Support groups face logistical nightmare amid the chaos
Ship deliveries were impossible to Port-au-Prince as the port was closed by damage. Its airport was open but strained to handle the flurry of incoming flights.
Fearful of going near scores of quake-damaged buildings, Haitians stood or rested in the roads, slowing the transport of food and other crucial aid.
“It’s chaos,” UN humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told reporters. “It’s a logistical nightmare.”
Severe damage to at least eight hospitals in Haiti’s capital made it nearly impossible to treat the thousands of injured or prevent outbreaks of disease, said Paul Garwood, spokesman for the World Health Organisation.
Even as the United Nations stepped up its massive aid operation, it was trying to determine how many of its own staff were killed in the magnitude-7 earthquake that struck on Tuesday.
“It’s very difficult to give an exact number. This is also a tragedy for the United Nations,” Byrs said.
Up to 100 UN staff were trapped in the main UN peacekeepers’ building, which was destroyed.
Byrs said 40 search-and-rescue teams from around the world had started arriving to look for survivors trapped inside buildings. But the rescuers will need heavy equipment to lift tons of rubble. Some teams have equipment but many don’t.
Haiti has virtually none of those machines, the neighbouring Dominican Republic does and can help meet the need, said Charles Vincent of the World Food Programme.
“We’ll have to see how that works out over the coming days,” said Vincent. “The US military will also be bringing in some equipment.”
The situation has aid groups fearing a surge in lawlessness, he said.
UN peacekeepers will be patrolling to try to control looting but they are dealing with many deaths and injuries of their own.
The Red Cross said its forensic specialists would help ensure the bodies are recovered and identified for the benefit of families.
“There is a widespread myth that dead bodies may be the cause of epidemics in natural disasters,” said forensic expert Ute Hofmeister. “This is not the case. The bodies of people that have died in a natural disaster do not spread disease, since they have died of trauma and not disease.”
China dispatched a plane carrying 10 tons of tents, food, medical equipment and sniffer dogs. Accompanying the materials were a 60-member earthquake relief team that had firsthand experience in the country’s own quake disaster two years ago.
The Red Cross estimated that some three million people will require aid, ranging from shelter to food and clean water, and said many Haitians could need relief for a full year.
