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Source: Reuters -
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Desperate Haitians set up roadblocks with corpses in
Port-au-Prince on Friday to demand quicker relief efforts after a
massive earthquake killed tens of thousands and left countless
others homeless.
Angry survivors staged the protest as international aid began
arriving in the Haitian capital to help a nation traumatised by
Wednesday's catastrophic earthquake that flattened homes and
government buildings.
More than 48 hours after the disaster, tens of thousands of people
clamoured for food and water and help digging out relatives still
missing under the rubble.
Shaul Schwarz, a photographer for TIME magazine, said he saw at
least two downtown roadblocks formed with bodies of earthquake
victims and rocks.
"They are starting to block the roads with bodies. It's getting
ugly out there. People are fed up with getting no help," he told
Reuters.
The Haitian Red Cross said it believed 45,000 to 50,000 people had
died and 3 million more - one third of Haiti's population - were
hurt or left homeless by the major 7.0 magnitude quake that hit its
impoverished capital on Wednesday.
The quake flattened buildings across entire hillsides and many
people were still trapped alive in the rubble after two days, with
little sign of organised rescue efforts.
"We have already buried 7,000 in a mass grave," President Rene
Preval said.
Planes full of supplies arrived at Port-au-Prince airport faster
than crews could unload them and aviation authorities were
restricting non-emergency flights.
The influx of aid had yet to reach shellshocked Haitians who
wandered the broken streets of Port-au-Prince, searching
desperately for water, food and medical help.
Relief workers warned the death toll will rise quickly if tens of
thousands of injured Haitians, many with broken bones and serious
loss of blood, do not get first aid in the next day or so.
"The next 24 hours will be critical," said US Coast Guard officer
Paul Cormier, 54, a qualified emergency worker who runs an
orphanage in Haiti and has triaged 300 people since Tuesday's
disaster.
Obama: "World stands with you"
Looters swarmed a collapsed supermarket in the Delmas area of
Port-au-Prince, carrying out electronics and bags of rice
unchallenged. Others siphoned gasoline from a wrecked tanker.
"All the policemen are busy rescuing and burying their own
families," said tile factory owner Manuel Deheusch. "They don't
have the time to patrol the streets."
Doctors in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,
were ill-equipped to treat the injured.
The United States was sending 3,500 soldiers, 300 medical
personnel, several ships and 2,200 Marines. Canadian military ships
with 500 personnel were on the way and a disaster aid team had
already arrived.
"To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction, you
will not be forsaken. ... America stands with you. The world stands
with you," President Barack Obama said.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Haiti had suffered a
tragedy beyond imagination and "must become the centre of our
world's attention, the world's compassion and the world's
humanitarian help."
The United States pledged long-term help for the crippled Haitian
government. Parliament, the national palace and many government
ministry buildings collapsed and it was unclear how many lawmakers
survived.
The main prison also fell, allowing dangerous criminals to
escape.
Makeshift tents were strung everywhere and Haitians at one informal
camp approached a journalist shouting "water, water" in a multitude
of languages.
"Please do anything you can, these people have no water, no food,
no medicine, nobody is helping us," said Valery Louis, who
organised one of the camps.
From time to time, aftershocks still shook the wrecked city,
sending panicked people running away from buildings.
The quake's epicenter was only 16 km from Port-au-Prince, a
sprawling and densely packed city of 4 million people in a nation
dogged by poverty, catastrophic natural disasters and political
instability.
Piled bodies
Bodies lay all around the hilly city, and people covered their
noses with cloth to try to block the stench. Corpses were delivered
by the pickup truck load to the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince,
where hospital director Guy LaRoche estimated the bodies piled
outside the morgue numbered 1,500.
The Haitian Red Cross had run out of body bags and the
International Committee of the Red Cross was sending more.
Haitians clawed at chunks of concrete with bare hands and
sledgehammers, trying to free those buried alive.
A 35-year-old Estonian, Tarmo Joveer, was freed from the rubble of
the United Nations' five-story headquarters early Thursday, and
told journalists he was fine.
The UN said at least 36 members of its 9,000-strong peacekeeping
mission had been killed and scores were still missing. Brazil said
14 of its soldiers were among the dead.
Fourteen guests and workers were pulled alive on Friday from the
landmark Montana Hotel, which was largely flattened. Chilean Army
Major Rodrigo Vazquez, who was directing the rescue at that site,
said "We estimate 70 more inside. ... This is devastating."
Nations around the world pitched in to send rescue teams with
search dogs and heavy equipment, helicopters, tents, water
purification units, food, doctors and telecoms teams.
Aid distribution was hampered because roads were blocked by rubble
and smashed cars and normal communications were cut off. Relief
agencies' offices were damaged and their staff dead or missing. The
port was too badly damaged to handle cargo.
UN peacekeepers seemed overwhelmed by the enormity of the recovery
task ahead.
Many hospitals were too battered to use, and doctors struggled to
treat crushed limbs, head wounds and broken bones at makeshift
facilities where medical supplies were scarce.
Several nations sent mobile hospitals, surgeons and even
psychologists to help traumatised Haitians.
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