HAITI'S OVERRUN CLINICS:WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT...!!!!

"People were dying below me"...:WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT....!!!!

An Absolutely Horrible Scene...

Rumour Spurs Haitians to Run

A rumor that clean water is being handed out causes hundreds of Haitians to run through the streets...

More bad days to come for Haiti, Bill Clinton warns

WASHINGTON-Former US president Bill Clinton warned Friday that more bad days were ahead for Haiti, as the impoverished Caribbean nation struggles to cope with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake."You may see some things in the next seven or 10 days that don't just tug at your heart strings but upset you," Clinton told Fox News, as bodies piled up in the streets of Port-au-Prince were left rotting in the tropical sun and others were carted off into mass graves."You may see a lot of very angry people, you may see some people looting, you may see some people doing and saying some things you don't like."
Machete-wielding looters were bringing more terror to the Caribbean nation already long accustomed to violence and bloodshed, as anger and frustration mounted after Haitians were left mostly fending for themselves for three days.
Clinton, the United Nations special envoy for Haiti, made a fresh appeal for donations, saying he and aid agencies "can take your 10 dollars and put it with the 10 dollars of millions of other people and immediately turn it into food, medicine shelter and clean water, and distribute it."
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First US troops heading to Haiti: Army

WASHINGTON-The first contingent of US troops will begin arriving in Haiti on Thursday, the US Army said, as the military swung into action to provide help after a devastating earthquake.
A company of about 100 soldiers from a US Army brigade were expected "some time this evening" in Haiti, spokesman Gary Tallman told AFP."They will provide humanitarian assistance and relief and security as required," he said.
The deployed soldiers were coming from the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and more forces from the 3,500-strong 2nd brigade would be heading out on Friday."Things are in motion," Tallman added. "We're getting folks there as fast as we can to provide humanitarian assistance."It was still unclear if the entire brigade would be deployed, he said....

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Red Cross website helps Haitians trace loved ones

GENEVA-Thousands of Haitians at home and abroad are trying to get in touch with each other through a website set up after the devastating earthquake, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.
About 2,000 Haitians, many in the United States and Canada, registered on the site, www.icrc.org/familylinks, within less than 24 hours of it going live, ICRC spokeswoman Anna Schaaf said. Many sought relatives in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
"They include 250 names registered by people in Haiti saying they were looking for someone there, like a brother," she said.A further 50 people in Haiti had registered to report their own well-being, but it was up to users to match names, she said.
Social media, including Facebook, played a huge role by offering links to the ICRC site, spokesman Marcal Izard said...

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MASS GRAVES IN HAITI:WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT...!!!!!

MASS GRAVES CREATED....

Google Images Show Devastation

HAITI:Thousands struggle for survival in rubble

THE United States is taking charge in earthquake-devastated Haiti as thousands of troops and tonnes of aid begin arriving in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
US President Barack Obama, responding to the first large-scale humanitarian disaster of his presidency, has pledged $US100 million to Haiti with more to come.
"I will not put up with any excuses for us not doing the very best in this time of tragedy,'' Mr Obama said.He announced that the "first waves" of the US response were in place including two search-and-rescue teams on the ground, Coast Guard cutters in the port, the US Southern Command in control of the airport and airlifts bringing in supplies and taking out the injured, the Associated Press reported.
About six ships, plus 5500 soldiers and Marines are still on their way to Haiti, which is expecting a death toll in the tens of thousands following Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude earthquake...

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Scientists warned Haiti officials of quake in '08

INDIANAPOLIS – Scientists who detected worrisome signs of growing stresses in the fault that unleashed this week's devastating earthquake in Haiti said they warned officials there two years ago that their country was ripe for a major earthquake.
Their sobering findings, presented during a geological conference in March 2008 and at meetings two months later, showed that the fault was capable of causing a 7.2-magnitude earthquake — slightly stronger than Tuesday's 7.0 quake that rocked the impoverished country.
Though Haitian officials listened intently to the research, the nearly two years between the presentation and the devastating quake was not enough time for Haiti to have done much to have prevented the massive destruction.
"It's too short of a timeframe to really do something, particularly for a country like Haiti, but even in a developed country it's very difficult to start very big operations in two years," Eric Calais, a professor of geophysics at Purdue University, said Thursday.
Their conclusions also lacked a specific timeframe that could have prodded quick action to shore up the hospitals, schools and other buildings that collapsed and crumbled, said Paul Mann, a senior research scientist at the University of Texas' Institute for Geophysics...

