Red Cross: Up to 3 million affected by Haiti quake
By FRANK JORDANS and BRADLEY S. KLAPPER, Associated Press Writers Frank Jordans And Bradley S. Klapper, Associated Press Writers – 58 mins ago
GENEVA – Haiti's devastating earthquake has left an estimated 3 million people in need of emergency aid, a Red Cross official said Wednesday, as aid groups and governments scrambled to send tons of disaster relief to the impoverished Caribbean nation.
Humanitarian officials said the proximity of the quake's epicenter, only 10 miles (15 kilometers) from the capital Port-au-Prince, and Haiti's crumbling infrastructure meant it was impossible to gauge exactly how many people might be dead or wounded.
"There's probably 3 million people potentially affected," said Paul Conneally, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.
The first airlifts to Haiti concentrated on search and rescue efforts and setting up makeshift hospitals.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States was offering full assistance — civilian and military. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain would provide "whatever humanitarian assistance is required," while France, Canada, China, Germany, Mexico and Venezuela pledged immediate support in terms of personnel, cash and supplies.
Reuters – A fire breaks out near a building, which was damaged after a major earthquake struck, in Port-au-Prince
Germany said it would donate euro1 million ($1.45 million), while China pledged $1 million.
One of the first teams expected to arrive Wednesday was 37 search and rescue specialists from Iceland, who are bringing with them 10 tons of their own equipment.
French rescue authorities say 65 clearing specialists and 6 sniffer dogs are leaving for Haiti on Wednesday, while Spain is rushing three airplanes to Haiti with at least 100 tons of tents, blankets and cooking kits. Israel is sending in an elite Army rescue unit of engineers and medics.
The Red Cross said Haiti's disaster relief teams were "completely overwhelmed."
"There's no structured response at this point," spokesman Simon Schorno told The Associated Press.
The United Nations is also deploying a disaster coordination team to Haiti.
Officials were struggling to assess the scale of the disaster amid badly damaged communication networks, said Elizabeth Byrs, a U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman, but it was working with aid agency Telecoms Sans Frontieres to immediately get phone lines working.
There is no electricity in the capital, and roads are filled with obstacles and debris, she added. Port-au-Prince's airport remains open, but the artery connecting it to the city is blocked, so aid officials were still trying to decide on the best way to rush lifesaving assistance.
U.N. agencies and Red Cross societies were trying to send in teams and aid from their regional hub in Panama, while USAID is mobilizing a response group and two urban search and rescue units, Byrs said.
If aid cannot travel over the airport road, assistance may be rerouted through the Dominican Republic, said Charles Vincent, a senior World Food Program official, whose agency plans to airlift tons of high-energy biscuits from El Salvador, enough to feed 30,000 people for a week.
"The first priority is to save lives," Vincent told reporters.
Byrs said the neighboring Haitian cities of Carrefour and Jacmel may also be heavily damaged.
Conneally said his estimate of the Haitians affected relied on previous Red Cross experience in earthquake relief.
"Port-au-Prince has been massively impacted," Conneally said. "There are many, many people trapped in the rubble."
He said emergency shelter and long-term rebuilding efforts could easily require a year of aid work.
At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI appealed for a generous international aid response for the quake victims and pledged the Catholic Church's support.
The Christian aid organization World Vision, which has 400 staff in Haiti, said it would immediately distribute supplies it had stored in Haiti for hurricane relief.
Low-lying areas of Port-au-Prince, including the Cite Soleil slum, appeared to be hit worse than neighborhoods higher up the hills, said World Vision spokesman Casey Calamusa.
Maggie Boyer, the World Vision spokeswoman in Haiti, said the moment the quake hit felt "like a truck had run into her building," he added.
___
AP writers Jenny Barchfield in Paris, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Raphael G. Satter and Jane Wardell in London, Scott McDonald in Beijing, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Daniel Woolls in Madrid contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100113/ap_on_re_eu/eu_haiti_earthquake_aid
地震餘悸的海地人 在跌倒的家園旁堆積屍體
Quake-stunned Haitians pile bodies by fallen homes
By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer Jonathan M. Katz,– 36 mins ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after the strongest earthquake hit the poor Caribbean nation in more than 200 years crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters. Untold numbers were still trapped.
The devastation was so complete that it seemed likely the death toll from Tuesday afternoon's magnitude-7.0 quake would run into the thousands. France's foreign minister said the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission was apparently among the dead.
International Red Cross spokesman Paul Conneally said an estimated 3 million people may have been affected by the quake and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge.
Aftershocks rattled the city of 2 million people as women covered in dust clawed out of debris, wailing. Stunned people wandered the streets holding hands. Thousands gathered in public squares singing hymns.
People pulled bodies from collapsed homes, covering them with sheets by the side of the road. Passersby lifted the sheets to see if a loved one was underneath. Outside a crumbled building the bodies of five children and three adults lay in a pile.
