The long road to Haiti

It has been five days since the devastating quake hit Haiti, and aid is barely beginning to trickle into the stricken country.

It has been five days since the devastating quake hit Haiti, and aid is barely beginning to trickle into the stricken country. With the damaged airport and roads, cargo planes full of supplies are being turned away with no place for them to land. Most aid is being funneled through the Dominican Republic, where it is at least another 24 hours before supplies can reach Haiti by truck.

The biggest need right now is for clean water. The potential for disease is high with bodies still trapped beneath the rubble and corpses rotting in the streets. Bodies are being piled onto trucks to be taken to mass graves outside the city, but the devastation is simply overwhelming. Getting that aid to survivors is another challenge.

UN patrols guarded hundred of trucks bringing in supplies today, where the streets are clogged. There are literally hundreds of thousands of Haitians waiting for help in makeshift camps that have been set up on the streets, which are littered with decomposing bodies and debris. And the bodies are not only those of the victims, but also of looters who have been shot or lynched by desperate Haitians waiting for help.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was in the Haitian capital on Sunday, said, “I sincerely appeal to the Haitian people to be more patient.”

In news eTurboNews received from Cape Town journalist Anne Taylor, it was learned that Gift of the Givers, a South African NGO, which is well known for providing material in emergencies, like the Christmas tsunami, has sent help in the form of equipment, compact hospitals, and specialists, both human and canine.

Ex-president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who has lived in exile in South Africa since he was ousted, said at a press conference that he wishes to return to his homeland to help.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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