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Hundreds of Thousands Dead After Haiti Earthquake
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FRIDAY, January 15, 2009
GM TIME - 2259 The BBC's
Andy Gallagher in Port-au-Prince
says: "The airport is now busier
than ever. But even as the plans
land, and the supplies are unloaded,
there are major problems
distributing the aid. Much of it
remains on the runway - tents,
blankets and medical supplies
sitting unused. Military personnel
told me the logistical complexity of
working out of such a tiny airport
is a major stumbling block. But the
fact remains that very little aid
has reached those who need it. In
the city itself, I have seen the UN
handing out supplies. But it is the
injured and dying who require most
help. Haiti has now handed over
control of the airport to the US, a
move that could finally speed up the
relief effort."
2255 Lord Malloch Brown, the
former UN deputy secretary general,
tells the BBC that the rescue effort
has been damaged by the loss of much
of the UN team in Haiti, but that it
is well-placed to recover quickly.
"Obviously any organisation which so
tragically has its leadership
decapitated is in chaos for a bit.
But in fact the UN is much bigger in
Port-au-Prince than it is in most
places in the world because of the
big peacekeeping operation there.
The UN is in a better place to
regroup and recover than would be
the case in many parts of the world
where natural disasters strike and
the UN has almost no presence. But I
think the really big factor here is
the proximity to the US, which is
able to project by far the most
capable logistics operations in
crises like this," he says.
2237 US Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano says
undocumented Haitians in the United
States will be granted "temporary
protected status", which will allow
those eligible to continue living
and working there for the next 18
months. There are an estimated
30,000 Haitians living illegally in
the US. TPS is granted to foreigners
who may not be able to return safely
to their country because of a
natural disaster, armed conflict or
other reasons.
2228 UK International
Development Secretary Douglas
Alexander tells the BBC those
involved in the aid operation are
working against the clock. "We are
acutely aware that at this stage in
the crisis every hour matters -
that's why we have our British
firefighters on the ground already,
trying to save lives. We'll be
working round the clock to make sure
not just that we save lives, but we
tend to the needs of those who have
been left devastated by this
terrible earthquake."
2224 US pop star Madonna
announces she will donate $250,000
to to assist Haiti's earthquake
victims through the charity,
Partners in Health. "My prayers are
with the people of Haiti. I can't
imagine the terrible pain and
suffering they are experiencing,"
she says.
2202 The commander of the USS
Carl Vinson, Adm Ted Branch, tells
the BBC that more food supplies are
expected in Haiti on Saturday as
they arrive from the US military
base at Guantanamo Bay. A shorter
flying time has been made possible
by an agreement with Cuba allowing
US relief flights to use Cuban air
space. "When the supplies do start
to rolling in, we'll have our
procedures in order, and we'll be
able to more efficiently deliver the
relief," he says.
2156 Apparent delays in aid
reaching survivors have prompted
anger across Haiti, and there have
been reports of looting. But Ian
Rodgers of Save the Children says
its teams in Port-au-Prince have not
seen any evidence of crime. "As we
move through areas, people are
desperately expressing what their
needs are, and calling for
assistance. But the population is
still at this point being very, very
supportive," he tells the BBC.
2149 Mrs Clinton says they
will remain at Port-au-Prince's
airport during the visit and will
not be using any valuable resources
needed for the relief effort. She
said she had been asked to come by
Haiti.
2142 US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton says at a news
conference that she will go to Haiti
on Saturday with USAID administrator
Rajiv Shah. "We will be meeting
President [Rene] Preval and other
members of the Haitian government
along with the members of the US
government team on the ground," she
says.
2130 UN humanitarian chief
John Holmes launches a flash appeal
for $562m, saying the aid is needed
for three million people affected by
the earthquake for a period of six
months.
2056 Reuters news agency
quotes secretary of state for public
safety Aramick Louis as saying the
authorities have buried 40,000
bodies and believe another 100,000
probably died.
2045 Haiti's Prime Minister,
Jean-Max Bellerive, says more than
15,000 bodies have been collected by
the authorities since Tuesday,
according to the AFP news agency.
