Aid arrives in stricken Haiti as US leads rescue operation

DESPERATELY needed aid from around the world began arriving yesterday in quake-stunned Haiti, while rescuers struggled frantically to save the trapped and injured, using pickup trucks as ambulances and doors as stretchers.

US President Barack Obama said “one of the largest relief efforts in our recent history” is moving toward Haiti, with thousands of troops and a broad array of civilian rescue workers deployed to aid the stricken country – backed by more than $100 million (€70m) in relief funds.

To the Haitians, Obama promised: “You will not be forsaken.” Planes carrying teams from China and France, Spain and the United States landed at Port-au-Prince’s airport with searchers and tons of water, food, medicine and other supplies – with more promised from around the globe. It took six hours to unload a Chinese plane because the airport lacked the needed equipment – a hint of possible bottlenecks ahead as a global response brings a stream of relief flights to the airport, itself damaged by Tuesday’s magnitude-7 earthquake.