Haiti earthquake: major catastrophe as dozens feared dead

Transcription

1 Haiti earthquake: major catastrophe as dozens feared dead Haiti was hit on Tuesday by a massive earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale, causing the collapse of buildings, including a hospital, and causing widespread panic. By Toby Harnden 11:27PM GMT 12 Jan 2010 "I think it is really a catastrophe of major proportions," Raymond Joseph, the US ambassador to Haiti, told CNN from the capital Port-au-Prince. Local media reported that the presidential palace and numerous other buildings in the capital had collapsed. The ambassador said he had spoken by telephone with a senior presidential aide who described scenes of chaos and devastation. But later land line and mobile phone communications were cut off in Port-au-Prince. It was the largest earthquake to hit the poor country, since The vibrations lasted for more than a minute and were felt in Cuba. A hospital was reported to have collapsed in Petionville, near Port-au-Prince, and houses were said to have fallen into a ravine. Already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti has been hit by a series of disasters recently and was battered by hurricanes in Seventy per cent of Haiti's population lives on less than two dollars per day and half of its 8.5 million people are unemployed.

2 Haiti earthquake: thousands feared dead Thousands of people are feared dead after a massive earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale hit the impoverished Caribbean island of Haiti. Image 1 of 4 A woman receiving assistance amid debris from a buiding in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Photo: EPA 12:54AM GMT 13 Jan 2010 Haiti's presidential palace and numerous other government buildings in the country's capital Port-au-Prince collapsed after the tremor. A hospital was also flattened, with reports that patients were buried under the rubble. Haiti's ambassador to Washington, Raymond Alcide Joseph, told CNN: "My country is facing a major catastrophe." Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in the capital of Port-au-Prince, told US colleagues before phone service failed that "there must be thousands of people dead," according to a spokeswoman for the aid group, Sara Fajardo. Witnesses said that as night fell, survivors were trying to pull people out of piles of concrete and twisted metal. A journalist with Haitian television station Haitipal, interviewed by telephone from Portau-Prince, told the station that public buildings across the capital had been destroyed. The UN peacekeeping HQ was also flattened and "large numbers" of staff were missing. "The presidential palace, the finance ministry, the ministry of public works, the ministry of communication and culture," were all affected by the quake, the reporter said, adding that the parliament building and a cathedral in the capital were also crumbling.

3 Haiti earthquake: two years on, and just half of promised aid has been delivered UN figures show that only $2.38bn of $4.5bn pledged has been sent to nation where 2010 natural disaster killed 300,000 people Tom Phillips and Claire Provost The Guardian, Wednesday 11 January GMT Children walk past collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which is struggling to rebuild itself after the earthquake two years ago. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Two years after Haiti was devastated by a magnitude 7 earthquake, international aid donors have delivered only about half of the billions of dollars promised for reconstruction, according to UN data. Just $2.38bn ( 1.5bn) 53% of the $4.5bn pledged for recovery programmes in has been delivered, figures from the UN special envoy for Haiti show. While that is a rise from the 43% recorded last September, aid agencies and NGOs such as Oxfam and Save the Children this week warned of a "severe funding shortage threatening recovery programmes in the country". "There is a lot more we need to do to really get the Haitian people back on their feet," said Gareth Owen, humanitarian director of Save the Children. In March 2010, two and a half months after the quake struck on 12 January, world leaders met in New York and pledged billions for recovery programmes. "Our goal must be the empowerment of the Haitian people," Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, told the conference. "They are the ones who will carry on the work of rebuilding Haiti long after our involvement has ended."

4 Two years after the earthquake killed an estimated 316,000 people, Haiti faces huge and wide-ranging challenges from political disputes to chaotic housing projects and conflict over land registry. Oxfam warned this week that reconstruction was moving ahead "at a snail's pace" and said that 500,000 Haitians were still homeless. "Most Haitians do not have running water, a toilet or access to a doctor; cholera has claimed thousands of lives and remains a major threat to public health; and more than 70% of the workforce is under or unemployed," the report said. There have been advances. A Unicef report pointed out that of the 4,000 schools destroyed or damaged, 653 had now been repaired and 612 rebuilt, benefiting tens of thousands of children. "The fact that there are still half a million people living in makeshift camps or tents though it is very sad we kind of figured it might end up being that way," he said. "It is hard to underestimate the catastrophic effect the earthquake had on the infrastructure and the government in Haiti." He recalled attending meetings with senior government officials after the disaster. "They wouldn't have anything, not even a pen or paper. It was as if the centre of Whitehall had been taken out." Donor countries had partly held back bilateral aid, he said, because "the government of Haiti has to be able to administer that resource". Crippled by the quake, many departments had simply not been able to do so. Stocking said a five-month delay in forming a new government after Haiti's president, Michel Martelly, came to power in May was a key factor in donor countries not fulfilling more of their pledges. "It is understandable to some extent why that is the case When you don't really have a functioning government donors are unlikely to have faith." Martelly said his No 1 priority was building "a more socially just Haiti", including "free access to quality schools for all Haitian children". But he was clear about the challenges ahead: 800,000 Haitians had no electricity, 500,000 were illiterate, only 200,000 had regular jobs and 80% were surviving on less than $2 a day, he said. The proportion of Haitian graduates who lived abroad was 84%, he added.