Earlier it reported that Haitian
Public Health Minister Alex Larsen
had told a news conference that
50,000 people had been killed and
250,000 injured.
2032 Gen Douglas Fraser, the
commander of US SOUTHCOM, says
around 90 aid flights a day are
landing at Port-au-Prince's airport.
At present, there are 4,200 US
military personnel in Haiti, or are
involved in the relief effort, and
hundreds more will arrive next week,
he says. In the meantime, the US is
looking at the possibility of
establishing a support base in the
Dominican Republic, so supplies can
be brought in by land, he adds. "If
the citizens of Haiti will just
remain in place and remain calm,
help is on the way," Gen Fraser
pledges.
2012 Thomas Ewald, the leader
of a special US rescue unit that
arrived in Haiti on Thursday, tells
the Miami Herald that it is likely
most of the victims will be buried
in mass graves. Following lessons
learned from the 2004 Asian tsunami,
recovery teams will only be able to
take snapshots of the dead before
the bodies decay and snip pieces of
clothing to show relatives. DNA
sampling and medical records cannot
be used in Haiti, where many people
are destitute and have never
received adequate medical care.
1948 The authorities in Haiti
have counted 9,000 to 10,000 dead
since Tuesday's earthquake, French
Secretary of State for Co-operation
Alain Joyandet tells the AFP news
agency. The minister also says eight
French citizens have been identified
among the victims.
1925 Mobile phone users
in the US have now contributed
more than $10m to Haitian
earthquake relief through text
messages, which the Mobile
Giving Foundation says is a
record for a single cause. Its
chief executive, Jim Manis, told
the Reuters news agency it was
receiving up to 10,000 messages
a second, many donating as much
as $10.
1912 Haiti's permanent
representative to the UN, Leo
Merores, tells the BBC that the
government is able to function.
"Of course, as you have seen on
TV, the national palace and, as
well as a number of technical
ministries have been completely
destroyed or severely damaged,
but that doesn't mean that the
government is not functioning,"
he says. "We can understand that
the population is getting a
little bit impatient but I would
like to assure you that the
government is doing its best to
come to their assistance."
1858 Around a dozen US
television networks will team up
for an all-star telethon for
Haitian earthquake relief next
Friday.
1851 Dominican Republic
President Leonel Fernandez met
his Haitian counterpart, Rene
Preval, in Port-au-Prince on
Friday and pledged to help the
rescue effort and re-establish
communications, electricity and
water supplies, the Dominican
Today newspaper reports.
Survivors dig with their bare hands, looking for food and drink
1828 US Agency for
International Development
(USAID) administrator Rajiv Shah
says there is still an important
"rescue element" to the relief
operation in Haiti. "Our belief
is now that there is a
significant urban search and
rescue effort underway and it is
still attempting to save lives.
There is still an important open
window of time today, tonight
and perhaps even parts of
tomorrow when we have ability to
save lives; Haitian lives,
American lives and the lives of
partner governments and people
that are there on the ground,"
he says.
1815 Mr Obama says he
will meet former US presidents
Bill Clinton and George W Bush
at the White House on Saturday
"to discuss how to enlist and
help the American people in this
recovery effort".
1813 US President Barack
Obama says the scale of the
devastation in Haiti is
extraordinary, and it will take
time to establish distribution
points so food and water can be
delivered safely and
effectively. "I want the people
of Haiti to know that we will do
what it takes to save lives and
to help them get back on their
feet," he adds.
1758 European Union
development ministers will hold
talks in Brussels on Monday to
discuss the bloc's response to
the earthquake. "While we are
making sure that Haiti receives
the immediate and urgent support
it needs, we also have to get
ready for the very important
next step in helping Haiti to
rebuild the country," says the
EU's foreign affairs chief, Lady
Ashton, in a statement.
1746 UN humanitarian
chief John Holmes says it will
launch a flash appeal for around
$560m to help victims at 2100
GMT. "Almost half of that, as is
usual in these situations, will
be for food, emergency food aid.
And there will be amounts of
between $20m and $50m for
health, water and sanitation,
nutrition, emergency shelter,
early recovery and agriculture.
