Bodies pile up after Haiti quake; aid jams airport

[Guest guest]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/100114/world/international_us_quake_haiti

Bodies pile up after Haiti quake; aid jams airport

1 hour, 23 minutes ago

By Tom Brown and Cawthorne

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Troops and planeloads of food and medicine streamed

into Haiti on Thursday to aid a traumatized nation still rattled by aftershocks

from the catastrophic earthquake that flattened homes and government buildings

and buried countless people.

The Haitian Red Cross said it believed 45,000 to 50,000 people had died and 3

million more -- one third of Haiti's population -- were hurt or left homeless by

the major 7.0 magnitude quake that hit its impoverished capital on Tuesday.

The quake flattened buildings across entire hillsides and many people were still

trapped alive in the rubble after two days, with little sign of organized rescue

efforts. About 1,500 corpses were piled up outside the main hospital and bodies

littered many streets.

Planes full of supplies arrived at the Port-au-Prince airport faster than ground

crews could unload them and aviation authorities restricted flights from U.S.

airspace for fear planes would run out of fuel while waiting to land.

The influx of aid had yet to reach shell-shocked Haitians who wandered the

broken streets of Port-au-Prince, searching desperately for water, food and

medical help.

" Money is worth nothing right now, water is the currency, " one foreign

aid-worker told Reuters.

Looters swarmed a broken supermarket in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince,

carrying out electronics and bags of rice unchallenged. Others siphoned gasoline

from a wrecked tanker.

" All the policemen are busy rescuing and burying their own families, " said tile

factory owner Deheusch. " They don't have the time to patrol the streets. "

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Haiti had suffered a tragedy beyond

imagination and " must become the center of our world's attention, the world's

compassion and the world's humanitarian help. "

NOT FORSAKEN

The United States was sending 3,500 soldiers, 300 medical personnel, several

ships and a contingent of Marines. Canadian military ships with 500 personnel

were on the way and a disaster aid team had already arrived.

" To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction, you will not be

forsaken. You will not be forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need,

America stands with you. The world stands with you, " U.S. President Barack Obama

said.

The United States pledged long-term U.S. help for the crippled Haitian

government. Parliament, the national palace, and many government ministry

buildings collapsed and it was unclear how many lawmakers survived. The main

prison also fell, allowing dangerous criminals to escape.

" The authorities that existed before the earthquake are not able to fully

function. We're going to try to support them as they re-establish authority, "

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN.

There were few signs of organized rescue operations to free those trapped in

debris, and doctors in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,

were ill-equipped to treat the injured.

Makeshift tents were strung everywhere and Haitians at one informal camp

approached a journalist shouting " water, water " in a multitude of languages.

" Please do anything you can, these people have no water, no food, no medicine,

nobody is helping us, " said Valery Louis, who organized one of the camps.

Groups of women who slept in the streets overnight sang religious songs in the

dark and prayed for the dead. " They want God to help them. We all do, " said

Hotel Villa Creole employee Dermene Duma, who lost four relatives.

Sobs and wailing erupted each time someone died but aftershocks interrupted the

mourning, sending panicked people running away from walls.

The quake's epicenter was only 10 miles from Port-au-Prince, a sprawling and

densely packed city of 4 million people in a nation dogged by poverty,

catastrophic natural disasters and political instability.

Bodies lay all around the hilly city, and people covered their noses with cloth

to try to block the stench. Corpses were delivered by the pickup truck load to

the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, where hospital director Guy LaRoche

estimated the bodies piled outside the morgue numbered 1,500.

BODY BAGS

The Haitian Red Cross had run out of body bags and the International Committee

of the Red Cross was sending more. Brazil, whose troops make up part of the UN

peacekeeping force, proposed setting up an emergency cemetery and the United

States sent mortuary teams.

Haitians clawed at chunks of concrete with bare hands and sledgehammers, trying

to free those buried alive.

A 35-year-old Estonian, Tarmo Joveer, was freed from the rubble of the United

Nations' five-story headquarters early Thursday, and told journalists he was

fine.

The UN said at least 36 members of its 9,000-strong peacekeeping mission had

been killed and scores were still missing. Brazil said 14 of its soldiers were

among the dead.

Fourteen guests and workers were pulled out alive on Thursday from the landmark

Montana Hotel, which was largely flattened. Chilean Army Major Rodrigo Vazquez,

who was directing the rescue at that site, said " We estimate 70 more inside ...

this is devastating. "

Nations around the world pitched in to send rescue teams with search dogs and

heavy equipment, helicopters, tents, water purification units, food, doctors and

telecoms teams.

Aid distribution was hampered because roads were blocked by rubble and smashed

cars, normal communications were cut off, and relief agencies' offices were

damaged and their staff dead or missing.

U.N. peacekeepers seemed overwhelmed by the enormity of the recovery task ahead.

" We just don't know what to do, " a Chilean peacekeeper said. " You can see how

terrible the damage is. We have not been able to get into all the areas. "

Many hospitals were too badly damaged to use, and doctors struggled to treat

crushed limbs, head wounds and broken bones at makeshift facilities where

medical supplies were scarce.

Several nations sent mobile hospitals, surgeons and even psychologists to help

traumatized Haitians. The U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort was on the way back to

Haiti, where it delivered medical care after a spate of storms caused massive

flooding and mudslides in 2008.

(Additional reporting by Colitt, Barria, , ph

Guyler Delva, Nebehay, Worsnip and Louis Charbonneau; Writing

by Jane Sutton, Pascal Fletcher and Boadle; Editing by Vicki ,

Storey and Beech)

[Guest guest]

They also may have safety issues with the airport considering that the USS Forward seems to be handling UNICOM instead of the airport's (destroyed) control tower. Due to a lack of electricity night operations are likely to not be feasible except by military transport.