The United States and other nations began organizing aid efforts, alerting search teams and gathering supplies that will be badly needed in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. The international Red Cross and other aid groups announced plans for major relief operations.
Reuters – People are seen near the ruins of a building, which was destroyed after a major earthquake struck, in...
"Haiti has moved to center of the world's thoughts and the world's compassion," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
It was clear tens of thousands lost their homes and many perished in collapsed buildings that were flimsy and dangerous even under normal conditions.
"The hospitals cannot handle all these victims," Dr. Louis-Gerard Gilles, a former senator, said as he helped survivors. "Haiti needs to pray. We all need to pray together."
A young American aid worker was trapped for about 10 hours under the rubble of her mission house before she was rescued by her husband, who told CBS's "The Early Show" that he drove 100 miles (160 kilometers) to Port-au-Prince to find her when he learned of the quake.
Frank Thorp said he dug for more than an hour to free his wife, Jillian, and a co-worker, from under about a foot of concrete.
Even relatively wealthy neighborhoods were devastated.
An Associated Press videographer saw a wrecked hospital where people screamed for help in Petionville, a hillside district that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians as well as the poor.
At a destroyed four-story apartment building, a girl of about 16 stood atop a car, trying to peer inside while several men pulled at a foot sticking from rubble. She said her family was inside.
"A school near here collapsed totally," Petionville resident Ken Michel said Wednesday after surveying the damage. "We don't know if there were any children inside." He said many seemingly sturdy homes nearby were split apart.
U.N. peacekeepers, many of whom are from Brazil, were distracted from aid efforts by their own tragedy: Many spent the night hunting for survivors in the ruins of their headquarters.
"It would appear that everyone who was in the building, including my friend Hedi Annabi, the United Nations' Secretary General's special envoy, and everyone with him and around him, are dead," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Wednesday, speaking on RTL radio.
At least four Brazilian soldiers were killed and five injured, Brazil's army said. Jordan's official news agency said three of its peacekeepers were killed and 21 were injured. A state newspaper in China said eight Chinese peacekeepers were known dead and 10 were missing — though officials later said the information was not confirmed.
Some 9,000 peacekeepers have been in Haiti since 2004, including 1,266 Brazilians.
Much of the National Palace pancaked on itself, but Haiti's ambassador to Mexico, Robert Manuel, said President Rene Preval and his wife survived the earthquake. He had no details.
The quake struck at 4:53 p.m., centered 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of only 5 miles (8 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since 1770 in what is now Haiti.
Most of Haiti's 9 million people are desperately poor, and after years of political instability the country has no real construction standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of buildings were shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances.
Tuesday's quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and in eastern Cuba, but no major damage was reported in either place.
With electricity knocked out in many places and phone service erratic, it was nearly impossible for Haitian or foreign officials to get full details of the devastation.
"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Henry Bahn, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official visiting Port-au-Prince. "The sky is just gray with dust."
In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that U.S. Embassy personnel were "literally in the dark" after power failed.
"They reported structures down. They reported a lot of walls down. They did see a number of bodies in the street and on the sidewalk that had been hit by debris. So clearly, there's going to be serious loss of life in this," he said.
President Barack Obama offered prayers for the people of Haiti and said the U.S. stood ready to help. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was offering full assistance — civilian and military — and a national organization of registered nurses called for nurse volunteers to provide care in Haiti.
Elizabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the U.N.'s humanitarian office, said it was working with independent aid agency Telecoms Sans Frontieres to get phone lines working again — a key element in organizing relief efforts.
Venezuela's government said it would send a military plane with canned foods, medicine and drinking water and provide 50 rescue workers. Mexico, which suffered an earthquake in 1985 that killed some 10,000 people, planned to send doctors, search and rescue dogs and infrastructure damage experts.
Italy said it was sending a C-130 cargo plane Wednesday with a field hospital and emergency medical personnel as well as a team to assess aid needs. France said 65 clearing specialists, with six sniffer dogs, and two doctors and two nurses were leaving.
Edwidge Danticat, an award-winning Haitian-American author was unable to contact relatives in Haiti. She sat with family and friends at her home in Miami, looking for news on the Internet and watching TV news reports.
"You want to go there, but you just have to wait," she said. "Life is already so fragile in Haiti, and to have this on such a massive scale, it's unimaginable how the country will be able to recover from this."
___
Associated Press videographer Pierre Richard Luxama in Haiti and AP writers David Koop and Olga R. Rodriguez in Mexico City; David McFadden and Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Matthew Lee in Washington; Alicia Chang in Los Angeles; Andrea Rodriguez in Havana; Tamara Lush in Tampa, Fla.; and Jennifer Kay and Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100113/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_earthquake;_ylt=AtWl45hHYrteuY4e72F_On9vaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTJrbHA2Z3ZtBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMTEzL2NiX2hhaXRpX2VhcnRocXVha2UEY3BvcwMxBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA3Blb3BsZWFyZXNlZQ--
海地七級大地震 傷亡慘重
海地發生七級大地震，是二百多年來首次，首都太子港大部分房屋被毀，死亡人數可能數以千計。聯合國駐海地維和部隊總部負責人表示，總部大樓及多座聯合國設施嚴重損毀，很多職員下落不明...