Some 3 million people are
believed to have been badly
affected by the earthquake, and
we will be looking for relief to
keep them going for six months,"
he tells reporters.
1743 The US military has
begun distributing aid in Haiti,
the Associated Press reports. A
rapid response unit from the
U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne
Division is handing out food,
water and medical supplies to
Haitians outside the airport in
Port-au-Prince. Capt Mike
Anderson says: "We're here to do
as much good and as little evil
as we can."
1738 The BBC World
Service is broadcasting special
programmes in Haiti over the
weekend in French, Spanish and
English. They can be heard on
11860 kHz (25 MB) and 9410 kHz
(31 MB). Twitter users can also
follow
bbccaribbean.
1733 Paul Bertoni in
Petionville e-mails: "At
around 10pm last night, a
neighbour of a relative we went
looking for asked us if we could
help him get his 13-year-old son
from under the rubble. He
pointed to a spot under the
rubble and asked me if I could
see the boy's hand. There were
three little fingers in the
middle of the concrete and the
metal. I said I couldn't help."
1717 The UN's Chief
Humanitarian Aid Co-ordinator,
John Holmes, says $360m (£221m)
has been pledged to help Haiti
and that aid agencies are
working hard to distribute
supplies. "People are passing
many sleepless nights trying to
get this aid there," he says.
1705 Interpol announces
it is to send a team of
victim-identification experts to
Haiti on Monday to help the
national authorities.
1703 Barbara Gloudon
writes in the
Jamaica Observer:
"The first question was why? Why
must the people of Haiti endure
such pain, over and over again?"
1654 The Pan-American
Health Organization, the
Americas arm of the World Health
Organization, estimates the
death toll may be as high as
between 50,000 and 100,000.
"It's just a huge guess. I just
want to be clear that we really
don't know," Dr Jon Kim Andrus,
deputy director of the PAHO,
tells a news conference,
according to the Reuters news
agency. "We just don't have the
information."
1635 Mr Ban says as many
as 50% of the buildings in
worst-hit areas either damaged
or destroyed. "A high proportion
of the 3 million people in the
capital area are without access
to food, water, shelter and
electricity. We are still in the
search-and-rescue phase, and we
are trying to save as many lives
as possible. A major
humanitarian effort is now well
under way. Although this is
inevitably slow and more
difficult than any of us would
wish. We are mobilising all
resources as fast as we possibly
can," he adds.
1630 UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon describes the
search-and-rescue operation in
Haiti as a "monumental" task. As
for sheltering the homeless
survivors, he says the UN needs
"tents and more tents".
1628 Canada's Foreign
Minister, Lawrence Cannon, says
some 1,415 Canadians are missing
in Haiti. Four are confirmed to
have died. About 6,000 Canadian
citizens live in Haiti, but Mr
Cannon said earlier this week
that only 700 were registered
with the embassy in
Port-au-Prince. The
Globe and Mail
has information on some of the
victims.
1624 Roger Hilaire has
posted pictures of the
destruction in Pitchon Ville and
Delmas on his
Flickr account.
1616 UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon says it will launch
a flash appeal for $550m (£338m)
later on Friday. He says
logistics are "extremely
difficult" in Haiti, but that
the international community's
response to the crisis has been
"generous and robust". "We are
gearing up rapidly and
effectively, despite the
challenging circumstances," he
adds. Mr Ban plans to visit
Haiti "very soon"
1612 President Preval
asked Mr Obama to pass on a
message to the American people:
"From the bottom of my heart and
on behalf of the Haitian people,
thank you, thank you, thank
you," he said, according to the
White House.
1611 US President Barack
Obama has offered his Haitian
counterpart, Rene Preval, his
"full support" during a
telephone conversation.
1610 US Defence Secretary
Robert Gates says the primary
goal is to distribute aid as
quickly as possible "so that
people don't, in their
desperation, turn to violence".
He says military planners have
been reluctant to drop food and
water packages from the air
because it could lead to
rioting. At present, security is
"pretty good", he adds.
