7.0 Haiti

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The magnitude 7.0 quake, whose epicenter was inland and only 10 miles from Port-au-Prince, sent panic-stricken people screaming into the streets as a cloud of dust and smoke from falling buildings rose into the sky.

As offices, hotels, houses and shops collapsed, people were screaming "Jesus, Jesus" and running in all directions. The gleaming white presidential palace lay in ruins, its domes fallen on top of flattened walls.

Bloodied and dazed survivors gathered in the open and corpses were pinned by debris.

The United Nations said a large number of its personnel in Haiti were unaccounted for after a five-story building at the headquarters of the U.N. mission collapsed.

"The whole city is in darkness. You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go," said Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity. "There are people running, crying, screaming."

In the hillside neighborhood of Petionville, Domersant said he saw no police or rescue vehicles.

"People are trying to dig victims out with flashlights," he said. "I think hundreds of casualties would be a serious understatement."


Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60B5IZ20100113

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someone in Haiti said he thought there would be 100,000's of casualties. then someone in Washington said that estimate may be too much. then they said there is 100 missing from the UN building alone.

I think Washington has to be careful not to let this turn into Obama's Katrina. Kind of real careful cause it could have repercussions on the streets of the USA.

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This is raw footage that cnn was using on tv. But note near the end, The tire burning in the street already and at the very end it looks like what little there is to loot is already being looted.


i don't want to judge the looting because in this situation it may be a fight for survival.  Unless they show them stealing tv's instead of food. But, what are they doing running with those chairs? unless they are impromptu stretchers?

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Officials are "very seriously looking at" sending U.S. troops into Haiti for security purposes, U.S. Southern Command General Douglas Fraser told reporters Wednesday.

"We have put various forces around the armed forces on alert, so that as we get the assessments in we are postured to move those forces in an expeditious manner," he said. "So we have put a brigade on alert just in the circumstance."

Fraser said the military is considering "sending a large-deck amphibious ship that will have a Marine expeditionary unit embarked on that."

State Department Counselor Cheryl Mills told reporters at the briefing that "just about all" of the 172 personnel at the U.S. embassy in Haiti have been accounted for.

Eight personnel are wounded, and four seriously wounded, she said. Coast Guard helicopters are medevacing out the injured.

The embassy is still intact and has good communication capabilities, officials said. The State Department has ordered that 80 spouses, children, and non-essential personnel at the embassy leave the country, and they are scheduled to do so later today.

Officials say there are approximately 45,000 US citizens in Haiti overall. Mills said the government has "received a number of reports of injured U.S. citizens," though no "major reports" of casualties.

According to Fraser, the country's airport, which has one working runway, is functional – but tower and capability to operate there is limited.

"We're pushing capability there now to be able to operate and secure that airport," he said.

USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said that in the first 72 hours of the rescue effort, the primary goal is saving lives.

"We will do that by, first, putting in place significant disaster assistance relief teams," he said. "We'll have, by the end of today, 15 members of that team doing surveillance, collecting data, identifying priority sites, and guiding the efforts of the larger search-and-response units that will be following their entry into the country."

According to Fraser, there are Coast Guard and Department of Defense ships now moving toward Haiti, as well as the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. Both the ships and the carrier will have a compliment of helicopters.

The officials said early reconnaissance indicates that the vast majority of destruction is very focused on Port-au-Prince.


Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/13/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6092429.shtml

[Anonymous]

this is a job for the military... and the private charities, but the military is going to have to get engineers in there to clear the roads, rebuild stuff, and keep the peace

maybe we should just make Haiti a state

 

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i agree,

and maybe expand the airport as fast as possible.

food, water, sanitation, shelter, disease, and protection.

and leave the politics out of it.

 

[Anonymous]

some great still photos at this site:


Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1243201/Haiti-earthquake-pictures-The-unimaginable-horror-torn-country-apart.html


can you copy them for our photo thread of photos that we want to make sure don't get lost or taken down?

thanks

[Anonymous]

it'll be better tomorrow

there will be alot more aid getting out


this is bomby opportunity to earn his nobel prize.  he can't muck this up.  this can not be another katrina.  he's been working since he took office to get fema and relief agencies to be more responsive and better supplied...especially usaid


bomby's got to get this done right

and the haitians have to keep working. 

One thing I have always said about emergencies like this...the first responders are the victims, you've got to be able to help yourself and those around you-- for days

nine million people effected by the equivalent of 32,000 small atomic bombs going off in a 40 mile stretch...that's a big deal

can you imagine this happening in the usa?  true, help would be quicker, but only by hours.  for being another country across a huge body of water, bomby's getting help there pretty darn fast

considering the scope and extent  of the damage

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it's going to be an overwhelming job


No matter how much people do it won't be enough.  This is going to be years and years of recovery.

[Anonymous]

Hillary said today it was "biblical"


let's just hope there aren't any more big aftershocks...that is a concern of mine


imagine if a third of our country was leveled in earthquakes... and half of those people in need of some kind of medical care

it wouldn't be pretty

and mericans would probably have less patience...and mericans have alot more guns than haiti has