January 21, 2010 9:18 PM
- Text
Little Aid, But Signs of Hope in Haiti
(CBS)
Haiti was rocked again today by two more powerful aftershocks. There have now been more than 50 measuring 4.5 or above since the earthquake 9 days ago. Port-au-Prince still resembles a war zone. Half a million people are now living in makeshift camps, with little food or water.
Some clinics say patients face a 12-day wait for care. There's a huge backlog at the airport, as well, with 1,400 flights on a waiting list for landing slots. Supplies are coming in to the capital, but as CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports, they're not getting out to everyone who needs them.
Complete Coverage: Devastation in Haiti
Haiti Quake: How You can Help
Call it ironic, call it sad, but as more supplies and troops arrived at the Port-au-Prince airport, hungry Haitians watched and wondered why there's so much aid behind the walls and so little out.
"We don't have food, we don't have water," said one observer, Simon Alexander. "It doesn't make sense."
But in this sea of misery, there is a trickle of aid and hope flowing. In the hard-hit village of Mire Balais, 17 miles north of the capital, an air drop was like manna from heaven - delivering more than 69,000 pounds of water and food.
At the port, the first relief ships to dock since the quake. But even good deeds can go awry. One man was shot by police stealing rice from a relief truck.
But with the shock of disaster wearing off, signs of normalcy are sprouting up. The biggest market in all of Haiti was deserted right after the earthquake. In the last couple of days it's starting to spring back to life.
Meager and unsanitary - but life. Still the pace of returning normalcy is too slow for some people. There were long lines at the immigration office, open again for the first time today and filled with people getting passports to get out of Haiti.
There were long lines to board buses out of town.
There were long lines at money exchanges too. One woman got money from her daughter in New York. A man waited eight hours only to learn money from his wife in Montreal for him and his daughter had not arrived.
Thomas Junior Bernavil said he didn't know what to do, after money failed to arrive.
"I just don't know. Seriously it's like that was my only hope to survive right now,," he said.
Still, Haitians are masters of improvisation. A broken water main becomes a public fountain and bath. The water is dirty, but it's all they have until more aid comes from behind the airport wall.
U.S. Government Figures on Haiti effort, Jan. 21, 2010
8,045 Americans have departed Haiti
9,000 Americans have been accounted for
39 confirmed American fatalities
375 orphans "have been cleared" to depart
230 patients already treated on the USNS Comfort
140 flights scheduled for Jan. 21
Commodity Flow:
1.1 million liters of water delivered to 85 locations
43,000 hand-crank radios have arrived; distribution begins today
Funding:
as of Jan. 20, U.S. AID has contributed $164 million in earthquake response funding
$26 million collected from the 'haiti' 90999 texting drive
Search and Rescue:
122 persons rescued; U.S. teams rescued 43 of the 122
Some clinics say patients face a 12-day wait for care. There's a huge backlog at the airport, as well, with 1,400 flights on a waiting list for landing slots. Supplies are coming in to the capital, but as CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports, they're not getting out to everyone who needs them.
Complete Coverage: Devastation in Haiti
Haiti Quake: How You can Help
Call it ironic, call it sad, but as more supplies and troops arrived at the Port-au-Prince airport, hungry Haitians watched and wondered why there's so much aid behind the walls and so little out.
"We don't have food, we don't have water," said one observer, Simon Alexander. "It doesn't make sense."
But in this sea of misery, there is a trickle of aid and hope flowing. In the hard-hit village of Mire Balais, 17 miles north of the capital, an air drop was like manna from heaven - delivering more than 69,000 pounds of water and food.
At the port, the first relief ships to dock since the quake. But even good deeds can go awry. One man was shot by police stealing rice from a relief truck.
But with the shock of disaster wearing off, signs of normalcy are sprouting up. The biggest market in all of Haiti was deserted right after the earthquake. In the last couple of days it's starting to spring back to life.
Meager and unsanitary - but life. Still the pace of returning normalcy is too slow for some people. There were long lines at the immigration office, open again for the first time today and filled with people getting passports to get out of Haiti.
There were long lines to board buses out of town.
There were long lines at money exchanges too. One woman got money from her daughter in New York. A man waited eight hours only to learn money from his wife in Montreal for him and his daughter had not arrived.
Thomas Junior Bernavil said he didn't know what to do, after money failed to arrive.
"I just don't know. Seriously it's like that was my only hope to survive right now,," he said.
Still, Haitians are masters of improvisation. A broken water main becomes a public fountain and bath. The water is dirty, but it's all they have until more aid comes from behind the airport wall.
U.S. Government Figures on Haiti effort, Jan. 21, 2010
Commodity Flow:
Funding:
Search and Rescue:
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