Desperate Haitians await foreign disaster relief, thousands buried

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Thousands of people  injured in Haiti’s massive earthquake spent a third night  twisted in pain, lying on sidewalks and waiting for help as  their despair turned to anger.
“We’ve been out here waiting for three days and three  nights but nothing has been done for us, not even a word of  encouragement from the president,” said Pierre Jackson, nursing  his mother and sister who lay whimpering with crushed legs.
“What should we do?”
Desperate Haitians blocked streets with corpses in one part  of Port-au-Prince to demand quicker relief efforts following  Tuesday’s catastrophic quake, which flattened buildings and  killed tens of thousands, leaving countless others homeless.
Bodies lay all around the hilly city, and people covered  their noses with cloth to block the stench of death. Corpses  were piled on pickup trucks and delivered to the General  Hospital in Port-au-Prince, where hospital director Guy LaRoche  estimated the bodies piled outside the morgue numbered 1,500.
More than 48 hours after disaster struck, masses of people  clamored for food and water, as well as help in digging out  relatives still missing under the rubble.
Shaul Schwarz, a photographer for TIME magazine, said he  saw at least two downtown roadblocks formed with bodies of  earthquake victims and rocks.
“They are starting to block the roads with bodies. It’s  getting ugly out there. People are fed up with getting no  help,” he told Reuters.
The United Nations was due to launch an emergency appeal  for funding for Haiti today.
Angry survivors staged the protest as international aid  committed by 30 countries began arriving in Port-au-Prince in  dozens of planes that clogged the city’s small airport.
U.S. forces were continuing trying to step up operations at  the airport in order to get more supplies and workers into the  country.
The Haitian Red Cross said it believed 45,000 to 50,000  people had died and 3 million more — one third of Haiti’s  population — were hurt or left homeless by the major 7.0  magnitude quake that hit its impoverished capital on Tuesday.
“We have already buried 7,000 in a mass grave,” President  Rene Preval said.
The Haitian Red Cross said it had run out of body bags.
Doctors in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western  Hemisphere, were ill-equipped to treat the injured. Relief  workers warned that many more people will die if the injured,  many with broken bones and serious loss of blood, do not get  first aid in the next day or so.
“The next 24 hours will be critical,” said U.S. Coast Guard  officer Paul Cormier, 54, a qualified emergency worker who has  triaged 300 people since Tuesday.
AID BOTTLENECK
Planes full of supplies and search and rescue equipment  began to arrive at Port-au-Prince airport on Thursday faster  than ground crews could unload them, jamming the limited ramp  space and forcing arriving aircraft to circle for up to two  hours before landing.
U.S. President Barack Obama pledged an initial $100 million  for Haiti quake relief yesterday and enlisted former U.S.  presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to help raise more,  vowing to the Haitian people: “You will not be forsaken.”
The United States was sending 3,500 soldiers, 300 medical  personnel, several ships and 2,200 Marines to Haiti.
The U.S. Navy said its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS  Carl Vinson will arrive today to serve as a “floating  airport” for relief operations by its 19 helicopters.
The United States pledged long-term help for the crippled  Haitian government. The presidential palace, the parliament,  the cathedral and many government buildings collapsed. The main  prison also fell, allowing dangerous criminals to escape.
Nations around the world pitched in to send rescue teams  with search dogs and heavy equipment, helicopters, tents, water  purification units, food, doctors and telecoms teams. But aid  distribution was hampered because roads were blocked by rubble  and smashed cars and normal communications were cut off.
Relief agencies’ offices were damaged and their staff dead  or missing. The port was too badly damaged to handle cargo.
Many hospitals were too battered to use, and doctors  struggled to treat crushed limbs, head wounds and broken bones  at makeshift facilities where medical supplies were scarce.
Makeshift tents were strung everywhere and Haitians at one  informal camp approached journalists shouting “water, water.”
“Please do anything you can. These people have no water, no  food, no medicine, nobody is helping us,” said Valery Louis,  who organized one of the camps.
Haitians clawed at chunks of concrete with bare hands and  hammers, trying to free those buried alive. From time to time,  aftershocks shook the city, sending panicked people running  away from buildings.
A 35-year-old Estonian, Tarmo Joveer, was freed from the  rubble of the United Nations’ five-story headquarters early  Thursday, and told journalists he was fine.
The U.N. said at least 36 members of its 9,000-strong  peacekeeping mission had been killed and scores remained  missing. Brazil said 14 of its soldiers were among the dead.
Fourteen people were pulled alive yesterday from the  landmark Montana Hotel, which was largely flattened. Chilean  Army Major Rodrigo Vazquez, who was directing the rescue, said:  “We estimate 70 more inside. This is devastating.”
For relief effort coverage, go to http://www.alertnet.org/  and for a Haiti timeline see http://link.reuters.com/deb63h.