1606 Dozens of US
citizens are gathered at
Port-au-Prince's airport, waving
their passports in the hope of
being evacuated, according to
the Associated Press. "I don't
know how much longer we can
stand," says Beatrice Aristide,
waiting with her 19-month-old
baby.
US citizens had to hold up
their passports to gain
entry to Port-au-Prince's
airport
1604 Adm Mike Mullen,
the chairman of the US Joint
Chiefs of Staff, says the US
will have up to 10,000
troops in Haiti by Monday.
1602 Rear Adm Victor
Guillery, the man overseeing the
US Navy's operations in Haiti,
tells the BBC that the aircraft
carrier, USS Carl Vinson, will
effectively act as a "sea base"
outside Port-au-Prince.
"Essentially, it allows for the
staging of helicopters, supplies
and to be responsive to the
needs ashore. So, while there is
a tremendous amount of effort to
complete a port survey and to
open a port to allow a greater
amount of supplies to come
across the pier to the effort,
initially much of the work will
be done by air," he says.
1553 Medecins Sans
Frontieres says thousands of
people are waiting in Haiti for
surgical treatment. Speaking
from Brussels, MSF Operations
Director Jerome Oberreit tells
the BBC the charity has had to
construct makeshift hospital
outside the structures that we
were using before the
earthquake. "This means that the
way they can operate is
extremely difficult. They don't
have the infrastructure that
they would have had… The
priority is to be able to set up
surgical facilities that can
answer to the acute needs of
this population," he says. Extra
medical workers have had to come
in overland, because
Port-au-Prince's airport is only
accepting cargo planes, he adds.
1537 Andre Berto, a
Haitian-American professional
boxer who represented Haiti at
the 2004 Olympic Games, tells
the BBC World Service he is
still waiting to hear news about
some of his family. "It has been
tough. Everyone's in a frenzy
trying to find their family. I
have a charitable foundation in
Port-au-Prince and we disperse
supplies and food, but the
building has been crushed. I
have the biggest fight of my
life coming up, but Haiti is my
life. We will continue trying to
bring awareness to Haiti and let
it be known that we are fighting
to get this country where it
needs to be," he says.
1534 The BBC's Imogen
Foulkes in Geneva says: "Tonnes
of aid may by heading towards
Haiti but little seems to have
reached those in need so far.
Aid co-ordinators here say there
are now enough large items such
as field hospitals and search
and rescue teams, but there
remains an urgent need for food,
clean water, doctors, nurses,
medical supplies and body bags."
1531 Only a handful of
stories have emerged so far of
people being pulled alive from
the rubble of buildings. Rescue
workers say that the first 48
hours are crucial for such
rescue efforts. The BBC has
published an info-graphic
showing how they go about their
vital work.
1528 UK Prime Minister
Gordon Brown says there has been
an "extraordinary" response to
the disaster from the British
public. "We are determined to
make sure that the generosity of
the British people is matched by
the delivery of aid to the
people of Haiti," he says.
1525 A spokeswoman for
the UN World Food Programme,
Emilia Casella, rejects
criticism from those watching
the suffering in Haiti that the
aid operation is too slow.
"Pictures can get out instantly,
and so everybody can see and
hear the pictures, and that's
important because the world
needs to know. But getting
physically tonnes and tonnes of
equipment, and food, and water
is not as instant as Twitter or
Skype or 24-hour television
news," she says.
A security guard warns
people queueing for fuel in
Port-au-Prince
1521 Former Cuban
president Fidel Castro says
Haiti's extreme poverty is "an
embarrassment for our times, in
a world in which most people
still are victims of
exploitation and abuse",
according to the AFP news
agency. In an editorial
published by official media, he
says it is "time for real and
true solutions for this brother
nation".
1517 The Chairman of the
US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm
Mike Mullen, says the United
States is sending extra troops
and marines, a hospital ship,
and more helicopters to Haiti in
the coming days.
1514 BBC science and
technology reporter Jason Palmer
has been looking at how
technology and social networking
sites have helped news about the
earthquake spread around the
world, despite the collapse of
many communication systems.