5 January 25 th 2010 Why aid is not getting through: This aerial view shows the traffic near the airport in Port-au-Prince yesterday. The heavy traffic make it difficult to move aid where is needed, so the U.S. military forces have air-dropped aid in specific areas throughout the capital

6 Looters fight for goods taken from a destroyed store in Port-au-Prince Meanwhile desperate, starving and increasingly angry victims were still struggling to find food and water despite the international aid flowing in to the country. Six days after the quake only a trickle of aid was reaching those beyond the devastated capital.

7 Crush: People swarm a UN aid convoy to grab at food and supplies in Petionville Transportation bottlenecks, bureaucratic confusion, fear of attacks on aid convoys and the sheer scale of the catastrophe continued to frustrate the international relief operation. The UN admitted that just 10 per cent of those who needed aid have received help. U.S. envoy to Haiti and former President Bill Clinton, who arrived in Haiti yesterday with his daughter Chelsea, said: 'It's astonishing what the Haitians have been able to accomplish, performing surgeries at night... with no anaesthesia, using vodka to sterilize equipment.'

8 On the ground, violence was stalking the shattered streets of Haiti. There were reports that one American had died and three had been injured during a relief operation being carried out at the airport. No further details were available. Help trickles through: U.S. Marines carrying supplies arrive at a camp in Port-au-Prince

9 Members from the 84th US Air Force Division stand guard in front of the National Palace in Port-au-Prince At least two suspected looters were shot dead on Sunday, witnesses said, but police said they had been told to adopt a more low-key approach. Whether things explode is all down to whether help gets through from the international community, said police commander Ralph Jean-Brice, in charge of Haiti s West Department, whose force is down by half due to the quake. In some cases, police fired tear gas to disperse looters in the city s downtown area as several nearby shops burned. We ve been ordered not to shoot at people unless completely necessary, said police officer Pierre Roger We re too little, and these people are too desperate. Security was expected to improve with the arrival last night of 2,200 Marines part of a 10,000 U.S. military deployment to the area.

10 U.S. forces have the authority to protect 'innocent Haitians' and themselves if necessary, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday. However he insisted the U.S. had not taken on a policing role in the devastated country. A girl reaches out for goods thrown by looters from a destroyed store in downtown Portau-Prince On Monday there were some signs of progress as international medical teams took over damaged hospitals where the seriously injured had lain untreated for days.

11 People take goods from buildings collapsed during last week's earthquake in the market area of Port-au-Prince Maintaining calm: Indian members of the peacekeeping forces shoot fire gas to disperse a group of Haitians who were asking for supplies outside of International Airport in Portau-Prince yesterday

12 Doctors say that in some cases they have had to amputate broken limbs rather than reset them because they had turned gangrenous. Trucks piled with corpses were ferrying bodies to hurriedly excavated mass graves outside the city, but tens of thousands of victims are still believed buried under the rubble. Although a few street markets had begun selling vegetables, charcoal, chicken and pork, tens of thousands of earthquake survivors across the city were still clamouring for help. There were jostling scrums for food and water as U.N. trucks distributed food packets and U.S. military helicopters swooped down to throw out boxes of water bottles and rations. Colonel Buck Elton, commander of the U.S. military directing flights at Haiti s airport, said there had been 600 takeoffs and landings since he took over the one-runway airport s traffic on Wednesday, though 50 flights had been diverted. But the Geneva-based Doctors Without Borders charity said bluntly: There is little sign of significant aid distribution. A Jordanian police officer from the United Nations fires tear-gas shells at Haitians, begging for work at one of the main gates of the Port-au-Prince international airport

13 Tourists dock in Haiti on cruise ships Just 60 miles from the devastation in Haiti's earthquake zone, luxury liners are docking at private beaches. Passengers enjoyed jet ski rides, parasailing and rum cocktails, when the Independence of the Seas ship landed at Labadee, on the north coast, on Friday. Another ship, Navigator of the Seas, was due to dock on Monday. Royal Caribbean International leases five beaches from the government, which are armed by guards. They said the ships carry some food aid and the cruise line has pledged to donate all proceeds from the visit to Haitians. One passenger wrote he was 'sickened' on the Cruise Critic internet forum. 'I just can't see myself sunning on the beach... while there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water,' he wrote. Some were afraid desperate people might breach the resort's 12ft high fences. 'Labadee is critical to Haiti's recovery; hundreds of people rely on Labadee for their livelihood,' said the company's vice-president, John Weis. 'We cannot abandon Haiti now that they need us most.' Forty pallets of rice, beans, powdered milk, water and canned foods were delivered on Friday, and more are due on other cruises.

