Haiti Response: Worse than Katrina?

(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

This post was written by CBS News' Peter King in Port-au-Prince

Day eight for me here was less hairy than yesterday's trip through the city. We headed out looking for food distribution points, but not even an American in a World Food Organization truck could tell me where to find one.

Just past the airport heading west was an unusual sight: a blue tank truck, dispensing water out of two pipes in the rear. You'd think that hundreds of people would be lining up but there were perhaps a dozen at a time, bringing empty bottles or simply cupping their hands and drinking that way. Several men and women put their heads under the pipe, dousing themselves with probably their first showers in days.

Above: Flies swarm pigs' feet sitting for sale at an outdoor market in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010. International aid flowing into Haiti after last week's earthquake has been struggling with logistical problems, and many people are still desperate for food and water.

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We then went to Citie Soleil, generally considered the poorest part of town – and one of the most dangerous. Today it looked like the richest. Dozens of people set up shop, selling everything from produce and big bags of rice to oil and clothing. The place was packed with sellers – and seemingly, buyers, although a lot of people were looking for handouts(and finding none). My guide and interpreter, Ricardo, tells me many of the people there were selling "hot" goods – stuff they stole during the post-earthquake looting. Commerce is alive and well in Port-au-Prince.

Next stop, Port Jeremie. I was there a couple of days ago, and it was packed with people trying to board ferries and other boats trying to get away. Maybe three or four thousand people there. Today, empty. No fuel for the boats, says Ricardo. Nobody's going anywhere.

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Finally, we visited a tent city and some neighborhoods. Everywhere, the same story: no food, no drink, sick children and no help in sight. One woman told me that a truck came by to hand out rice, but people fought hard for it and in the end, the strongest won, while the weaker people – mostly children and women – were left wanting. One man told me he'd been surviving on a diet of crackers. Others said they've had no food for three days. One man pointed to the sky, hoping for help from a greater power.

There is still no good distribution system for food, water or anything else. I'm absolutely floored by this. We're told that supplies are arriving daily. We see and hear the huge cargo planes landing, but we have no idea who's running the show, nor where all of these supplies are actually going. I may be going out on a limb here, but from what I've seen, this operation makes Brownie's FEMA response to Katrina look like a crowning achievement in emergency response. That's how bad it is.

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People here ask me for help. The best I can do, I tell them, is to tell their stories, and hope that the people who hear them are touched and respond.

[RedWings_ninety_one]

Haiti Response: Worse than Katrina?
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B.S. According to wikipedia.com, 127 nations have responded to Haiti's earthquake in some way shape or form. 98 Nations responded to Katrina, and they were mostly donations. Less than 5% of the donations were actually used though. Our own Government had a hard time responding to Katrina.

[jeangalt]

Hurricane Katrina was a terrorist attack. How can they compare the two. This pakistani muslim guy has come clean with the whole story and no one is investigating. It's all there in his book, katrina nights: Love in the time of flood and on his website katrinanightsdotcom.
Hurricane <a href="http://hurricanekatrinakaif.com">katrina</a> was a terrorist attack people. wake up.

[RedWings_ninety_one]

by jeangalt January 22, 2010 4:31 AM EST
Hurricane Katrina was a terrorist attack.
________________________________________________-
I hope you're being sarchastic, otherwise you're just an idiot. No offense.

[grannysunni]

I don't understand why the politicians such as Edwards or Gov Rendell can land at the Haiti airport, yet Doctors Without Borders and other medical teams are turned away repeatedly. Do you have to be a democratic supporter of Obama to get into Haiti? If not, what is their criteria? The response has been outrageous. They initially didn't want to air drop food for fear of injuring people so they must have assumed it was better to let them starve to death instead. A doctor this morning reported that a woman who had her leg amputated last week now has maggots crawling from the stump because of lack of medicine and clean dressings. They are out of medical supplies and medications. They are out of surgical gloves and gowns. They are out of bandages. They have no oxygen. My God, they're giving Motrin to people for amputations. Another report showed a hospital where patients had been without food and water for four days. Some of the patients laying out in the sun died from dehydration. Another report showed nursing home patients who had nothing - nobody had given them food or water. They had no diapers, some had no clothes. The food and medical supplies sit at the airport supposedly due to poor road conditions although the press seems to have no trouble driving the streets. The UN requires security to protect the aid organizations when handing out food and water yet the videos from Haiti show little if any violence. Perhaps there would be NO violence if the people weren't so desperate and starving to death. I can appreciate that the UN has security rules in place but they need to be more flexible in certain circumstances. It is shameful and unforgiveable to know and allow supplies to stockpile at the airport instead of delivering that aid to desperate, dying people.