1509 UN spokesman Mark
Cutts tells the BBC "no-one
should underestimate the
difficulties of operating in a
country like Haiti". "Even at
the best of times, it's a
difficult place to operate. It's
going to be difficult, but we do
have a lot of teams which have
been mobilised - many of them
are in the air, others are
already on the ground and we are
seeing this operation gear up
very quickly."
1503 US Defence Secretary
Robert Gates tells a news
conference in Washington that
the relief effort in Haiti is
the "highest priority for US
military assets in this
hemisphere".
1500 Brazilian General
Jose Elito Siqueira Carvalho, a
former head of UN peacekeepers
in Haiti, tells the BBC World
Service that co-ordination is
vital due to the country's lack
of infrastructure. "If you put
materials there without order,
this can cause more problems.
All 7,000 soldiers are working
hard to support the people and
it's tough work. They have to
have the motivation to start
again. That's the history of
Haiti. And they are ready to
re-start," he says.
1454 Troy Livesay has
posted pictures of rubble and
make-shift hospitals in
Port-au-Prince today on his
Flickr account.
1443 Former US president
Bill Clinton, the UN Special
Envoy for Haiti, urges Americans
to make donations to help
provide basic supplies for
Haitians affected by the
earthquake. "You've got
unprecedented numbers of the
people roaming the streets at
night with no place to sleep.
They haven't had any sleep in
two days, they don't have water,
they don't have food," he tells
CNN.
1437 Lt Cmdr Ron
Flanders, a spokesman for the US
4th Fleet in Florida, tells the
BBC that the USS Carl Vinson has
arrived off Haiti and begun
ferrying emergency aid ashore.
"We have sent two helicopters
ashore into Port-au-Prince that
were loaded with pallets of food
and medical supplies. Those
helicopters also contained the
maritime commanders," he says.
A young French citizen
evacuated from Haiti arrives
at an airport in Paris
1426 US journalist Andres
Oppenheimer, writing in the
Miami Herald,
says a monitoring commission
should formed right away to
prevent aid "being squandered in
a country with a history of
massive corruption". "In a
country where the state is so
weak that it can't run virtually
any public services and
corruption is rampant, many fear
that once the story fades from
the headlines, the flow of
international aid will diminish,
and that much of what gets to
Haiti will be stolen," he
writes. A report last year by
FRIDE, a Spain-based think tank,
stated that "foreign
co-operation has contributed
over $2.6bn to Haiti since 1984,
with little to show for it", he
adds.
1413 Raymond Joseph,
Haiti's ambassador to the United
States, tells the BBC World
Service that he is still hearing
reports about strong aftershocks
in his country. "I am from the
south-west peninsular, from the
city of Aux Cayes. The
aftershock was so strong in Aux
Cayes that the only hospital in
the city collapsed," he says.
1404 Jan Egeland, the
former UN emergency relief co-ordinator,
tells the BBC he believes that
the situation will improve in
the next 24 hours when the US
military arrives. "The biggest
logistical capacity on Earth is
in the hands of the US military.
The military will come, and I
think today and tomorrow you
will see great logistical change
- chains being established by
them. And what is good to hear
is that the US government and
its military will work very
closely with the UN, which is
also working very closely with
the Red Cross."
1400 Ansel Herz, an
American journalist in
Port-au-Prince, tells the BBC
there are children outside the
UN compound who have not eaten
in "one, two or three days". "I
just talked to a young boy whose
parents died as their house
collapsed. He's out there
searching, waiting for some kind
of food and if anybody could
give it to him. He has no money,
no resources to get any aid of
any kind, and that's just the
case for so many children and
families that are basically
stranded out in Port-au-Prince.
There's not a massive visible
relief effort that I can see on
the streets," he says.
1352 Jimmy Felter, a
film-maker based in the US and
founder of the charity, Voice of
Haiti, tells the BBC World
Service that Haiti's already
poor infrastructure will hamper
the rescue effort. "Haiti was
hanging on by a string before
this - there was starvation
before this," he says. "There is
no infrastructure there, so if
you start trying to have an
operation where everything
starts pouring in it can cause
much trouble and confusion. It's
been too little, for too late,
for too long. But the spirit of
the Haitian people cannot be
underestimated. I'm not giving
an optimistic outlook but I
would never give up hope."
