Aftershock rattles Haiti, but aid flow ramps up

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – A new earthquake shook  the devastated Haitian capital Port-au-Prince early yesterday, rattling already wrecked buildings and triggering  panic among survivors of last week’s devastating quake.

The 5.9 aftershock hit at daybreak. Shrieking Haitians ran  from buildings and walls, fearing a repeat of the magnitude 7  quake that killed tens of thousands of people eight days ago.  Though the strongest shock since Jan. 12, it did not appear to  cause any major new destruction or to slow the international  relief effort now bolstered by more U.S. troops.

“Things started shaking. We were really afraid. People came  out into the street,” said Victor Jean Rossiny, a law student  living in the street. “We have nothing here, not even water.”

Desperate and hungry residents of Port-au-Prince have been  sleeping outdoors because their homes were destroyed last week  or out of fear aftershocks would bring down more buildings.

Violence and looting has subsided as U.S. troops provided  security for water and food distribution, and thousands of  displaced Haitians heeded the government’s advice to seek  shelter outside Port-au-Prince.

Haitian officials estimated the death toll from last week’s  quake could be between 100,000 and 200,000, and said 75,000  bodies had already been buried in mass graves.

“Supplies are beginning to get out to the people,” U.S.  Defense Secretary Robert Gates said while visiting India. “ …  My hope is that as we get these trucks out on the roads with  supplies and people see patrols — that will prevent any  significant violence from taking place.”

At the airport in the damaged historic port city of Jacmel,  Sri Lankan, U.S. and Canadian troops delivered supplies.

In Jacmel, Hazem El-Zein of the World Food Programme said  he expected 30,000 people were without homes in south Haiti.

Traffic congestion in Port-au-Prince was worse than ever yesterday — perhaps a small sign of recovery — as aid trucks  and locals drove to gasoline stations to fill their tanks,  jamming streets still cluttered with earthquake debris.

Fuel prices have doubled and there were long lines of cars,  motorbikes and people with jerrycans outside gas stations.

Cash needs to start circulating again in Haiti’s shattered  economy so people can buy food and civil servants can be paid,  an International Monetary Fund official said.

Banks would reopen shortly and money transfer agencies were  beginning to process remittances from Haitians living abroad,  Nicolas Eyzaguirre, director of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere  Department, said on the fund’s website.

Remittances total about $1.8 billion a year, accounting for  at least 20 percent of Haiti’s gross domestic product,  economists say.

“Many people tell me they have run out of cash or are about  to,” said Simon Schorno, spokesman for the International  Committee of the Red Cross in Port-au-Prince.

The city’s water system was only partially functional but  tanker trucks began to deliver water to the larger makeshift  camps, where vendors did brisk business selling charcoal to  families who were using small tin barbecues to cook.

LOCALIZED VIOLENCE

Landline telephones in Port-au-Prince were still down, but  two wireless networks had spotty service, said U.S. Federal  Communica-tions Commission officials helping with the relief.

While military escorts are needed to deliver relief, the  United Nations said security problems were mainly in areas  considered “high risk” before the disaster.

“I have seen no indications that leads me to believe that  the security situation is deteriorating,” said General Floriano  Peixoto, chief of the Brazilian U.N. peacekeeping contingent.

Brazilian peacekeepers have helped Haitian police recapture  some of the 4,000 prison inmates who escaped after the quake.

To speed the arrival of aid and stem looting and violence,  the U.N. Security Council has unanimously agreed to temporarily  add 2,000 U.N. troops and 1,500 police to the 9,000-member  peacekeeping mission in Haiti.

Around 12,000 U.S. military personnel are on the ground in  Haiti and on ships offshore including the U.S. Navy hospital  ship Comfort, which arrived yesterday to provide essential  capacity for complex surgeries.

At least one Latin American leader, Venezuela’s socialist  President Hugo Chavez, a persistent critic of what he calls  U.S. “imperialism,” has already accused Washington of  “occupying” Haiti under the pretext of an aid operation.