[grannysunni]

I don't understand why the politicians such as Edwards or Gov Rendell can land at the Haiti airport, yet Doctors Without Borders and other medical teams are turned away repeatedly. Do you have to be a democratic supporter of Obama to get into Haiti? If not, what is their criteria? The response has been outrageous. They initially didn't want to air drop food for fear of injuring people so they must have assumed it was better to let them starve to death instead. A doctor this morning reported that a woman who had her leg amputated last week now has maggots crawling from the stump because of lack of medicine and clean dressings. They are out of medical supplies and medications. They are out of surgical gloves and gowns. They are out of bandages. They have no oxygen. My God, they're giving Motrin to people for amputations. Another report showed a hospital where patients had been without food and water for four days. Some of the patients laying out in the sun died from dehydration. Another report showed nursing home patients who had nothing - nobody had given them food or water. They had no diapers, some had no clothes. The food and medical supplies sit at the airport supposedly due to poor road conditions although the press seems to have no trouble driving the streets. The UN requires security to protect the aid organizations when handing out food and water yet the videos from Haiti show little if any violence. Perhaps there would be NO violence if the people weren't so desperate and starving to death. I can appreciate that the UN has security rules in place but they need to be more flexible in certain circumstances. It is shameful and unforgiveable to know and allow supplies to stockpile at the airport instead of delivering that aid to desperate, dying people.

[jeffinpa1234]

Peter King - why compare this Katrina? It is not even close to the same thing.

Mr. King - did you consider the corruption in Haiti? I think that we may be lucky to have 50% of the aid that arrives in Haiti reach the people of Haiti. Are you saying the people of LA. are equally corrupt?


The United States Government has done wonders in just 9 days since this terrible event.....if you for momemnt take time to consider that they have a blocked seaport, an airport that can't handle more than a few cessna 172's at a time and blocked roads!!!!

Mr King make yourself useful...... go unload an airplane, a ship or drive aid to some place in Haiti that needs it as you will be doing a far better thing than your journalist articles!

[writer10]

maybe not LA as a whole, but for the people STILL living in hotels on our tax dollars, living in FEMA trailers and all the billions of fraudulent claims...yes...they are just as bad if not worse.

and by the way...wasting water by 'pouring' it out of the back of a tanker as opposed to giving out fresh sealed water bottles, no food and sick people? please, supplies are arriving daily and there's no 'system' in place? yes...it's worse than Katrina by a landslide...

All Mr King is doing is reporting the conditions as they are - it's his job.

[rpbohman]

Mr. King's comparison to Katrina is spurious. This is a voluntary, multilateral relief effort in a poor but sovereign nation, with (currently) one rickety pier, a single-runway airport with room to park about 30 planes,and limited or no emergency response capability of its own. King's self-righteous indignation is sadly mis-spent...as is CBS' money on his salary.

[zoopster1]

Rickwar, you forgot a couple of things.

Haiti's main prison, which used to house over 4,000 inmates, now stands empty. God knows where they went, but if 4,000 criminals got loose all at once anywhere here they would call in the National Guard.

Also, official corruption is responsible for much of the aid that was previously sent to Haiti being stolen from the people it was intended for, and sold on the black market.

It's going to take a lot more than 12,000 US soldiers to impose law and order in a place where it never existed to begin with, and law and order are necessary in order for aid to be effectively and efficiently distributed.

Good luck and God bless everyone who is down there to help. They have their work more than cut out for them.

[pnut134]

Why not try to be a real reporter and go find out what the problem is.

[rickwar]

"There is still no good distribution system for food, water or anything else. I?m absolutely floored by this. We?re told that supplies are arriving daily. We see and hear the huge cargo planes landing, but we have no idea who?s running the show, nor where all of these supplies are actually going. I may be going out on a limb here, but from what I?ve seen, this operation makes Brownie?s FEMA response to Katrina look like a crowning achievement in emergency response. That?s how bad it is."

Of course it looks worse, simply because, IT IS.

A few salient facts instead of hyperbole press releases:

Haiti is an island.

Haiti's port is blocked or destroyed, little if any shipping cn arrive.

Haiti's airport (designed for smaller planes and limited flights) is not equipped for large air operations. It's air traffice control is inoperable. The US is supplying some equipment. It's the ONLY airport that can handle any type of load.

Virtually every road is damaged into the main town.

Logistics are working against a earlier response. Try moving food, water, medical supplies from countries all over the world, staging it so aircraft can then attempt to deliver it. Remember, ships can't.

Haiti's internal government (never very strong) is ill equipped to handle the situation. This makes travel within the city difficult as there is little control.

Air drops do not work well under low or no control issues and need supplies, food and water become bargining chips, many times not getting to those in need.

There is little or no electrical, even less construction equipment.

There is one hospital, virtually destroyed.

You can't see an earthquake coming, unlike a hurricane.

Based on what I've seen in the past I'd be willing to bet that 20 to 40 thousand were dead nearly from the start based on the construction and collapse.

Aid has been pouring into Haiti, food, water, medical, money. The main problem: you just can't get it there and that's a simple fact that has to be worked through, it has each day. 50 years ago the death toll would have been much higher and that also is a fact, no way around it.

The first statement in quotes is simply press hyperbole and pointed political finger pointing. Strip away the emotion and the solution is clear. Sadly, It takes time.

[YoureSoWrong25]

Should the people who are still waiting for help in New Orleans go down to Haiti and get in the line?