January 21, 2010

BBC: Haiti is planning to house 400,000 earthquake survivors in new tented villages outside the capital, Port-au-Prince, officials have announced.

BBC: Fuel shortages hamper Haiti aid distribution
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January 20, 2010

BBC: A strong aftershock has rocked Haiti, sending screaming people running into the streets, eight days after another quake devastated the country. The extent of the damage is not yet known. The magnitude 6.1 tremor struck west of Port-au-Prince at 0603 local time

MSNBC: In New York, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said that the United Nations’ food agency had distributed rations for 200,000 people so far, and other officials said the aim was to quickly supply 4.2 million rations of high-nutrition food for children. Mr. Ban said the agency was aiming to feed one million people by the end of this week and two million by the end of next week — though three million or more people are estimated to need food.

CNN: About 200 flights a day are taking off and landing at Post-Au-Prince's one-runway airport each day. The US military will open two other airports within the next two days.
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January 19, 2010

BBC: The US military has begun airdropping food and water supplies into earthquake-hit Haiti. Some 14,000 ready-to-eat meals and 15,000 litres of water were dropped north-east of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

CNN: The dearth of hospital facilities should ease soon, he said. Argentina, Israel, Portugal, Russia and Turkey have sent or are sending hospitals, said Gen. P.K. Keen, who is leading U.S. forces in Haiti. Médecins Sans Frontières -- also known as Doctors Without Borders -- said flights carrying medical equipment were being diverted to the Dominican Republic. Oxfam warned of looming fuel shortages. And a volunteer at a hospital in northern Haiti said he had open beds, but no way to get patients there from Port-au-Prince.

BBC: The UK government has trebled its funding for the humanitarian response from £6.2m to £20m, to provide food, shelter, health and relief work.

MSNBC: Tens of thousands of children have been orphaned by the earthquake, aid groups say. International advocacy groups are trying to help, either by speeding up adoptions that were already in progress, or by sending in relief personnel to evacuate thousands of orphans to the U.S. and other countries.
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January 18, 2010

BBC: The leading US general in Haiti has said it is a "reasonable assumption" that up to 200,000 people may have died in last Tuesday's earthquake. Rescuers pulled more people alive from the rubble at the weekend, but at least 70,000 people have already had burials.

BBC: In Brussels, European Union nations pledged more than 420m euros ($604m; £320m) from the EU budget to assist Haiti, with about half the sum dedicated to emergency and short-term aid.

CNN: Infections are "out of control" in Haiti

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January 16, 2010

CNN: President George W. Bush and President Clinton have agreed to lead an effort to raise funds for Haiti.

BBC: Some three million of the nine million people in Haiti are thought to be in need of aid following the devastating earthquake. The UN has launched an appeal for $562m (£346m), which it hopes will fund a six-month relief effort to help the injured and those who have lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods.

BBC: There are mounting security concerns in Haiti's earthquake-hit capital as distribution problems continue to hamper getting aid to survivors.

MSNBC: The U.S. military operating Haiti's damaged, clogged main airport said it can now handle 90 flights a day, but that wasn't enough to cope with all the planes sent by foreign donors and governments, prompting some to send help by land or by sea.

MSNBC: Up to 10 trucks carrying a "huge amount" of aid headed Saturday from the Dominican Republic to quake-struck Haiti, bringing a 50-bed field hospital, surgical teams and an emergency telecommunications unit, the Red Cross said.
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January 15, 2010

BBC: UN humanitarian chief John Holmes told reporters that 30% of buildings throughout Port-au-Prince had been damaged, with the figure at 50% in some areas.

CNN: Rescue efforts in Haiti have been chaotic, hampered by a lack of resources and infrastructure, and emergency workers face a race against the clock to save those feared still trapped under rubble and to keep the injured and hungry alive. Thousands of people left homeless roamed the streets.

BBC: About 45,000-50,000 people have died since Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake and 300,000 have been made homeless, the UN estimates. The Pan American Health Organization has estimated that the death toll could be as high as 100,000.

