Part of the pressure is preparation for next Sunday’s Super Bowl, a military spokesman said.
A total of 436 people have been received at
An additional 17 patients also arrived in
The U.S. military could not say when it began diverting the flights. Another Medevac flight was scheduled to depart
A Southern Command spokesman, Army Maj.
said the military was diverting patients northward “because of the
rising numbers of evacuees and the need for the region to be prepared
for upcoming events such as might result from the large crowds at the
Pro Bowl and Super Bowl.”
In
relief workers seeking to reinforce makeshift shelters for up to one
million earthquake victims are rushing tarps and plastic sheeting to
try to keep Haitian homeless close to their homes amid a chaotic
recovery effort.
has more than 15,000 troops devoted to relief efforts — some 4,700
“boots on the ground” with the rest doing offshore relief efforts, says
Lt. Gen.
Some 5,000 more support troops with heavy debris-clearing and road-building equipment were due in this week, Keen said.
Meanwhile, Haitians are clearing the debris for themselves — some 5,000 on
In Delmas Wednesday morning, Haitians working in
10-member teams could be seen sweeping up debris, their faces covered
in masks against the stench of rotting bodies still trapped in rubbled
buildings.
In Tabarre, near the airport, Haitians were at work
digging latrines at a shantytown-style shelter site the government on
Monday designated a displaced persons camp.
President
an urgent request to the international community for 200,000
family-sized tents and 36 million food rations to feed an estimated 1.5
million people — the survivors of the
A third site is planned for the quake shattered zone of Leogane, west of the capital.
Experts with the
“Past crises have shown that although the pressure
to act quickly to provide safe shelter is high,” an IOM statement said
Wednesday, “the creation of large temporary settlements away from
communities and livelihood opportunities have proved to create
dependencies, social problems, insecurity and inhibit long-term
recovery.”
The
multinational group said it was “rushing to distribute” its “stocks of
tarpaulins and plastic sheeting until sufficient numbers of
family-sized tents can be brought into the country.”
It estimated that 900,000 to 1.1 million people “are believed to be in acute need of emergency shelter assistance in
In other developments:
—Crooner
n Israeli rescue and medical team was departing
Wednesday with a 5-year-old Haitian child the Israeli military said it
was taking for surgery to fix a heart deficiency. The delegation left
30 tons of medical equipment, including incubators, plus 30 large-sized
tents, 500 mattresses and kitchen equipment, for
— The government of
Prime Minster Jean-Max Bellerive said Wednesday morning that “there
have been too many rumors of trafficking in persons and humans,” and
said foreigners seeking to take orphans from his nation need to go
through their embassies to make the request of the government of
—
(c) 2010, The Miami Herald.
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