eyewitness accounts and media reports painted a nightmarish picture of widespread destruction that was feared to have claimed tens of thousands, if not more.

A hospital collapsed and people were heard screaming for help. The U.N. said Haiti’s principal prison had crumbled and inmates had escaped. A Florida-based shipper said the cranes at the Port-au-Prince cargo pier had toppled into the water and that much of the pier was destroyed. The second story and dome of the ornate Presidential Palace pancaked onto the first floor. The Parliament lay in ruins, trapping Senate President Kely Bastien, Préval said. The body of the Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Joseph Serge Miot, 63, was found in the rubble of his office, the Associated Press reported. The World Bank offices in Petionville were also destroyed, but most of the staff were safely accounted for, the organization said. In Washington Wednesday, President Barack Obama said search-and-rescue teams from Florida, California and Virginia were on their way to Haiti and that USAID would be coordinating a broad-based effort to take food, water and emergency supplies to the nation. “We have to be there for them in their hour of need,” he said. The military also swung into action early Wednesday, moving a 30-member advance team from Southern Command in Miami by C-130 cargo plane to work with U.S. Embassy personnel and sending a Navy reconnaissance plane from a U.S base in Comalpa, El Salvador, to study the quake damage. The Navy also diverted the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to Haiti. It was expected to be off the coast Thursday.

According to media reports, survivors were digging through the rubble and stacking bodies along the streets of Haiti’s capital after the powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the island nation Tuesday afternoon. The earthquake has left the country virtually isolated, with countless crumbled buildings, including the six-story United Nations headquarters. The U.N. confirmed five of its workers had been killed and more than 100 were missing. Among those unaccounted for were the mission chief, Hédi Annabi, and his deputy, the U.N. said Wednesday.

Brazil’s army said at least 11 of its peacekeepers were killed, while Jordan’s official news agency said three of its peacekeepers were killed, the AP reported.

Préval said Wednesday morning the he had not slept since the earthquake. Others slept in the streets fearing their homes would be toppled by aftershocks.

“This is a catastrophe,” the first lady, Elisabeth Préval, said. “I’m stepping over dead bodies. A lot of people are buried under buildings. The general hospital has collapsed. We need support. We need help. We need engineers.” Part of the road to Canape Vert, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, has collapsed, along with houses perched in the mountains of Petionville, where the quake was centered. Petionville is a suburb about 10 miles from downtown Port-au-Prince.

Amid a wave of requests from Florida and other politicians, the Obama administration is temporarily suspending deportations of undocumented Haitian nationals who are in the United States, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said Wednesday at a news conference in Miami.

On Wednesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said the organization had released $10 million in “emergency funds” to set up immediate operations. He said Assistant Secretary General Eduard Moulet would be dispatched to the region as soon as conditions permit.

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said the OAS “will do everything within our means to support the victims of this catastrophic phenomenon.” He said Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin was gathering damage information to report to the group’s Permanent Council Wednesday to allow member states to contribute to Haiti. “It is at such times that people, governments and leaders across the hemisphere, as neighbors and friends of the people of Haiti, should show solidarity and support in a real, effective and immediate manner, guided by the country’s government, which knows best where the most urgent need lies,” Insulza said. The American Red Cross was poised to move aid from a warehouse in Panama — blankets, kitchen sets and water containers for about 5,000 families — as soon as a flight or means of delivery could be found, Eric Porterfield said in Washington. Field reports, he said, indicated “lots of damage and lots of aftershocks.” In addition, the American Red Cross had already released $200,000 to its counterpart Haitian Red Cross. On Wednesday, Haitian Sen. Joseph Lambert also described the scene in Haiti. Standing outside the Parliament building, he said: “Imagine schools, hospitals, government buildings all destroyed.”

When asked about the prospect of Haiti rebuilding, Lambert said, “It’s our country. We have no other choice. It’s a catastrophe, but we have no other choice but to rebuild.” (Miami Herald, 1/13)

BAN CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT IN WAKE OF DEVASTATING HAITI QUAKE
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today issued an urgent call to the international community to assist Haiti following yesterday’s catastrophic earthquake that has devastated the impoverished Caribbean nation’s capital. Buildings and infrastructure in Port-au-Prince suffered extensive damage, while basic services, including water and electricity are near the brink of collapse. The full extent of casualties is still unknown, Mr. Ban said.  Tens of thousands of people are living on the streets, while many more are still trapped under rubble. It is estimated that one-third of the 9-million strong population of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, has been affected by the disaster.  “Clearly, a major relief effort will be required,” the Secretary-General told an informal emergency meeting of the General Assembly.  Joined by the UN Special Envoy for Haiti, former United States President Bill Clinton, Mr. Ban added that the crisis triggered by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake “rivals, if not exceeds,” the damage wrought by a series of hurricanes that devastated Haiti in 2008.