14 Haiti's earthquake survivors voice their hopes and fears A unique scheme has given homeless Haitians the chance to spell out their needs to the outside world Tracy McVeigh The Observer, Saturday 1 January GMT Altena Elvina is among thousands of Haitians who have used suggestion boxes to make their voice heard. Photograph: Daniel Desmarais For people with nothing living in makeshift shelters and tents, without jobs and grieving still for loved ones, struggling to find enough food and water to get through the day a rough-hewn wooden suggestion box might seem low on their list of essentials. But in Haiti, where more than a million people remain homeless after the earthquake that tore their lives apart almost exactly a year ago, the chance to have their voices heard is rare. When the boxes began to appear in the towns of tents and tarpaulins that litter the area around the devastated Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, the response was remarkable. Thousands of people wrote down their hopes and fears in a deluge of letters that record the human stories behind the disaster. The project was masterminded by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). As the anniversary of the earthquake approached, it put out 140 suggestion boxes next to its information booths inside the camps that house survivors. It plans to publish a handful of them, with portraits of their writers, in a book. La Voix de Sans Voix (The Voice of the Voiceless) is testimony to the desire of Haiti's new homeless to have their voices heard. It also provides a deeply touching record of how precarious life is for an estimated third of the population of Port-au-Prince.

15 The boxes seemed a gamble at first, especially since half of Haitians are illiterate. "I anticipated maybe a few cranky letters," said Doyle. "The sheer volume was an absolute, blow-me-down surprise. So beautifully written too, all real expressions of suffering that give a human face to this tragedy." The letters that continue to pour in in French, Creole, even halting English show how people have felt voiceless, lost in the scale of the problem. They are written with a politeness of tone and old-fashioned formality whether scrawled in a childish hand or in elegant calligraphy. Politely but firmly, the letter writers want to be heard. The addresses tell their own story: Tent J2, Block 7, Sector 3 is where Marjorie Saint Hilaire lives with three sons. Her husband died in the earthquake and the part of the camp she lives in has no school, clinic or market stall, but she has not lost her feelings of gratitude at having survived. "To all the members of concerned organisations, I thank you first for feeling our pain. I note that you have taken on almost all our problems and some of our greatest needs. We don't want to die of hunger and also we want to send our children to school. I give glory to God that I am still alive but I would like to stay that way." Another mother, another camp. Marie Livia Calixte of Delmas wrote: "It is with great sadness that I talk about the deplorable and miserable situation I live in I thank God for allowing me to survive and I also thank all those who have helped me to write and continue to help me do so." With 1.3 million displaced people in 1,199 camps, homelessness is a whole new level of society here. There have been protest marches to try to force politicians fighting the forthcoming presidential elections to make building new homes a central platform of their campaigns. There is no sign yet that the political elite are listening. Jacqueline Jean Batiste Lively and cheerful, Jacqueline, 25, lives in a camp in Cité Soleil, the slum of Portau-Prince, with her three children. She lost her mother and brothers in the earthquake and now struggles on her own under a leaky tarpaulin shelter. Good day, good night. Today it gives me great pleasure to take my pen to say something important. IOM, I am happy that you have invited us to write because I need your help and your collaboration. IOM, I have many problems. I don't work any more because my business is gone. I live, thanks to the mercy of my friends in Camp Boulosse where life is very hard. IOM, when it rains all my things get drenched and I must wait for the rain to stop before getting to sleep. I have three children of school age. I lost my mother, my two brothers and all my belongings in the rubble of my house that was completely destroyed by the earthquake. I wake up every day thinking about my business and my

16 mother who was helping me so much with my children. I will never forget that day of 12 January when they died. Amboise Fleuristil Well educated and confident, Amboise, 29, has become the official representative of Camp Lilavoiselo. He is only too aware of the rising frustrations and tensions of the homeless people he works to help. Hello IOM, We have many problems and the situation we find ourselves in is dreadful. Since 12 January, things have only gotten worse and worse. We do not have work and we do not have money. There is no supervision. We are shown hope, but nothing has come to us except the hurricane season. Must we wait for another 12 January, for another disaster, when things are so difficult for us? What will be done for those of us living in tents? We are eating dust. We want to go home. How can you help? There are talks of a rebuilding process since IOM carried out a registration in the camp but nothing has happened. Must we wait for ever? We want to find work, because it is very painful to wait and be dependent on others for help. When we work, we suffer less. We believe that if IOM could give us work, things would be better for us and our families. Thank you for your understanding, we hope that our request will result in something positive. Denise Jean Francois Denise, 48, has no job and no source of income and lost her eldest son to the earthquake. With three children to look after, she was devastated when her husband, weakened by the illnesses that swept through the surviving populations, also died shortly after the disaster. Unable to pay her rent, she had to leave the land on which the ruins of their home stood. Her letter was written inside the leaky tent where she now lives. Good day, it is a great pleasure for me to take up a pen to write down my problems on a scrap of paper and let you know that I am living in a dire situation. My first child, in whom I placed so much hope, was killed in the earthquake. My husband died and left me with three children to feed and care for. Our landlord wanted his land back and since then we have no place to go and no place to sleep. If you do something for me it will help me and God will bless you if I receive a little of what you will have given me. If it is some place to sleep that you give me, thank you. If you give me money, thank you, thank you. The number of the tent is 028. May God bless you