1350 The UN World Food
Programme earlier said its
warehouses in Port-au-Prince had
been looted, but this has now
been denied. "We do still have
that 6,000 tonnes of food," WFP
spokeswoman Caroline Hurford
tells the BBC. "Apparently there
were unconfirmed reports of
looting taking place, but once
our teams got down to the
dockside they were able to see
that there was some mistake."
1341 Penny Lawrence of
the charity, Oxfam, tells the
BBC that the breakdown in
communications in Haiti is
causing many problems on the
ground. "All of our systems rely
on mobile phones, telephones,
sat-phones, email, and the
internet. And we are struggling
very, very much without those.
We understand people are getting
impatient, but I do think there
are extraordinary levels of
devastation," she says.
1335 The BBC's Nick
Davis in Port-au-Prince says:
"People are doing what they can
to survive. Every morning the
first jobs of the day involve
getting the very basics. Loaded
with old plastic bottles or
anything else that can hold
water, they fill up where they
can. Some from broken pipes from
collapsed buildings, that still
have a supply."
1327 Olafor Rotsson, a
spokesman for the Icelandic
Volunteer rescue organisation,
tells the BBC power shortages
and security concerns are
slowing the search down at
night. "When people get tired,
hungry, and thirsty - and maybe
lose hope - it gets more
difficult. Up to now all the
locals have welcomed us and we
haven't had any problems at all,
but the UN says 'security stage
three', which means you are not
allowed to work in the night."
1323 The
Disasters Emergency Committee
(DEC) in the UK says it has raised £2m ($3.3m) in the first 36
hours since launching its appeal
for Haiti - Queen Elizabeth II
is among those to have made a
donation.
1313 The New York Times
has compiled an informative
topographic map of Haiti
highlighting the areas affected
by the quake.
1257
Oxfam says
ensuring access to clean water
for survivors is "probably the
most immediate problem to
resolve now".
1249 Haiti's sea, land
and air entry points have all
suffered damage in the quake -
as well as government and aid
agency buildings - which is
hampering efforts to distribute
aid.
1235
Troy Livesay,
a missionary working in
Port-au-Prince, has taken video
footage of Haitians setting up
temporary camps in the city.
1231 A US Catholic
charity is considering
organising a mass airlift of
orphaned children from Haiti,
the
Miami Herald
reports.
1224 CNN has posted a
video of a
woman rescued uninjured from
rubble after
being trapped for 50 hours.
1217 The US says it has
been granted rare permission to
use Cuban airspace to fly aid to
Haiti - AFP report.
1201
World Food Programme
spokeswoman Emilia Casella says
looting is "not unusual" in
disaster situations and that aid
distribution takes time.
"Getting physically tonnes and
tonnes of equipments, of food
and water is not as instant as
Twitter or Skype or 24-hour
satellite news," AFP quotes her
as saying.
1150 Anjali Kwatra of
UK-based charity
Action Aid,
tells the BBC World Service:
"In the first 48 hours after a
disaster, it isn't international
aid that makes a difference -
that usually comes in after two
or three days. It's the local
people who go in, who rescue
people, who provide what food,
water and shelter that they can.
What we're seeing in Haiti is
that there isn't the ability to
do that, because so many people
have been affected."
1146 A spokesman for UN
peacekeepers in Haiti says
people are "slowly getting more
angry and impatient" with the
lack of aid. "We're all aware
that the situation is getting
more tense as the poorest people
who need so much are waiting for
deliveries. I think tempers
might be frayed," David Wimhurst
tells the Associated Press.
1141 The UN says 36
members of its staff in Haiti
are confirmed to have died,
while nearly 200 are still
missing.
1126 US actor George
Clooney is to run
a telethon on MTV
to raise money for victims of
the Haiti quake.
1122 France has asked
members of the
Paris Club to
write off Haiti's international
debts, French Economy Minister
Christine Lagarde says.