維和司令料已在地震中死亡
(明報) 1月13日 星期三 20:50
法國外長表示，聯合國駐海地的維持和平部隊司令(突尼斯人)與他身邊的人相信已在大地震中死亡。...
中國救援隊晚上起程赴海地
(明報) 1月13日 星期三 20:50
國國際救援隊晚上8時30分從首都國際機場啟程，支援海地搶險救災。...
中國紅會提供海地百萬美元
(明報) 1月13日 星期三 20:20
中國紅十字總會周三決定向海地提供100萬美元的國際人道主義緊急援款。...
4巴西維和部隊在海地死亡
(明報) 1月13日 星期三 19:50
巴西軍方表示，4名巴西維持和平部隊在昨日的海地大地震中死亡，很多人失蹤。...
http://hk.news.yahoo.com/event/fc/20100113/inhaitieq.html
海地強烈地震恐有幾千人死亡
13/01/2010 8:01PM
加勒比海島國海地 , 發生黎克特制七級強烈地震 , 是當地二百年遭受的最強烈地震 .地震造成多棟建築物受損或倒塌, 當中包括總統府和聯合國辦公大樓, 估計有幾千人被埋在瓦礫下 , 中國駐海地維和部隊中, 有8人被埋 , 10多人失蹤. 台灣駐海地的大使館也損毀, 大使徐勉生據報受傷骨折, 其他人員就平安 .由於海地貧窮落後, 缺乏應對這類天災的重型設備, 影響到救援工作 .多個國家和組織, 都表示派出救援隊, 協助救災 , 並向海地提供援助
http://www.metroradio.com.hk/997/News/Default.aspx
法國外長憂海地聯合國大樓倒塌被困人員全部罹難
13.01.2010 21:35
加勒比海國家海地，發生二百年來破壞力最強的七級強烈地震，首都太子港幾乎被夷為平地，總統府及聯合國維和部隊總部等大量建築物倒塌，數以千計的人被埋在瓦礫，估計遇難人數可能高達數千人，三百萬人受災；地震後，當地陷入極度混亂；聯合國維和部隊總部當時估計有二百多人，法國外長庫什內擔心在建築物內的所有人員，全部遇難，當中包括總部主管，中國在海地派駐百多名維和人員，有八名維和部隊及防暴隊員被埋，十多人失蹤。 中共總書記胡錦濤及總理溫家寶，作出指示，要求迅速查明中國人員情況，設法營救，保證中方人員、港澳台民眾及華僑華人的安全，並向海地提供人道主義援助；北京即時組織一支六十多人的救援隊，三隻搜救犬及救援物資，晚上由北京啟程前往海，中國紅十字總會提供一百萬美元人道救援款項，而同海地有邦交的台北及多個國家，相繼抽調救援隊前往當地，美國總統奧巴馬即時下令馳援海地，又表示會為海地民眾祈禱。
http://www.881903.com/page/zh-tw/newsdetail.aspx?ItemId=193052
胡錦濤及溫家寶指示全力營救海地地震被困中方人員
13.01.2010 21:13
加勒比海國家海地，發生二百年來破壞力最強的地震，強度是黎克特制七級，首都太子港幾乎被夷為平地，總統府及聯合國維和部隊總部等大量建築物倒塌，數以千計的人被埋在瓦礫，估計遇難人數可能高達數千人，三百萬人受災；地震後，當地陷入極度混亂；聯合國維和部隊總部當時估計有二百多人，法國傳媒指，總部主管相信經已殉職，中國大陸同海地無邦交，但派駐百多名維和部隊人員，國家地震災害緊急救援隊透露，中國維和部隊中有八人被埋，十多人失蹤，巴西官方就說，他們有四名維和人員殉職，多人失蹤。 中共總書記胡錦濤及總理溫家寶，作出指示，要求迅速查明中國人員情況，設法營救，保證中方人員、港澳台民眾及華僑華人的安全，並向海地提供人道主義援助；北京即時組織一支六十多人的救援隊，三隻搜救犬及救援物資，晚上由北京啟程前往海，中國紅十字總會提供一百萬美元人道救援款項，而同海地有邦交的台北及多個國家，相繼抽調救援隊前往當地，美國總統奧巴馬即時下令馳援海地，又表示會為海地民眾祈禱。
http://www.881903.com/page/zh-tw/newsdetail.aspx?ItemId=193029
1月9日狗在新聞台感覺到阿克塔的地震
Dog Senses Arcata Earthquake at News Station
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG5w7oo-vak&feature=player_embedded
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