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Haiti queues for aid amid fresh aftershocks

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

Haiti queues for aid amid fresh aftershocks Haiti queues for aid amid fresh aftershocks

Vast crowds of Haitians massed around aid Concrete Mixing Station stations Tuesday, threatening to overwhelm emergency food handouts against a backdrop of new political and seismic aftershocks.

A stung Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended America's role in the relief operation from charges of heavy-handed incompetence, as US officials backed plans to cancel Haiti's debt and consider easing immigration rules.

Port-au-Prince was rattled by two new earth tremors, two weeks after the deadly earthquake that killed at least 150,000 people, scaring a weary and destitute people from their improvised beds in makeshift camps.

"We just can't get used to these quakes. Each aftershock is #xterrifying and everyone is afraid," trader Edison Constant said, exhausted by a stream of aftershocks since the devastating 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12.

Haiti survivors reluctant to relocate

The US Geological Survey, which has warned the beleaguered Caribbean nation to expect tremors for the next month, measured the second tremor at 4.4.

"I hid under my bed," said iron merchant Julien Louis. Others were more resigned, shuffling out under heavy, humid skies to rejoin queues outside money transfer agencies, banks, immigration offices and aid distribution centers.

Amid the confusion and the aftershocks, the US military pulledConcrete Mixing Station a Haitian man alive from the rubble but it was not immediately clear whether he had been trapped since the original quake or more recently.

The middle-aged man was covered with dust, had facial injuries and appeared to have lost weight. Soldiers at the scene said he may have been a looter who became stuck in recent days when a damaged building collapsed.

In the Cite Soleil slum several thousand desperate people converged on a walled police compound to receive sacks of relief supplies, surging against the steel gates as officials struggled to let them in one by one.

Haitians seek food, a roof and long-term change

All across the city, ad hoc street committees have hung imploring banners in English and French -- "SOS", "We need help here" and "We need food and water " -- in desperate attempts to attract the attention of aid agencies.

With its helicopters in constant rotation overhead, and foot patrols increasingly in evidence in the city, the US military has assumed a dominant role in the aid operation, and has been largely welcomed by Haitians.

But Clinton was forced to defend the operation from criticism that it had been badly coordinated with other states' and agencies' efforts and had been too heavy-handed in the immediate chaotic aftermath of the quake.

"I deeply resent those who attack our country, the generosityConcrete Mixing Station of our people and the leadership of our president in trying to respond to historically disastrous conditions after the earthquake," Clinton said in Washington.

Some 20,000 US troops have been sent to Haiti to distribute food and water.

The international relief effort has been hampered by traffic congestion and lingering security fears, and has yet to get enough aid into the capital Port-au-Prince and flattened towns near the quake's epicenter.

With the port only recently reopened,Japanese Swords, the hub of the aid operation remains the airport. A single road connects the airport, the UN headquarters and the Haitian government's temporary home in a dilapidated police station.

A motley caravan of trucks rented by various military and aid organizations #xsnakes down this road, snarling traffic and holding up aid deliveries. 相关的主题文章：