The UN confirmed that 16 peacekeepers serving with the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) – 1 Argentinean, 11 Brazilians, 1 Chadian and 3 Jordanians – died in the quake, and officials believe the number of fatalities is likely to rise in the coming days.  The Christopher Hotel, which houses the UN’s headquarters, along with other buildings hosting the world body have collapsed, leaving some 150 staff members – including Hédi Annabi, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative – unaccounted for.  The earthquake is a “tragedy for the Haitian people and also for the UN,” said Alain Le Roy, the world body’s top peacekeeping official.  It is expected, he said, that this earthquake will claim the largest number of lives ever in a UN mission, even topping the 2003 terrorist bombing of the world body’s headquarters in Iraq, in which 22 people, including the top UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, were killed.

MINUSTAH was set up in 2004 and currently has more than 9,000 military and police personnel and nearly 2,000 civilian staff.  Some 3,000 of the mission’s troops and police are in and around Port-au-Prince, and are helping to maintain order and assist in relief efforts. They have also started to clear some of the capital’s main roads to allow aid and rescuers to reach those in need.  “The first priority is search and rescue,” with teams from the US, China, France, the Dominican Republic and other nations on their way to Haiti, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said today.  Mr. Ban – who has been in close consultation with the governments of Haiti, the US and others – told reporters after the Assembly meeting that many countries are immediately sending search and rescue teams, aircraft assets, mobile hospitals and other humanitarian items which are crucially needed at this time.  He voiced hope that “the community of nations will unite in its resolve and help Haiti to overcome this latest trauma and begin the work of social and economic reconstruction that will carry this proud nation forward.”

Speaking to reporters this morning, the Secretary-General expressed gratitude to nations rushing aid to the victims of the quake, calling for the world to “come to Haiti’s aid in this hour of need.”  Mr. Ban is dispatching Edmond Mulet, his former Special Representative to Haiti and current Assistant-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, to the country to assume full command of the UN mission.  In addition, he ordered $10 million to be released from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to kick-start humanitarian relief efforts. A flash appeal for Haiti is expected to be launched within the next few days.  (UN News Centre, 1/13)

SOME ON THE GROUND REPORTS:

There are many many reports flooding in. These are just some we were able to compile quickly. Follow latest reports on Facebook and Twitter (KONPAY tweets from melindayiti)

I am Walter Corley a former member of the Chairman Conyers staff and former Clinton Administration member  I am currently in Haiti —I spoke to Cynthia Martin, Chairman Conyers Chief of Staff who I verbally briefed on the situation in Haiti .  My wife Margo Corley asked me also to communicate to you as well (we cant have enough help during this situation). Pls share with the Chairman and the Obama m Administration summary of events to date in Haiti .  I was at ground zero Karibe Hotel during the quake and witnessed first hand the impact and destruction. Pls feel free to circulate this assessment to any relevant other agency, official or organization. on a confidential need to know basis as families of US and in Haiti are are under tremendous stress, worry and concern and panicked. Thank you 

In summary: (these are our present estimates the city size is given not casualties)
The Karibe Hotel has cracks (where I was staying) and is unstable
The Presidents personal residence is destroyed
The Presidential Palace is destroyed
The Montana Hotel where the Congressman usually stays is destroyed
The City of Canapevert a section of Port Au Prince pop 80k destroyed including the largest Hospital in Haiti
The City Bourdon pop 100k is destroyed
The City of Turgeau pop 59k is destroyed
The Nazon main road in Port Au Prince is destroyed (the main road to/from the airport
The downtown section of the City where the Palace is located is destroyed along with the Cathedral (burnt down)
The Police department HQ collapsed
The Haitian IRS building (DGI) has collapsed
The Haitian Parliament collapsed
The Caribbean Supermarket Haiti’s largest collapsed
The Mountain side of Boutilier where they mine for calcium carbonate (illegally) for making concrete collapsed.
The Church of Saint Louis ROI De France destroyed
The church of Saint Thereses destroyed 
No power or water
No access to fuel
Cell phone only work sporadically
The City of Leogane also collapsed
The City of Petion ville Rue Marcadieu has people stuck under debris —decimated
The High school Canado at Turgeau collapsed in need of assistance

MESSAGE #2
Dear All,

Thank you for your concern for Sr. Mary, Pat, Vivian, Domond and his family and the clinic at Petite Riviere de Nippes.  I received news early last evening that Domond and his family were okay, but was not able to get any word from Matthew 25 until very early this morning.  Gras a Dieu, thanks to God, everyone is safe and well.  I am going to copy below some of what Sr. Mary has written.  I am communicating with Dr. Gil Irwin in Manassas, VA to see if there is a way that we can mobilize medical people to go into PAP, such as through the military.  I have had many calls from medical personnel offering to go to Haiti, but the first obstacle to hurdle will be how to get into the country in these next few days.  Sr. Mary has indicated that they could potentially have visiting medical personnel sleep in the soccer field and the land behind Matthew 25.  She said that they are in great need of medical supplies, bandages, betadine, analgesics, etc.    Just as soon as I have any information, I will share it with you. 