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Florida College Scrambles for Information on Students in Haiti

From left, Montealegre, DeMatteo, Crispinelli, Fantauzzi, Doran, Elliott, Prudhomme, Schloemer, Hayes, Gengel, Tyska and Bruno.

(Lynn University)

A Florida college says it has received word that 11 of 12 students who had been staying at a 4-star hotel in Haiti that toppled following Tuesday's devastating earthquake are safe.
Eight of those students have arrived in the Dominican Republic and 3 university staff members are in the process of meeting up with the group.
Officials at Lynn University continue to pursue "all options and avenues" to locate the remaining student and two professors.
Lynn University President Kevin Ross said the group was registered at Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, a popular tourist destination that collapsed after the magnitude-7.0 earthquake in the impoverished nation. Up to 200 guests at the hotel remained missing Wednesday, AFP reported.
Among the group visiting Haiti were Dr. Patrick Hartwick, dean of the university's College of Education, and Dr. Richard Bruno, an assistant professor with the university's College of Liberal Education. The group, which had been distributing food and visited orphanages, were scheduled to return to Florida Friday. The remaining student who accompanied Hartwick and Bruno was identified as Christine Gianacaci, of Hopewell, N.J.
Reached at her Florida home Thursday, Gianacaci's mother declined comment...

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Aid Arrives in Port-Au-Prince

HAITI IN SHAMBLES....

HAITIANS in US REACT To QUAKE

QUAKE EXPOSES GOVERNMENT FAILURE...?

Homes Toppled, Bodies Piled in Streets After Devastating Haiti Quake

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after a powerful earthquake flattened the president's palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. Officials feared thousands — perhaps more than 100,000 — may have perished but there was no firm count.
President Rene Preval said he believes thousands were killed in Tuesday afternoon's magnitude-7.0 quake, and the scope of the destruction prompted other officials to give even higher estimates. Leading Sen. Youri Latortue told The Associated Press that 500,000 could be dead, although he acknowledged that nobody really knows.
"Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed," Preval told the Miami Herald. "There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them."
Aftershocks continued to rattle the capital of 2 million people as women covered in dust clawed out of debris, wailing. Stunned people wandered the streets holding hands. Thousands gathered in public squares to sing hymns, as detailed of the extent of the suffering and devastation trickled out to the outside world...
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HAITI EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE

QUAKE VICTIMS TREATED

Israeli rescue teams depart for Haiti

Israel on Wednesday dispatched a large delegation of rescue workers to the Republic of Haiti to aid in the aftermath of the massive 7.0 earthquake that rocked the Caribbean nation a day earlier....

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France Aid On The Way

UN: Haitian capital's main jail collapsed in quake

GENEVA (AP) - The United Nations says the main prison in Haiti's battered capital of Port-au-Prince collapsed in the massive earthquake.
A U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman says the U.N. has received reports of escaped inmates.
Spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs says she had no further details...
SOURCE

Archbishop of Port-au-Prince dies in Haiti quake

PARIS – A Roman Catholic priest in France says Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, has died in the Haiti earthquake.
Father Pierre Le Beller of the Saint Jacques Missionary Center in western France says fellow missionaries in Haiti told him they found Miot's body in the ruins of the archdiocese office.
Miot was 63. Le Beller spoke to The Associated Press by phone from the Brittany town of Landivisiau.
The order of missionary priests was officially founded in 1951 by the bishop of Gonaives, Haiti. While headquartered in France, it retains a strong presence in Haiti and traces its unofficial missionary activity to 1860.
SOURCE

