 | | | SOLDIERS TOLD TO STOP HANDING OUT FOOD | | Food handouts were shut off Tuesday to thousands of people at a tent city here when the main U.S. aid agency said the Army should not be distributing the packages. It was not known whether the action reflected a high-level policy decision at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) or confusion in a city where dozens of entities are involved in aid efforts. "We are not supposed to get rations unless approved by AID," Maj. Larry Jordan said. Jordan said that approval was revoked; water was not included in the USAID decision, so the troops continued to hand out bottles of water. The State Department and USAID did not respond to requests for comment. Jordan has been at the airport supervising distribution of individual food packages and bottled water since his arrival last week. Each package provides enough calories to sustain a person for a day. The food is flown by helicopter to points throughout the capital and distributed by paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division. At the tent city, set up at a golf course, more than 10,000 people displaced by the Haitianearthquake lay under makeshift tents. Each day, hundreds of people, many young children, line up for a meal. Tuesday morning, the helicopters came only with water. Soldiers carried boxes of water in the hot sun and supervised Haitian volunteers who handed the supplies out. By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY |
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By Marisol Bello & Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The atmosphere remained chaotic in Haiti's capital city Wednesday, hours after an aftershock rocked the country and eight days after the massive Haiti earthquake. The 6.1-magnitude early morning aftershock that lasted five to seven seconds did not stop looters, who continued to break into stores downtown. Only a handful of police officers could be seen trying to maintain order. They occasionally threw grenades into the crowds to disperse people. In at least two areas, workers used heavy equipment to clear debris, but most parts of what had been a business district remained untouched. Charred and bloated bodies were still visible on the streets. Buildings that were barely standing after the first earthquake toppled with the aftershock. Search and rescue teams scoured Port-au-Prince. A four-vehicle caravan carrying police officers and firefighters from theNew York City Urban Search and Rescue Task Force turned onto a street where residents said a 2-year-old girl was trapped in an apartment complex that had fallen with the aftershock. The toddler they were looking for was in a second-floor apartment, residents said. As the team made its way into the heart of the rubble, the child's mother, Sherly Pierre Louis, said the girl, Ann Christene, had actually been missing since the original earthquake. The mother said the toddler could be heard calling for several days, but not recently. The mother said the aftershock caused another house to fall on top of the apartment. Rescuers knocked on the walls and concrete, calling out, "Hello? Anybody in there?" A dog sniffed the top of the rubble for signs of life. Onlookers quietly watched the events unfold. One of those onlookers, Ricardo Etienne, said his 81-year-old blind aunt had also been in the collapsed apartment building and couldn't get out. He said he and others used their hands to pull three bodies from the debris. "We give them to their families," said Etienne, 36. After more than 30 minutes of searching, rescuers said they could not find a body. A firefighter used a spray can to leave orange markings on a wall to indicate that the rubble had been searched and no victims found. "As time goes on, people may survive, but with secondary quakes like this, we need to find them fast," said Glenn Asaeda, a physician with the New York City Fire Department. Earlier Wednesday, after the second quake, 4,000 more U.S. troops were ordered to the devastated nation. When the aftershock came, F'Tamar Jean Pierre was between sleep and waking when she felt her bed shake. "I thought maybe I've been dreaming about earthquakes too much," said Jean Pierre, 26. Then, she heard her boyfriend's mother yell for everyone to get out of the house. She wrapped a sheet around her and ran outside in her underwear. The young woman has been staying with her boyfriend and his family since the original earthquake flattened her apartment building. "It's disturbing," she said. "You can't sleep through the night. You're sleeping with one eye open." "It was a tremendous tremor," Marie Claudie Estime, 63, of the city's Thor neighborhood, said after the Wednesday morning quake. She and her brother, Frixnel, 62, had been sleeping in the street because their fhome had been so badly cracked in the first earthquake. The aftershock did even more damage. "Everything is gone now — my suitcase is inside," she said. "Even my passport is in there." At a hotel near the airport where small temblors have been felt daily, the morning shock sent occupants into the courtyard, some in pajamas or under garments. A security officer with the relief agency World Vision yelled "Get outside! Run! Run!" to people in the hallway. That led to an urgent, heart-racing sprint out of the hotel. Several people hugged once they were outside. One World Vision staffer was injured when she fell and missed a step on her way out. "This morning was scary for me as an adult. I can't imagine what it is like for the children who are sleeping out on the streets," said Laura Blank, an aid worker with World Vision. "If I'm shaken up I can only imagine how scared they must be right now." The morning quake was the largest of more than 40 significant aftershocks that have followed the apocalyptic Jan. 12 quake that left much of the country in ruins. The extent of additional damage or injuries was not immediately clear. The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday's quake was centered about 35 miles northwest of Port-au-Princeand 6.2 miles below the surface — a little farther from the capital than last week's epicenter. Before the second quake struck, U.S. military officials said they would land relief planes at two more airports Wednesday and hoped to have a seaport open by the end of the week to help victims of last week's Haiti earthquake. Maj. Gen. Daniel Allyn, deputy commander of the U.S. military's relief operation in Haiti, said a second airport will be open for relief flights by Wednesday. The airstrip at Jacmel, about 30 miles southeast of Port-au-Prince, will be able to accommodate C-130 cargo planes. Another airport in San Isidro in the neighboring Dominican Republic will be opened to relief flights as well, he said. Navy officials announced Wednesday that the three-ship USS Nassau Amphibious Ready Group left port Monday for its regular deployment to Europe but was told to go Haiti instead for the earthquake relief effort. The group is picking up Marines in the state of North Carolina and will include 2,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines when it gets underway for Haiti, perhaps as early as Thursday. Also Wednesday, former president George W. Bush tried to reassure Haitians that they would not be forgotten. In an interview with Voice of America, Bush said, "I hope the people of Haiti know that our government is doing everything it can with our military and USAID to get food, medicine and water to you as quickly as possible." Haiti's main airport at Port-au-Prince has been overwhelmed by flights bringing supplies and personnel. Relief groups, including Doctors Without Borders, have complained of a massive bottleneck at the airport inhibiting the flow of aid. U.S. officials have defended their handling of the airport and insisted the Haitian government is in charge of prioritizing aid. The airport received 180 flights on Monday, 10 times its normal capacity, according to the U.S. Southern Command. "The assistance that is getting to the airport is getting out to the people of Haiti," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "The challenge is we're not at the point where we can sustain 3 million people." Fede Felissaint, a Haitian hairdresser, said he did not mind the increasing number of U.S. troops in Haiti. "If they want, they can stay longer than in 1915," he said, referring to the start of a 19-year U.S. military presence in Haiti. Five countries, including the USA, are providing medical care, Allyn said. The USNS Comfort, with its 1,000 hospital beds and 600 medical personnel, arrived in Haiti on Wednesday. The United Nations Security Councilvoted to add 3,500 troops and police officers to the 9,000 peacekeepers already in the country. Contributing: Ken Dilanian and Mimi Hall in Washington; Oren Dorell and Melanie Eversley in McLean, Va.; The Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-01-19-haiti-airports-open_N.htm?csp=34 | 
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