I have received a lot of inquiries also as to how one can help.  As I have done on many other occasions, such as with the hurricanes in Gonaives, I directed money I received to the Bishops or sources where I thought the funds would be utilized best.  For now, I feel medical needs are going to be a priority.  Long-term, we will also need to make repairs to Matthew 25 house.  As Sr. Mary has indicated in her e-mail below, the upstairs of the house has been damaged and we cannot have people stay in those rooms.  A lot of reconstruction and rebuilding, particularly in Port-au-Prince, is going to be a necessity in the aftermath of the earthquake. 

My word from Petite Riviere de Nippes is that the clinic essentially withstood the major quake and tremors.  Our Clinic Administrator writes today that  fissures or cracks have occurred in numerous places in the clinic as a result of all of the aftershocks.  Otherwise, all of the employees are fine physically, but very disturbed emotionally.  Most of them have families back in Port-au-Prince.  The medical personnel living at our staff house spent the entire night outside for fear of the building collapsing from the aftershocks.  They are prepared today to treat anyone needing medical assistance. 

I will stay in touch with Sr. Mary and others in Haiti to assess where we can help most.  And, I will also keep you apprised of any information worth sharing.  If you know of anyone wishing to make a donation, they can direct it to Parish Twinning Program and put on the memo line for “earthquake relief” — or if you are able to assist with medical treatment and repairs at Visitation Clinic, you would make a check out to Visitation Hospital Foundation with the same information on the memo line. 

Please keep the people of Haiti  in your prayers.

Blessings,

Theresa Patterson
Parish Twinning Program
Visitation Hospital Foundation

FROM SR. MARY FINNICK at MATTHEW 25 HOUSE IN PORT-AU-PRINCE:

We are all OK physically at the house. We were home when it hit. The downstairs part of the house stood up well, does not appear to be any serious structural damage.  But, there has been some considerable damage upstairs.  Matthew 25 cooked up 4 big pots of soup for the people coming for treatment, and we served as a triage and treatment center. We were able to climb over the fallen bookcases and shelves and retrieve a lot of meds and supplies we had in our depot.

Sr Mary, Vivian and our 6 guests performed superbly in treating many injured. Eventually, 3 Haitian doctors showed up, I think when they heard we had supplies.  Worked til about one in the morning. We were also one of the few houses to have power with our inverters and batteries, so we set up 3 or 4 lights on the soccer field to help with the treatment.  The hospitals are either badly damaged or destroyed and have stopped taking patients as they are overwhelmed.

Pray for our sisters and brothers.

Pat, Viv, Sr. Mary

It is morning and I can give you a better assessment of the house.  The first floor is covered with all the things that came out of the closets but there isn’t any big structural problem. The divider between the depot and the store fell in as did most of the other book cases in the office and in my room.  The 2nd floor is different  The side facing the soccer field has more damage and the cement walls and some of the boards have been knocked around.  The 3rd floor stairs are just hanging there.  The cement in front of the bathroom is badly damaged.  On the other side the bathroom wall on the outside is damaged but there doesn’t seem to be as much structural problems.  The wall between us and the neighbor has quite a large hole.  I don’t know yet what to tell folks about coming but I don’t think we can use the rooms upstairs.  I’ve been trying to answer and reassure folks we are ok.

We used everything I had as I triaged along with 3 MD’s and our guests.  Vivian and Pat had the important job of getting to our supplies as that whole area is under debris; making pots of soup etc.  We finally cut up pillow cases for bandages.  I think planes are flying out today but I haven’t heard from the folks who are in country and supposed to return to PAP.  Our electricity continues but the container holding 12 of the batteries is damaged.  All the cars survived.

Domond just came over and said his house is not safe because of the damage upstairs.  He did ask to have you contact any medical groups planning to come to see if they still planned to and then ask if they would stay in PAP as this the most needy place right now.  We can use the soccer field and out back for sleeping area and the kitchen for cooking in the back is OK.  But there is a great need for medical supplies, suturing, betadine, analgesics…everything… and personnel to bring it.

WORD FROM GROS MORNE VIA Janet Constantino
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 2:03 PM
To: McGinley, S. Mary Jo
Heard from Brittany…said they felt the quake…she thought the house was going to collapse…said Sr. Jackie’s community in Port a Prince had some injuries…but are unable to receive any medical attention..in Brittany’s words “it is bad beyond belief”….. Janet

ABOUT SAINT CROIX HOSPITAL in LEOGANE
A message to all members of PCUSA Haiti Mission Network
All, I just spoke to Jack Lafontant. He confirmed that Hopital Sainte Croix did collapse as a result of the earthquake. He said that there were deaths as a result of the collapse but did not know who or how many.  He had no information on the guesthouse or the missionary house. I asked for information on John and Suzy Parker and Albert but he had none. He is going to try and reach Hilda Alcindor at the nursing school and determine the conditions there and any information that might be available on the Parkers and Albert.  I will update as information is available. 
Jess Hornsby
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