Top News
Tens of thousands feared dead after Haiti quake
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-14 05:45
 |
Large Medium Small |
About 3,000 police and international peacekeepers cleared debris, directed traffic and maintained security in the capital. But law enforcement was stretched thin even before the quake and would be ill-equipped to deal with major unrest.
An American aid worker was trapped for about 10 hours under the rubble of her mission house before she was rescued by her husband, who told CBS' "Early Show" that he drove 100 miles (160 kilometers) to Port-au-Prince to find her. Frank Thorp said he dug for more than an hour to free his wife, Jillian, and a co-worker, from under about a foot of concrete.
The international Red Cross said a third of the country's 9 million people may need emergency aid, a burden that would test any nation and a crushing catastrophe for impoverished Haiti.
President Barack Obama promised an all-out rescue and humanitarian effort and American officials said they were responding with ships, helicopters, transport planes and a 2,000-member Marine unit, as well as civilian emergency teams from across the US.
"We have to be there for them in their hour of need," Obama said.
The US Navy aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, was expected to arrive off the coast of Haiti on Thursday. More US Navy ships were under way as well, the US Southern Command said.
A US Coast Guard helicopter evacuated four critically injured US Embassy staff to the hospital on the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the military has been detaining suspected terrorists.
A small contingent of US ground troops could be on their way soon, although it was unclear whether they would be used for security operations or humanitarian efforts.
Cuba, which already had hundreds of doctors in Haiti, treated the injured in field hospitals. The aid group Doctors Without Borders helped quake victims in tent clinics set up to replace its damaged facilities.
Port-au-Prince's ruined buildings fell on both the poor and the prominent: The body of Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, 63, was found in the ruins of his office, according to the Rev. Pierre Le Beller at Miot's order, the Saint Jacques Missionary Center in Landivisiau, France.
Senate President Kelly Bastien was among those trapped alive inside the Parliament building, and a day later had stopped responding to rescuers' cries, Latortue said.
Even the main prison in the capital fell down, "and there are reports of escaped inmates," UN humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva.
Haiti's quake refugees likely will face an increased risk of dengue fever, malaria and measles — problems that plagued the impoverished country before, said Kimberley Shoaf, associate director of the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters.
Some of the biggest immediate health threats include respiratory disease from inhaling dust from collapsed buildings and diarrhea from drinking contaminated water.
She said swamped clinics may not be able to give people help they need for broken bones and other injuries, leading to complications — a warning borne out on the streets where people, some covered in the dust of collapsed buildings, nursed wounds that bled through crude bandages.
The UN's 9,000-member peacekeeping force sent patrols across the capital's streets while securing the airport, port and main buildings — but also struggled to rescue colleagues from their collapsed headquarters.
UN mission head Hedi Annabi of Tunisia was among about 150 people missing, mostly at the headquarters building, said peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Annabi's chief deputy, Luis Carlos da Costa, was missing as well.
Le Roy said only about 10 people had been pulled out, many of them badly injured.
Brazil's army reported that at least 11 of its peacekeepers were killed. Jordan's official news agency said three of its peacekeepers were died.
The US Embassy had no confirmed reports of deaths among the estimated 40,000-45,000 Americans who live in Haiti, but many were struggling to find a way out of the country.
Dozens were forced to abandon a Tuesday evening flight to Miami when the earthquake damaged the airport.
Kency Germain of Eatontown, NJ, kept his family — five adults and three children including his wife — at the airport until nearly 3 am. They made their way to the US Embassy, where they were allowed to sleep briefly near the entrance.
"It was safer in there (the airport) than it was out there in Port-au-Prince," Germain said.