1114 Mark Thomas, who
works at an orphanage in Jacmel
about 32km (20 miles) south of
Port-au-Prince, tells the BBC:
"We've had thousands of people
killed in the city and we've had
no help, there has been
absolutely no aid in the city at
all. We're so happy people have
come to the rescue of
Port-au-Prince but we have to
get the message out that there
are other cities."
1111 Former Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, in South Africa, says
he is "ready to leave today,
tomorrow, at any time, to join
the people of Haiti, to share in
their suffering, help rebuild
the country."
1104
1100 Steve Matthews
from
World Vision
tells the BBC World Service:
"I met a woman today clutching a
picture of her husband. She was
crying in the streets. There are
people being carted through the
streets on doors - or whatever
they can use as stretchers.
Everywhere you go there's
something crazy that you can
hardly believe you are looking
at."
1034
American Red Cross
spokeswoman Gloria Huang tells
the BBC social networking sites
have helped them raise $35m
(£21.5m) in the US, with $5m
raised through a text message
campaign alone. "The immediacy
is a very strong point. This
mobile texting campaign is
really the centre piece of the
whole thing - it's the first
time we've ever done anything
like this," she says.
1031 The
World Food Program
(WFP) says its warehouses in
Port-au-Prince have been looted
- AP reports.
1016 The
International Organization for
Migration
(IOM) tells the BBC it needs
around $30m (£18.4m) for its
emergency shelter and non-food
distribution in Haiti. IOM's
Chief of Mission in Haiti,
Vincent Houver, says access to
fuel and electricity are growing
concerns.
1012 Dixie Bickel, who
runs an orphanage in
Port-au-Prince, tells the BBC
World Service: "People are
leaving Port-au-Prince in
masses. They've picked up what
they can find, they've put it on
their head and out they go.
We're seeing people on the road,
carrying their dead with them.
They're going out in the
countryside to bury them."
1005 UN spokeswoman
Elisabeth Byrs says 10% of homes
in Port-au-Prince have been
destroyed, leaving some 300,000
people homeless.
0957 Building experts
tell the BBC sub-standard
housing and a lack of building
regulations have contributed to
the level of devastation in
Haiti.
0943 Shaul Schwarz, a
TIME
magazine
photographer working in Haiti,
tells BBC Radio 4's Today
program that angry residents
near Port-au-Prince have set up
a roadblock made of dead bodies,
in protest over the delay in
aid.
0908 International aid
charities are appealing for help
for the victims. Here are some
of the ways you can help. The
Disasters Emergency Committee
is co-ordinating donations in
the UK.
|
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Ban
Ki-moon: 'Food and water are in
critically short supply' 
"An
act of anger" 
Caribbean
Headline News....
www.walmartstores.com/haiti
Drop off cans, dry goods, clothes, bedding, whatever you can help with to: MP Island Restaurant located at 5957 E. Virginia Beach Blvd, Norfolk, VA on Sunday, Jan. 17th from 7pm - midnight. Contact MP or Buggz 757-284-9101.
HOW YOU CAN HELP HAITI:
http://www.yele.org/
• UNICEF
• C.A.R.E.
• SAVE THE CHILDREN
• INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS
• RED CROSS
• UNITED NATIONS CENTRAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE FUND
STATE DEPT VICTIMS FAMILY HOTLINE
888-407-4747
To help with relief efforts,
text "HAITI" to "90999" and $10 will be given automatically to
the Red Cross, charged to your cell phone bill. Or text
YELE to 501501 and donate $5.
Visit
Impact Your World
for more ways to help
http://www.yele.org/
• UNICEF
• C.A.R.E.
• SAVE THE CHILDREN
• INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS
• RED CROSS
• UNITED NATIONS CENTRAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE FUND
888-407-4747
www.walmartstores.com/haiti
Drop off cans, dry goods, clothes, bedding, whatever you can help with to: MP Island Restaurant located at 5957 E. Virginia Beach Blvd, Norfolk, VA on Sunday, Jan. 17th from 7pm - midnight. Contact MP or Buggz 757-284-9101.