News Articles

Major Earthquake Rocks Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - A major earthquake rocked Haiti, killing possibly thousands of people as it toppled the presidential palace and hillside shanties alike and left the Caribbean nation appealing for international help.

A five-story U.N. headquarters building was also brought down by Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude quake, the most powerful to hit Haiti in more than 200 years according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Reuters television footage from the capital, Port-au-Prince, showed scenes of chaos on the streets with people sobbing and appearing dazed amid the rubble. The presidential palace lay in ruins, its domes fallen on top of flattened walls.

The quake's epicenter was only 10 miles from Port-au-Prince. About 4 million people live in the city and surrounding area. Aftershocks as powerful as 5.9 rattled the city throughout the night and into Wednesday.

Reports on casualties and damage were slow to emerge due to communication problems.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he feared everyone in the U.N. building was killed when it collapsed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the missing included the chief of the U.N. mission in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, but he could not confirm reports Annabi had died. He said some 100-150 people were in the building when the quake struck.

Several bodies had been recovered from the wreckage of the U.N. headquarters, U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said. He told reporters fewer than 10 people, "some dead, some alive," had been pulled from the rubble but many remained underneath.

Brazilian General Carlos Barcellos said at least four Brazilian members of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti were killed and a large number of Brazilian soldiers were missing.

The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is ill-equipped to respond to such a disaster, lacking heavy equipment to move debris and sufficient emergency personnel.

"I am appealing to the world, especially the United States, to do what they did for us back in 2008 when four hurricanes hit Haiti," Raymond Alcide Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to Washington, said in a CNN interview.

"At that time the U.S. dispatched ... a hospital ship off the coast of Haiti. I hope that will be done again ... and help us in this dire situation that we find ourselves in."

He said Haitian President Rene Preval and his wife were unharmed despite the collapse of the presidential palace, but that it was impossible to estimate causalities.

"If a building like the palace, which is very solid, collapsed, then the devastation is going to be worse because a lot of the buildings are not up to code around Port-au-Prince," he told ABC's Good Morning America. "They're flimsy little abodes hanging on the sides of hills."

Sara Fajardo, a spokeswoman for Catholic Relief Services, told the Los Angeles Times its representative in Haiti said the death toll could be in the thousands.

The Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) aid organization said it was treating about 600 people in its hospitals in Haiti. It also was sending reinforcements to the disaster zone, as was the International Red Cross.

U.S. ORGANIZING RESPONSE

U.S. President Barack Obama said his "thoughts and prayers" were with the people of Haiti and pledged immediate aid. He was to make a statement on the quake on Wednesday.

A late-night White House meeting involving various arms of the government took place to coordinate the U.S. response. The State Department urged Americans not to travel to Haiti.

In Geneva, U.N. officials said they expected the world body would issue an international emergency appeal for funds and other assistance for Haiti in the next few days, once needs on the ground had been assessed.

Germany was sending 1 million euros in immediate aid, said Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, adding "I'm shocked by the dimensions of the earthquake disaster in Haiti."

The Inter-American Development Bank said it would provide $200,000 in immediate aid. The World Bank, which said its local offices were destroyed but most staff were safe, planned to send a team to help assess damage and plan a recovery.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it was sending cutters and aircraft close to Haiti to give humanitarian assistance. The United States, Britain, Canada and France were sending reconnaissance and rescue teams, some with search dogs and heavy equipment.

The quake hit at 5 p.m. (2200 GMT), and witnesses reported people screaming "Jesus, Jesus" running into the streets as offices, hotels, houses and shops collapsed. Experts said the quake's epicenter was very shallow at a depth of only 6.2 miles, which was likely to have magnified the destruction.

Bloodied and dazed survivors gathered in the open and corpses were pinned by debris.

"The whole city is in darkness. You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go," said Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity. "There are people running, crying, screaming."

LITTLE HELP FOR VICTIMS

In the hillside neighborhood of Petionville, Domersant said he saw no police or rescue vehicles.

"People are trying to dig victims out with flashlights," he said. "I think hundreds of casualties would be a serious understatement."

Witnesses said they saw homes and shanties built on hillsides tumble as the earth shook.

"The car was bouncing off the ground," Domersant said.

U.N. officials said normal communications had been cut off and the only way to talk with people on the ground was via satellite phone. Roads were blocked by rubble.

Some 9,000 U.N. police and troops are stationed in Haiti to maintain order and many countries were trying to determine the welfare of their personnel.