HAITI FACES MEDICAL CRISIS

The Devastating Haiti Earthquake: Questions and Answers

The earthquake that devastated Haiti Tuesday was the strongest temblor to hit the island nation in more than 200 years. The magnitude 7.0 quake caused tremendous damage that officials have yet to fully characterize, and the death toll may run into the thousands.
What caused the Haiti earthquake, and why was it so devastating? Here are answers to these and other questions:
What caused the earthquake?
The shaking started on Tuesday, Jan. 12, at 4:53 p.m. EST (21:53 UTC) in the Haiti region, just 10 miles (15 km) southwest of Port-au-Prince.
The Haiti earthquake occurred at a fault that runs right through Haiti and is situated along the boundary between the Caribbean and North American plates, which are rocky slabs that cover the planet and fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. These two plates constantly creep past one another, about 0.8 inches (20 mm) a year, with the Caribbean plate moving eastward with respect to the North American slab. "Twenty millimeters a year of slippage is very small, and that's not what people felt," said Carrieann Bedwell, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC).
Rather, they felt the release of energy from the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault system. "The two sides of the fault line moved past each other in an east-west direction and that's what caused the energy release and the Haiti earthquakes," Bedwell said.
The high magnitude of this quake took scientists by surprise, as this system of faults hasn't triggered a major temblor in recent decades. The fault has, however, been linked to some historical big ones in 1860, 1770, 1761, 1751, 1684, 1673 and 1618, though none of these has been confirmed in the field as associated with this fault, according to the USGS...
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Picture Left:A man gestures behind a person trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. A powerful earthquake struck Haiti on Tuesday.
(AP Photo/Jorge Cruz)

Seismologist Roger Musson: Haiti Quake Was 'The Big One'

The British Geological Survey in Edinburgh has been one of the leading geoscience research centers in the world since its founding in 1835. To understand more about the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti on Tuesday, TIME spoke with one of the survey's seismologists, Roger Musson, about the science behind the seismic event.
What sort of earthquake was this?
An earthquake is the sudden release of energy along a fault line in the earth's crust as rocks break in response to stress. There are three types and they depend on the sort of movement along the fault. This was what we call a strike-slip or transform earthquake, where one side of the fault slides horizontally past the other one....

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Oklahoma Geological Survey Picks Up Haitian Earthquake

Leonard - Equipment at the Oklahoma Geological Survey in Leonard registered the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti.
The quake was registered Tuesday at 3:53 p.m., Oklahoma time.
The earthquake caused thousands of buildings to collapse in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and Haitians were piling bodies along the streets. Untold numbers of people are trapped in tons of rubble....

SOURCE

Miami Haitians Pray for Country

Little Haiti mobilizes aid...

Haitian-Americans worry about devastated homeland

Teachers in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood used the simplest terms they could Wednesday to explain the devastating earthquake that rattled the island nation. Their words were little comfort to students like first-grader Mitchelle Monroe, who said her grandmother recently arrived from Haiti but she did not know the whereabouts of other relatives. She was among some 400 children who prayed during a solemn Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral."There was a lot of crying this morning, especially from the older ones," said the school's principal Sister Jane Stoecker. "The younger ones mostly see their parents' reactions, but the older ones know their parents are desperately trying to get in touch with family in Haiti and only about 1 percent have been able to get through."
Haitian-Americans in Miami, New York and other U.S. cities told similar stories of frantically trying to reach relatives and friends to see if they survived the largest earthquake to hit Haiti in 200 years. Communications were widely disrupted, making it impossible to get a full picture of damage and casualties as powerful aftershocks shook the desperately poor country where many buildings are flimsy.
"Everyone is in shock right now. No one can get through," said the Rev. Robes Charles, pastor of St. Clement Church in Wilton Manors. About 275,00 Haitians live in the South Florida metro area...

