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Haitians were "really overwhelmed by the situation

06:00, 1969-Dec-31 .. 0 comments .. Link

Haitians were "really overwhelmed by the situation" Haitians were "really overwhelmed by the situation" Haiti's government says at least 150,000 people were killed Concrete Machine and many tens of thousands more made homeless by the 7.0 magnitude quake that left much of the capital Port-au-Prince in ruins.

Bellerive said Rene Preval, the president, had called him to press for an additional 200,000 tents for people who lost their homes.

But John Holmes, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator, said stronger temporary structures would be needed for Haiti to face the start of the rainy season in April and hurricanes in June.

UN peacekeepers fired into the air but could not keep back a crowd rushing for aid [AFP] "Tents, while the only shelter solution available quickly enough now, will not be much good for these purposes,Energy saving lamps," he said. Josue Andre from the Peasants Association of Fondwa grass roots development organisation, told Al Jazeera that Haitians were "really overwhelmed by the situation".

"We are in need of medicines, water, tents, and food," he said.

"But we also need psychological help. The people's minds were really attacked #x by what happened, and it was something no one expected."

A key theme that emerged at the Montreal conference on Monday was the need to ensure development and population were not so concentrated in Port-au-Prince, which sits right on a fault line.

"In 30 seconds, Haiti lost 60 per cent of its GDP [Concrete Machine]," Bellerive said, referring to economic focus on the capital. "So we must decentralise."

Clinton said agriculture, which could act as a magnet back to the countryside, had not got the attention it deserved.

"I was quite heartened to hear the prime minister say that ... we should look at how we decentralise economic opportunity and work with the Haitian government and people to support resettlement," she told reporters.

Clashes

More than 100,000 people have already left the streets and crowded tent cities of Port-au-Prince to find refuge elsewhere in the country, and the Haitian authorities are encouraging the exodus, offering free bus rides to take them to the southwest and north.

But many more remain in the shattered capital where clashes broke out on Monday between local residents clamouring for supplies and UN peacekeepers attempting to distribute the aid.

The crowd of hundreds at a food distribution site in front #x of Haiti's demolished presidential palace pressed forward as people were being chosen in pairs by UN staff members to go forward to get food and water.

Firing their guns into the air, the UN troops attempted to quell the melee, but were unable to hold the crowd back Concrete Machine when it surged forward and took over the truck which held the supplies.