To view article click here

Article Rating

Average (0 votes)

3 Comments

Post #1

Ed Mattson - 6 months ago

From: ed mattson <emattson0711@yahoo.com>

Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:00:59 -0800 (PST)

To: john eberhard<eberhard@uwo.ca>; Barry Rassin<barryjras@yahoo.com>; Dennis Chong<dchong@wtjam.net>; Pyramid Consultin<pyramidconsultengs@gmail.com>; Doug Vincent<dougv@execulink.com>; Larry Biron<mail@msni.org>; JB Roberts<hungersupport@texasonline.net>; Bruce LeBel<bruce.lebel@worldshelters.org>; Lee Malany<lmalany@juno.com>; Leigh Readdy<Readdyla@aol.com>; rob ketron<rob.ketron@gmail.com>; 'Guy Theodore'<hh5gt@aol.com>; 'Roger White'<rogerwhite.47@gmail.com>; Gen Ron Sconyers<rsconyers@physiciansforpeace.org>; jack maxwell<jackmaxw@cox.net>

Cc: Frank Devlyn<devlynf@devlyn.com.mx>

Subject: Fw: Re: QUAKE IN HAITI

For the last 4hours we have been on conference calls with Network partners who have people on the ground in Haiti feeding them information. Lee Malany is familiar with many of those to whom we are talking, which includes our transitional building partner, Project Hope (medical personnel), Hunger Plus regarding food, and MSNI regarding medical resources, supplies, and equipment.

We need to "hold-the-phone" and make every dollar count. Let's look at the data we are accumulating through more that 20 e-mails per hour from various sources with people on the ground. Identifying the objectives is critical, not just sending a bunch of "stuff" to Haiti. Yes, we are all concerned, but we cannot afford to just waste our efforts and money.

The first thought for all of us should be "save as many lives as possible". The fact is, that nobody will die from exposure in Haiti. Today it is 81 degrees in Port Au Prince! So I believe, as do the people who are feeding us information, the ShelterBox is an un-necessary expenditure of dollars at this time. We do not need to entice Rotarians to spend money to purchase 500 boxes, the cost would be $750,000. In 80 degree weather, that cannot be justified. There are far more important issues to address at this stage.

News bulletin just received from US State Department ...COCOM's (SOUTHCOM-Gen. Doug Frasier) assessment is that there is approximately 72 hours left to save lives by uncovering rumble to find those still alive. We have been invited to a USAID teleconference late this afternoon, for an up-to-the-minute report. This will help us in planning tonight, I am sure.

Critical and most urgent needs are, ACCORDING to sources and State Department:

1. Safe water for rescue workers and citizens

2. Caterpillars, backhoes, lifting equipment to clear rubble

2. Trauma medical capabilities to treat those recovered from the rubble

3. Food for all.

We just received an e-mail from Project Hope International - they will have units in Haiti today, and combined with military medical teams will start the emergency treatment procedures to save lives. We just received a call from Gen Ron Sconyers (Physicians for Peace, another medical ally of the Network). He reports only having plans to send in a single medical team now because they will be in-country a month from now providing amputee procedures and as supportive mopping up operation.

THERE IS NO STANDING HOSPITAL CAPABILITIES, so a lot of lives will be lost due to inadequate medical capabilities... They anticipate there's maybe 100,000-150,000 buried in the debris.Military is considering air evacuation of most critical to Gitmo and Florida or surrounding islands so great is the need. It is estimated there will thousands, maybe tens of thousand to treat once they dig through the ruins.

This Hospital issue can be addressed, as Lee Malany is aware, by quickly erecting transitional buildings (Bruce LeBel-World Shelter). Following our telecons today we will have cost figures hopefully late this afternoon to mount the "HOSPITAL"response. We have several medical supply warehouses with the neccesary equipment and supplies to outfit surgical suites (we will need generators to provide electricity). The Network has arranged for immediate air lift out of Miami to Port Au Prince or Dom Rep, which ever is open for air traffic AND we can provide transportation to Maimi for goods needed using other Network Partners. In most cases transportation will be provided at no charge. Just found out Port Au Price is currently closed to commerical air traffice...we need to check on Dom Rep as alternative.

The next issue is to address emergency safe water. Clean Water International's warehouse in Minnesota has about 100 waterboxes in stock and rapidily building more. We told Clean Water International we will need at least 500 more as a starter. Cleanwater can arrange to send additional purification packages with the shipment but will need 24 hours to assess how many can be shipped and the delivery time for more. This inventory is close by and we can ship it to Haiti in a few hours time, so any thought of transporting Aqua Box or other items from elsewhere in the world doesn't make sense to me. We have several districts standing by and are willing to start the process of waterbox-sponsoring in their districts. Since these districts and the military are already familiar with the product, this makes sense. Cost per day per person is around 15 cents for water.

