Monday Afternoon Haiti Update **updated**
Obviously relief efforts continue and the good news is that more supplies are getting through to the survivors although apparently areas outside Port-au-Prince are lagging behind.
While the media continues to make much of the threat of violence and ongoing “looting” I think the real story is just how little violence has taken place when you consider the population density, the heat, the starvation and the devastation. Also, I don’t consider people who haven’t eaten or drank anything for several days, “looters,” when they try to find food and water. I have yet to see someone running through the streets with a flat-screen TV.
President Bill Clinton, with daughter Chelsea, has landed in Port-au-Prince to help coordinate relief efforts.
Apparently Haitians are running out of patience with President Preval, who has not really made any public announcement to his people nor has he been seen outside the airport.
Here are some updates from this afternoon that CNN has on their website:
1:50 p.m. Monday, January 18 — Twenty-four Americans are confirmed dead in the Haiti quake, the State Department said. About 25 other American deaths have been reported but not confirmed.
1:47 p.m. — U.S. Muslims have raised more than $800,000 for Haiti’s earthquake victims since a call to help went out at Friday prayers across the country, according to the group Islamic Relief USA. “We will probably reach our million dollar goal by this afternoon,” spokesman Anwar Khan told CNN on Monday.
1:24 p.m. — Former President Bill Clinton has arrived in Haiti, accompanied by his daughter, Chelsea, to check on relief efforts.
12:58 p.m. — CNN’s Anderson Cooper reports widespread looting in downtown Port-au-Prince. “People are actually stealing this, then will sell it later and then they’ll use that money for their families,” Cooper said.
12:40 p.m. — The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and accompanying ships with more than 2,200 Marines on board were arriving off Haiti on Monday, the Pentagon said. The Marines bring with them heavy lift and earth-moving equipment, a dozen helicopters and additional medical support capabilities.
… for more information see CNN
UPDATE: One story that’s not getting as much coverage as some others is the devastating toll on the UN with over 300 workers missing and at least 37 UN workers reported dead:
…U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky says 37 U.N. personnel have been confirmed dead and 330 remain missing from about 12,000 people working for the U.N. peacekeeping mission and all other U.N. agencies in Haiti.
Roughly 100 U.N. personnel remained buried in the rubble of the collapsed five-story headquarters building of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, including mission chief Hedi Annabi and his deputy, he said.
Holmes said their ”fate is still unknown, although we have to fear the worst at this stage.”
…
UPDATE II: Unbelievable. A French Minister is complaining about the U.S. “occupying” Haiti:
The United Nations must investigate and clarify the dominant U.S. role in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, a French minister said Monday, claiming that international aid efforts were about helping Haiti, not “occupying” it.
U.S. forces last week turned back a French aid plane carrying a field hospital from the damaged, congested airport in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, prompting a complaint from French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet. The plane landed safely the following day.
[snip]
“This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti,” Joyandet, in Brussels for an EU meeting on Haiti, said on French radio.
In another weekend incident, some 250 Americans were flown to New Jersey’s McGuire Air Force Base on three military planes from Haiti. U.S. forces initially blocked French and Canadians nationals from boarding the planes, but the cordon was lifted after protests from French and Canadian officials.
The U.S. military controls the Port-au-Prince airport where only one runway is functioning and has been effectively running aid operations. However, the United Nations has stepped forward to take the lead in the critical task of coordinating aid…
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Thanks for this round-up. I’ve noticed the network coverage today doesn’t seem so good- they seem to be repeating the same stories and film clips rather than giving an up-to-the-minute update every hour or so.
God bless the Secretary of State for all her work to try to bring relief to the people of Haiti!
Screw the French. The U.S. organized immediately and answered Haiti’s call for help with more support, money, troops etc. France could have done that but chose not to. In fact, the EU was slow to respond.
I second that emotion.
Americans have text-donated over $20 million since Tuesday to the Red Cross alone — that’s 2 million texts @ $10 each. I wonder how much the tight-fisted French have given? (P.S. I’m one fourth French).
I have also found today’s coverage is more geared towards reporting the seeming chaos due to the inability to provide all the people simultaneously with aid and provisions. Reportage has forgotten the scope of the disaster, and how difficult it is for rescuers and aid to to get through to a basically broken landscape. It is at times like these, that what people choose to emphasize reflects on themselves than reflect the true situation on the ground. I am proud of the expedience and tireless efficiency of all involved to salvage an impossible situation by the world community.
I am getting frustrated with the media’s attempts to portray the violence in Haiti as out of control when it clearly is not. When you consider it’s almost a week into the crisis and how horrible everything is, the people of Haiti should be commended for not taking part in wide-spread violence. Is there some? Sure. It’s inevitable. I also take issue with the use of the word “looting” to describe people desperate for food and water.
