Archive for January 13th, 2010

Emergency Aid Groups rush to help victims of earthquake

CNN) — A spokesman for the International Federation of the Red Cross warned Wednesday that up to 3 million people may have been affected by Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti as aid organizations and governments deployed response teams and pledged resources to the disaster-stricken Caribbean nation.

Paul Conneally, speaking from Switzerland, said Red Cross field workers on the ground were being hindered by severe infrastructural damage following the 7.0-magnitude quake.
He said there was a “48-hour window” to support search and rescue efforts and “reinforce emergency health services.” Field hospitals would ease the strain on the overwhelmed Haitian health infrastructure, he added.

Humanitarian charity Oxfam said it was rushing rescue teams to the country from around the region to provide clean water, sanitation, shelter and emergency supplies and called for donations to fund its efforts.

Other groups including Medicins Sans Frontieres have also deployed teams on the ground amid what local officials described as a “catastrophe of major proportions.”
Countries including the U.S. and France also pledged support, but a U.S. aviation source said the control tower at the Port-au-Prince international airport had collapsed, possibly hindering relief efforts.

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Kristie van de Wetering, a former Oxfam employee based in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, said the situation in the capital was “very chaotic” with many buildings reduced to rubble.

“We can hear people calling for help from every corner. The aftershocks are ongoing and making people very nervous,” she said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his support and solidarity with the Haitian people as France — which governed Haiti until 1804 — dispatched two planeloads of rescue personnel to the country from Guadeloupe in the Caribbean and Marseilles.
In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the government would “stand ready to assist the people of Haiti.”
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said volunteers in Haiti were assisting the injured and supporting hospitals which had been overwhelmed by the disaster.

It said it had enough supplies in Haiti for 3,000 families. Experts in disaster response are due to arrive in the country later Wednesday to coordinate international relief efforts, it said.

“The most urgent needs at this time are search and rescue, field hospitals, emergency health, water purification, emergency shelter, logistics and telecommunications,” the group said in a statement.

Medecins Sans Frontieres said that its Trinite hospital in Port-au-Prince had been seriously damaged and that staff and patients were injured. Hospitals in the capital were seeing an influx of wounded and MSF said it was seeking to establish a capacity to respond to new patients.

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“MSF is deeply concerned for the safety of our patients and staff. Additional staff will be deployed to reinforce the existing MSF staff on the ground and to assess the emerging needs from the earthquake in the coming days,” it said.
The quake struck about 15 km (10 miles) southwest of Port-au-Prince shortly before 5 p.m. local time, cutting off communications across much of the country.
“Port-au-Prince is devastated, lot of deaths. SOS. SOS…,” wrote Louise Ivers, the clinical director of medical charity Partners In Health, in an e-mail to the group’s offices in Boston, Massachusetts.
She added: “Temporary field hospital … needs supplies, pain meds, bandages. Please help us.”

Raymond Joseph, Haiti’s ambassador to the U.S., said the country was going through “the worst day in its history.”