AFP: The World Food Programme says it is planning urgent food aid for two million people affected by the deadly earthquake in Haiti.

BBC: The UN said a total of about $270m (£165m) in international aid had been pledged so far for the relief effort. It will launch an emergency appeal for $550m later on Friday.

UN: With many survivors having sustained serious injuries, including traumatic wounds and crushed limbs, medical support has been identified as an immediate need, along with food, water and shelter. Yesterday, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said eight hospitals were damaged or destroyed in Haiti and two damaged in neighboring Dominican Republic. The Office for the Coordination Affairs (OCHA) today said that it is conferring with Haitian authorities on the possibility of the national soccer stadium being used as a field hospital location.

BBC: Mr Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, working with Brazil, Canada and other countries, will organise a conference on reconstruction in Haiti, the French presidency has announced.

AFP: Former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide, exiled in South Africa since 2004, said Friday he was ready to return to help rebuild the country in the wake of the devastating earthquake.

BBC: Experts say it is no surprise that shoddy construction contributed to the level of destruction in Haiti following Tuesday's earthquake.

CNN: A text-message and social network campaign has raised $8 million for the Red Cross' relief efforts in Haiti
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January 14, 2010

Sky News: Haiti's infrastructure has been almost entirely destroyed, making the aid effort very difficult.

Haiti Star: Traumatized Haitians slept out in parks and streets overnight, fearing aftershocks to the catastrophic earthquake that flattened homes and government buildings and buried countless people. Tens of thousands of people were feared dead and many were believed to be still trapped alive.

BBC: The US has said it will send up to 3,500 soldiers and 2,200 marines to Haiti to help rescue efforts

BBC: The World Bank is funding $100m of emergency aid. The World Food Program is working on supplying 15,000 tonnes of food and the Red Cross has begun a $10m appeal. A few US aid planes and a 50-strong Chinese rescue team with sniffer dogs have landed at the airport serving the capital, Port-au-Prince. Other plane-loads of rescuers and relief supplies are on the way from the EU, Canada, Russia and Latin American nations.

Sky News: International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander announced a £6.2m package, but said the most important thing was technical assistance.

Caribbean News: Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo has announced a US$1 million financial assistance for Haiti.

MSNBC: Severe damage to at least eight Port-au-Prince hospitals made it nearly impossible to treat the thousands of injured or prevent outbreaks of disease, said Paul Garwood, spokesman for the World Health Organization.

Sky News: Save the Children has warned that up to two million children could be affected by the quake.
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January 13, 2010

CNN: "Port-au-Prince is flattened" after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Haitian capital. About 3 million people -- one-third of Haiti's population -- were affected by the quake, the Red Cross estimated.

BBC: Haitian President Rene Preval has said thousands of people are feared dead following a huge quake which has devastated the country's capital.

ReliefWeb: The capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, has been severely affected including critical city infrastructure components such as, electricity, water and phone services. Electricity is not available and communications are difficult. Aftershocks have been felt measuring 5.9 and 5.5 respectively. More aftershocks are expected in the coming hours.

BBC: Hedi Annabi, the Tunisian head of the UN stabilization mission in Haiti (Minustah), had died after the UN HQ building was destroyed. UN officials say more than 100 UN staff are missing.

MSNBC: U.S. officials are laying out a massive military response to the Haiti earthquake, saying that ships, helicopters, transport planes and a 2,000-member Marine unit are either on the way or likely to begin moving soon.

MSNBC: Cuba said its existing field hospitals in Haiti had already treated hundreds of victims. Venezuela's government said it would send a military plane with canned foods, medicine and drinking water and provide 50 rescue workers. Mexico 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.

BBC: UK teams are being deployed to Haiti to assess humanitarian needs and help with search and rescue. A 64-strong team of firefighters from across the UK has volunteered to fly out to the quake zone.

InterAction, a coalition of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations, has a list of agencies responding and how to donate to them.