We have asked CWI to check the availability of portable toilets. Counting the inventory on hand in Canada, they are confident they can have as many as 9000 toilets WITH BIODEGRADEABLE WASTE BAGS ready to go in as little as 24 hours. This will solve a major foreseeable problem with feces-borne illness over the next few months. This should be another high-priority item on the check list.

Hopefully the military engineers will have heavy equipment in Haiti today so we really need to address the hospital trauma situation. MSNI (Tulsa, OK) and PDG Jack Maxwell as well as three other medical warehouse can put the right gear together by tomorrow and we can arrange shipping.... so this is also an urgent funding requirement.

Food suppliers have inventory but again funding in required. We spoke with JB Roberts and he has enough for 2 container shipments. All thats need is a little funding and we can ship most of it by air for free; Or we back haul to Florida and have inventory in Haiti by tomorrow or the next day, or air freight straight from the warehouse straight to Haiti, but the warehouse needs to cover their costs. With everyone's OK I will pin down prices and quantities and get shipping/delivery details.

We just spoke to Dennis Chong and I relayed the info from Gen, Sconyers regarding the need for a TRAUMA CENTER. He concurs, but right now until they dig through and clear the debris, we don't know all that will be needed. We might need the capacity to treat 10, 20, or 30,000 people and some will have major surgical requirements. I'm sure by this evening we will hear back from Project Hope.

Question for all...Will we need Certified Letter of Acceptance through the Embassy. this added paperwor will delay things. Maybe Lee malany can clarify for us before we waste time figuring out how to comply with protocols.

Tonight we will teleconference Network participants and members and come up with a total program with estimated cost firgures, but right now we need to move in the right direction. By tomorrow we will send every our group assessment and look to all of you for input.

Post #2

John Eberhard - 6 months ago

Contribution from Hugo Pike – PHF

Past President – Rotary Club of Chelwood Bridge – England

Chairman – Worldwaterworks Limited

Dear President Obama

I chair the Rotary charity Worldwaterworks Limited that provides humanitarian aid in the form of Water-Survival Boxes to families that survive natural disasters such as yesterday’s earthquake in Haiti. The primary purpose of the WSB is to provide the means of purifying water by using chlorine tablets to destroy harmful bacteria and a carbon filter (made in the US) to make the water palatable. The current kit can supply each member of a family of five with 2 litres of clean water each day for one year. The box also contains a variety of other items essential to those whose homes have been destroyed and who have lost their household possessions. In order that the boxes can achieve their live-saving purpose it is vital that we send them by air for distribution to those most in need within days of the disaster. Further details can be seen at www.worldwaterworks.org

We last sent WSBs to Haiti in September, 2008 for survivors of the series of hurricanes that caused great devastation and extensive flooding. However, our carrier (DHL) advised that the American FDA rules would not permit the boxes containing chlorine tablets to transit through Miami – the only viable route from England into Haiti. This meant we had to remove the tablets from each of the boxes and arrange to have replacement tablets purchased in the Bahamas and then have them shipped to Haiti. Although the boxes reached Haiti within days it took more than five weeks for the locally sourced chlorine tablets to arrive and be replaced prior to distribution. This frustrated the key purpose of the operation.

We have successfully sent our WSBs containing the chlorine tablets to 15 other countries on three continents without problems.

Given your own commitment today to ‘the full support of the United States in the urgent effort to rescue those trapped beneath the rubble and to deliver the humanitarian relief - the food, water and medicine - that Haitians will need in the coming days," I request that the FDA restrictions on chlorine tablets be waived so that our Water-Survival Boxes may reach those that need them without unnecessary delay.

Please acknowledge receipt and I trust you can meet our request is simply aimed at saving lives in Haiti. This request is urgent and I hope I may receive a favourable response within the next 24 hours.

Yours in Rotary humanitarian Service

Hugo Pike – PHF

Past President – Rotary Club of Chelwood Bridge – England

Chairman – Worldwaterworks Limited

Post #3

greg chick - 6 months ago

Rescue Task Force is leaving for Haiti Monday, RTF is a professional full time non profit org. with political clout world wide to set up clinics, water stations , other Rescue operations as they have done worldwide for years. I urge DRRAG to assist/consult with these people to achive the best "bang for the buck".

Greg Chick dist. 5340