17 Marie Michelle Victor Widowed by the earthquake, Marie, 56, has nine children to care for on her own. Her face is lined with worry and fear. She would like nothing more than to be able to start her small retail business again. The problem that I am enduring in Boulosse camp is that my two tarpaulins have holes. My house and my business were destroyed by the earthquake. I have nine children and their father was killed under the rubble. Therefore, please, IOM, see what you can do for me. Thank you. Camp de Boulosse, tent #102 Venette Altime Venette is 18 and has a six-month-old baby, born in the displacement camps. She formed a self-help group to look after the handicapped and disabled in Carradeux, a tough camp hit badly in the hurricane season in the autumn. Both her parents were hurt and left disabled in the earthquake and she wrote her letter on behalf of the committee. From the Handicapped Committee of Carradeux Dear Director of the International Organisation for Migration. We, the handicapped of camp Carradeux, are living terrible moments since the hurricane of 24 September. Our tents were knocked down, we have nothing to eat and we have no work. Hunger is killing us and our children. We ask you to do something for us according to your liking. Mr Director, please receive our best wishes.

18 Haiti earthquake's lost children Neighbours tried to dig out nine-year-old Haryssa, still alive two days after the quake, with their hands but Associated Press guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 January GMT People hunt through debris in Port-au-Prince. Photograph: KPA/Zuma / Rex Features Trapped beneath the remains of her home, a nine-year-old girl could be heard begging for rescue yesterday as neighbours clawed at sand and debris with their bare hands. It had been two days since the earthquake collapsed the cinderblock home in Port-au- Prince, trapping Haryssa Keem Clerge inside the basement. Friends and neighbours braved aftershocks to climb over the rubble, one of hundreds of toppled structures teetering on the side of a ravine. The city is full of people desperate for more help than neighbours can muster, and it never came for Haryssa. Just hours after her screams renewed the hopes of rescuers yesterday, her lifeless body was finally pulled from the mass of concrete and twisted metal. It was wrapped in a green bath towel and placed in a drawer. There was nowhere to take it, so the body was then left on the bonnet of a battered Isuzu Trooper. "There are no police, no anybody," said Haryssa's despairing godmother, Kettely Clerge. Neighbours had to hold her back as she wailed: "I want to see her." A day earlier, the child's mother, Lauranie Jean, was pulled from the rubble of the house. She lay moaning in a tent as volunteers rubbed ointment into her wounds.

19 The family has now taken refuge in a dirt playground, one of hundreds of open spaces across Port-au-Prince that are filled each night by people trying to avoid aftershocks. Haitians living in the capital's growing tent cities say they do not expect help to come soon. "People are waiting for someone to take care of them," said Michel Reau, 27, who brought his wife and infant child to the park after their home collapsed. "We are out of food. We are out of water." Haryssa's godmother had doted on her, according to a neighbour, Bellefleur Jean Heber. She raised her as though she were her own daughter and walked her to school in their Petionville district every day. As word spread yesterday that the child was still alive, more than a dozen people came to help. Inside the cramped basement, Haryssa was trapped by a partially collapsed roof. Rescuers got close enough to pass her water but they could not get food to her before she died. Heber said nobody expected help from the authorities. "Haiti is an abandoned country," he said. "People are relying on themselves." Across Port-au-Prince, similar tragedies unfolded yesterday. At the St Gerard school, Cindy Terasme broke into sobs when she caught sight of the feet of her 14-year-old brother, Jean Gaelle Dersmorne, protruding from the rubble. The child was dead. So was another schoolgirl known only as Ruth, whose dust-covered legs dangled lifelessly from a collapsed wall. There was at least one encouraging tale. Spanish rescuers pulled a two-year-old boy from a collapsed home last night. Dirty and teary-eyed, Redjeson Hausteen Claude appeared to smile at his ecstatic mother as he was carried from the rubble. An unknown number of people remain buried after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit on Tuesday, collapsing houses, office buildings and a children's hospital. Haitians used sledgehammers and their bare hands to search for survivors or bodies, piling the dead up at roadsides across the city.