As others here have noted, a disaster of this magnitude presents almost insurmountable challenges- challenges which everyone is trying to overcome. Obviously, for the people who are thirsty and hungry or still trapped beneath the rubble, the help isn’t coming fast enough but the media needs to put it in context and today they don’t seem to be doing that as much as they did over the weekend.
I get the feeling that media in general is getting impatient for new soundbites. There is just not enough sensational headlines in the long tedious road to painstaking recovery.
It’s really good to see some comments on the idiocy of the coverage focusing on so-called “looting.” I’d be on a desperate quest for water and food through wrecked stores if I was unlucky enough to be a resident of Port au Prince. Instead of media coverage focusing on why we Western nations are doing such a poor job of getting food, medical help, etc. to the survivors, we throw a nasty label on survivors.
I’ve seen more hostile mobs at Best Buy Boxing Day sales.
I have one advice for France and them similar countries. What about to help re-open the Port International de Port-au-Prince instead of fault finding and criticising people who are trying to accomplished something.
The news media needs to send new people in for coverage. They are getting so emotional reporting events going on in Haiti. I can just imagine how so hard it might be for them to be there and see this for the past week. The State Dept and the american people are doing all we can to help in this tragic disaster. The news media is now fighting for who is reporting events better then the other. The producers are looking at the ratings. Now comes more drama and the facts become a little more dramatized. JMO That said, God bless the Clintons and all the work they are doing for Haiti.
France’s posturing is just duck fluff combined with misinformation. The U.S. Airforces are playing the role of air controllers at the airport in Port-au-Prince but the UN decides what plane lands and the order in which they are to arrive. I don’t know if the French had a previous authorization from the UN or some kind of miscommunication happened. Moreover, what other government can mobilize and perform the way we’re doing down there? The French have military bases very close in their overseas departments of Martinique, Guyane and Guadeloupe, how come they were not there in force before any body else?
Ok, I’m getting a little crazy with the way the logistics of these operations. I think it is imperative that the SOS and Adminstrator Shah have a press conference and clarify our part in the bottleneck in Port au Prince and the slow rollout of resources particularly the deployment of medical personnel. There seems to have been a two-day blackout of communication since Hillary visited on Saturday and nothing is coming from the White House either who is focused on the election in MA. People seem to be dying needlessly and I want to know why?
Terry, Bill Clinton was there yesterday and spoke to the media, but I kind of agree with you about the lack of comment from the White House. It does seem a bit odd.
I think everyone is doing everything they can to prevent bottlenecks and anything that slows down services. It’s difficult to conceptualize what Port au Prince is like in a situation of total devastation, let alone the areas outside the city where apparently they are in dire need of help. I was in a category 5 hurricane in Grenada where 96% of the country was leveled- help couldn’t get to us for days- I was scavaging things like little ketchup packets to eat and sterno cannisters for light. Downed power lines, obstructed roads, airports destroyed- finally the British military came in but the machetes had started to come out and we were getting desperate. It’s almost impossible to salvage a situation like that and I think that while there have been problems, we have to keep in mind the scope of the operation. Haiti was a country that had a terrible infrastructure BEFORE the earthquake.
This link is to a conference call from the afternoon of the 18th. I should have posted it but forgot:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/01/135308.htm
I agree that what the media emphasizes reflects on themselves. Clearly, all the operations have not gone smoothly. However, I just heard that this is the worst natural disaster in the history of the western hemisphere. The scope of this crisis is Biblical.
As I heard Bill Clinton say to the BBC – considering many people have not had food, water, or medical assistance in 6 days and are lying in the dark night after night, stepping over dead and live bodies, it’s impressive that there has been so little unrest. I think the overwhelming peacefulness of the Haitian people deserves respect.
Re: U.S. Government Response to the Haiti Earthquake
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/01/135308.htm
There is an unnamed and inaudable person named
“Dave” in the above protocol. Here is the section:
——————————————————————-
QUESTION: However, we are seeing patients who are at risk of dying of gangrene because they cannot be transferred from the U.N. compound to these doctors. These are patients that would, under normal circumstances, not have to die. What’s being done to get them to the resources you have? That seems to be the disconnect. And it’s frustrating for the doctors and the nurses who have been caring for these patients for days now. What’s being done by the U.S. to get that transportation of patients from medical facilities that don’t have what they need to the surgical teams and where the supplies are?
PARTICIPANT: This is Dave (inaudible). We’ll follow up with you on that one. I need to research that answer for you.
——————————————————————-
As much as I am interested in seeing Dave’s research,
I believe it is you that should answer that question within
the context of the clear backstory of a viable field hospital
and the decision to ship a hospital necessitating further
elements of time and logistics. I believe credit should be
given for both levels – the availability of all mobile field
hospitals, naming international partner(s), and the introduction
of the 1000-bed USNS Comfort. In the interests of transparency
and since the effort is so huge and widely shared, you should
also go where none tread and state plainly your evaluation of
the joint efforts.