PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Desperately needed aid started trickling into earthquake-ravaged Haiti yesterday — but heavy damage to roads and the seaport severely hampered getting it into the hands of survivors, leaving them to fend for themselves as the stench of death hung over this devastated city.
“It’s chaos,” UN humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said of the efforts to get aid to those who need it. “It’s a logistical nightmare.”
The massive earthquake left the already-weak Haitian government in total disarray, creating a power vacuum in which survivors were left on their own in a hellish moonscape, digging for survivors with their bare hands as rotting corpses piled up in the streets beneath the tropical sun.
VIDEO: HAITI DEVASTATED, NEW YORKERS CONCERNED
PHOTOS: 7.0 EARTHQUAKE ROCKS HAITI
HAITI MIRACLE FOR A WORRIED B’KLYN FATHER
BIG BIZ OPENS HEARTS & WALLETS FOR HAITI
HAITIAN-AMERICAN: MY PROUD HOMELAND WILL ARISE
VIDEO: BODIES PILE UP IN PORT-AU-PRINCE
VIDEO: WYCLEF RINGS QUAKE ALARM
PHOTOS: AERIAL VIEWS OF HAITI DESTRUCTION
“Look at us. Who is helping us?” asked Jean Malesta, a 19-year-old student who sat in a tent camp across the street from the destroyed presidential palace. “We need food, water, but we are on our own.”
An estimated 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in the 7.0-magnitude quake, the Red Cross said after reviewing government figures and conferring with Haitian aid workers.
Nearly 1,500 bodies lay outside the city’s morgue, and Haitian President Rene Preval said 7,000 people had already been buried in mass graves as officials battled the onset of disease among survivors. The supply of body bags had run out.
Bodies were also seen stacked on street corners, seemingly abandoned like trash.
The international community had begun pouring in food, water, medicine and heavy equipment, but in many cases, the shipments were not reaching survivors due to the widespread damage that has left the city’s port and communications systems inoperable and roads impassable.
The only way in or out was the airport, which struggled to handle the load of aid flights streaming in from all over the world.
“Donations are coming in to the airport here, but there is not yet a system to get it in,” said Kate Conradt, of Save the Children. “It’s necessary to create a structure to stock and distribute supplies.”
Several US Coast Guard cutter ships had already arrived yesterday, and naval ships — including an aircraft carrier and a floating hospital — were on their way.
But the Coast Guard also said the seaport at Port-au-Prince had extensive damage, with cranes either submerged or on their sides.
President Obama said that the United States was sending 5,700 military personnel and hundreds of doctors to help and that he had set aside $100 million in aid.
“This is one of those moments that calls for American leadership,” Obama said. “At this very moment, one of the largest relief efforts in our recent history is moving towards Haiti.
“To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction, you will not be forsaken. You will not be forgotten. In this, your greatest hour of need, America stands with you. The world stands with you.”
The rescue effort is Herculean in scope. Officials believe that as many as 3 million Haitians have been directly affected by the devastation. But much of the influx of supplies has yet to reach survivors, many of whom have been left homeless, and patience was wearing thin.
“People have been almost fighting for water,” said aid worker Fevil Dubien who was handing out bottles from a truck in Port-au-Prince.
Relatives continued to dig for loved ones beneath collapsed houses, but there were few happy reunions.
“I felt that I would live. I wasn’t scared,” a 15-year-old girl named Bea told CNN after being pulled from debris after 18 hours. “People were dying below me. I could hear them, but I wasn’t scared. I knew that I would live. My heart didn’t skip a bit.”
There has been little sign of a coordinating authority since Tuesday’s quake.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama had tried twice to get through to President Preval, but was unsuccessful.
The families of two NYU grad students who were reported missing in the quake breathed a sigh of relief yesterday after it was announced both were safe. The university said they were en route to the United States.
The news wasn’t as good for the relatives of three students of Florida’s Lynn College. Stephanie Crispinelli, of Katonah, NY, Courtney Hayes, of Boca Raton, Fla., and Britney Gengel, of Rutland, Mass., were initially believed to be safe, but it was later revealed they were still missing.
The school blamed “bad intelligence” received from a private contractor. With Post Wire Services