Food, water in short supply as bodies fill Haiti’s capital

Port-au-PRINCE - Time was rapidly running out to find survivors from the devastating earthquake in Haiti as piles of dead bodies filled the streets of decimated capital Port-au-Prince.

Amid the destruction, survivors continued to be dug out, including at least 45 found by Chilean search teams. But thousands remained unaccounted for and governments around the world were tally their dead and missing citizens.

The critical 72-hour window to find survivors was drawing to a close as much of the international aid the Caribbean nation so desperately needs was hampered by poor roads and an airport unable to work to full capacity. The chaos prompted Mexican aid workers to return home.

The Haitian Red Cross continued to operate on the basis of a preliminary estimate that 50,000 people were killed in the 7.0 magnitude quake which struck the impoverished nation Tuesday.

Reports of violence rose but Haitian police and officials from the UN and US gave little importance to them. German Press Agency correspondents arriving late Thursday in the Haitian capital heard gunfire. But when police were asked for comment, they refused

to respond.

In Washington, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said there were reports of minor looting in Port-au-Prince but that overall the security situation remained calm.

“The key is to get the food and the water in there as quickly as possible so that people don’t, in their desperation, turn to violence or lead to the security situation deteriorating,” he said.

Masses of people moved from one broken street or overcrowded park to the other as they look for safer and stable ground, most carrying everything they possess on them. En route, they stop and plead for medicines, masks and water.

Where water pipes have burst, people gather around scooping up what they can in their hands. Many also carry bodies around the city - in blankets, on wheelbarrows and wooden planks. The stench of death seeps into the bodies of the living and makes it difficult to breathe.

The UN began Friday to consolidate the massive task of assisting quake victims in Haiti. The rapid flow of international aid has clogged Port-au-Prince’s one-runway airport. Haiti’s President Rene Preval told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the biggest challenge for his government is how to channel the massive outpouring

of world generosity to his quake-stricken people.

Ban said $550 million were needed in emergency funds. The World Food Programme asked for an additional $279 million to cover food rations for 2 million Haitians for six months.

World governments have already pledged a total of $360 million, including Washington’s $100 million.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to visit the quake scene Saturday.

Some 15 areas of the city are reported to have been badly affected, with at least 70 percent of buildings having been destroyed, the Red Cross said.

While some food was reaching the capital from agricultural areas nearby, the prices had shot up exponentially, leaving much of Haiti’s impoverished people without the means to purchase supplies, humanitarian officials said.

Aid workers reported a complete breakdown of the governmental structure, with “no functioning state”. Ministers were dead or missing, the presidential palace and ministries destroyed and the country’s bureaucracy in total disarray.

Thousands of people flocked to makeshift hospitals run by the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier arrived off Haiti’s coast, carrying 19 helicopters to ferry food, water and other supplies. A Marine unit of 2,200 soldiers is sailing toward the country, and US army units have already arrived with more on the way.

President Barack Obama spoke by telephone with Haitian President Rene Preval Friday morning, pledging the full support of the US in the ongoing earthquake relief effort.

World leaders hoped to organise an international aid conference as soon as possible, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Obama agreed. Brazil and Canada are also involved in preparations.

Elsewhere, exiled former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide said would like to return home to help his countrymen rebuild.

“We cannot wait to be with our sisters and brothers in Haiti,” he said from his current home of South Africa. “We share the anguish of all Haitians in the diaspora who are desperate to reach family and loved ones.”