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Picture Left:From foreground to background, Haitian immigrants Yanique Jacques, Mare Paule and Benita Noel hold an impromptu prayer service, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, at the Haitian Tabernacle of Louisville to pray for the victims of the Haitian earthquake. They are all members of the church in Louisville, Kentucky and have family members in Haiti.
(AP Photo/Sam Upshaw Jr., The Courier-Journal)

The Starting Point: Haiti quake updates & aid effort launched

The International Federation of the Red Cross estimates that up to 3 million people have been affected by the powerful earthquake that hit Haiti yesterday, The AP reported. The magnitude 7.0 quake caused "massive destruction in all the main neighborhoods" of Port-au-Prince, damaging or destroying thousands of structures, including homes, hospitals, businesses and schools. The ornate National Palace, the U.N. headquarters and the control tower at the airport were also damaged.
Serious loss of life feared: Although information coming out of the Caribbean nation is limited, due to the fact that power and telephone lines were downed in the quake, some news has reached the outside world via cell phones and Twitter accounts. At the time of this writing, officials have released no casualty estimates, but thousands of people are feared dead.
Background: Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. On a good day, the country's leaders have a difficult time providing basic needs to its citizens. Political instability has left the country with few construction standards, and so buildings are simply not made to withstand such a natural disaster....
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Picture Left:A worker for Action Medeor relief organization packs parcels in emergency health kits in Toenisvorst, western Germany, on Wednesday Jan. 13, 2010, to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The sign reads : 'Haiti Emergency'.
(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

"MAJOR HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCY"

US sets up toll-free number for Haiti information

WASHINGTON – The State Department has set up a telephone number for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti.
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 struck the Caribbean nation Tuesday.
The toll-free number to call for information about family members in Haiti is 1-888-407-4747. The State Department advises that some callers may receive a recording because of heavy volume of calls.
Officials say the U.S. Embassy in the capital of Port-au-Prince is still in the early stages of contacting American citizens and notes that communications are difficult within Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake.
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Picture Left:This image obtained from Twitter purportedly shows Haitians standing amid rubble on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince. (AFP/Twitter)

U.S. Leads Massive Rescue Effort

Up to 3 million in need after Haitian earthquake

GENEVA – Haiti's devastating earthquake has left an estimated 3 million people in need of emergency aid, a Red Cross official said Wednesday, as aid groups and governments scrambled to send tons of disaster relief to the impoverished Caribbean nation.
Humanitarian officials said the proximity of the quake's epicenter, only 10 miles (15 kilometers) from the capital Port-au-Prince, and Haiti's crumbling infrastructure meant it was impossible to gauge how many people might be dead or wounded.
"There's probably 3 million people potentially affected," said Paul Conneally, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, basing the estimate on Haiti's population of 10 million and previous Red Cross experience in earthquake relief."Port-au-Prince has been massively impacted," Conneally said. "There are many, many people trapped in the rubble."
The neighboring Haitian cities of Carrefour and Jacmel may also be heavily damaged, said Elizabeth Byrs, a U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman.
The Red Cross said Haiti's disaster relief teams were "completely overwhelmed."
"There's no structured response at this point," spokesman Simon Schorno told The Associated Press...

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"Like the End of the World...."

Quake-stunned Haitians pile bodies by fallen homes

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after the strongest earthquake to hit the poor Caribbean nation in more than 200 years crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters. Untold numbers were still trapped.

It seemed clear that the death toll from Tuesday afternoon's magnitude-7.0 quake would run into the thousands. France's foreign minister said the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission was apparently among the dead.

International Red Cross spokesman Paul Conneally said a third of Haiti's 9 million people may need emergency aid and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge. The United Nations said the capital's main airport was "fully operational" and that relief flights would begin Wednesday....
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Massive Earthquake Hits Haiti

HAITI 7.0 MAG QUAKE:"Hell on Earth..."

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after the strongest earthquake hit the poor Caribbean nation in more than 200 years crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters. Untold numbers were still trapped.
The devastation was so complete that it seemed likely the death toll from Tuesday afternoon's magnitude-7.0 quake would run into the thousands. France's foreign minister said the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission was apparently among the dead.
International Red Cross spokesman Paul Conneally said an estimated 3 million people may have been affected by the quake and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge.
Aftershocks rattled the city of 2 million people as women covered in dust clawed out of debris, wailing. Stunned people wandered the streets holding hands. Thousands gathered in public squares singing hymns....
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