Haiti Earthquake Update: Day Ten
For information on how to donate to relief organizations click here.
8:56 p.m. EST: The Associated Press is reporting that within days, the government will move 400,000 people made homeless by Haiti's epic earthquake from their squalid improvised camps throughout the shattered capital to new resettlement areas on the outskirts.
Authorities are worried about sanitation and disease outbreaks in makeshift settlements like the one on the city's central Champs de Mars plaza, said Fritz Longchamp, chief of staff to President Rene Preval.
"The Champ de Mars is no place for 1,000 or 10,000 people," Longchamp told The Associated Press. "They are going to be going to places where they will have at least some adequate facilities."
7:19 p.m. EST: 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 CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports, they're not getting out to everyone who needs them.
4:55 p.m. EST: CBS News' Arden Farhi writes about a crowd gathered around a man who was recently shot and killed in Port-au-Prince. Eyewitnesses said he had tried to mount a USAID truck that was delivering rice when a Haitian police officer shot him in kidney area.
"The men surrounding the body wore looks of nonchalance, as if a dead body by the side of the road were no cause for an adrenaline rush," Farhi said.
4:32 p.m. EST: About 200 Haitian Children can now be granted quick passage to the United States for medical procedures, according to Sen. Bill Nelson. The children are in Haiti with treatable injuries, but due to lack of supplies or specialized care would likely die.
"We must help the most vulnerable among us and that includes our neighbors in Haiti where children are in dire need right now," said Nelson, who is scheduled to travel to Haiti with some of the doctors being sent to care for earthquake victims by the Tampa-based charity Help Brings Hope for Haiti Inc.
The U.S. has a system in place for taking sick or injured children from other countries on a case-by-case basis, but it is a paperwork-intensive process that can take months. Nelson requested Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano last week ask whether doctors in the field in Haiti could be allowed to determine whether a child's case was medically compelling enough to warrant a humanitarian visa. On Thursday, Napolitano's office told Nelson the government was going forward with such a plan.
4:24 p.m. EST: "60 Minutes" Associate Producer Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson, a Haitian-American who spent her childhood in Haiti, traveled to the country following the earthquake. Read her first-person account here.
4:01 p.m. EST: CBS News Radio's Peter King writes today about unexpectedly encountering a water truck on the edge of Port-au-Prince and visiting the city's Citie Soleil neighborhood – traditionally considered one of its poorest, but now also one of its most active as people buy and sell stolen goods.
(See King's Wednesday post here.
King also takes a critical view of the international aid response to the crisis, writing, "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."
Most of the children had been previously matched with their new parents before the quake struck Port-au-Prince, but nine were to be placed in foster care as they awaited a match.
The children ranged in age from 6 months to 7 years old.
1:51 p.m. EST: The lineup of performers for Friday's "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon has been released. The fundraiser, which will be carried over multiple networks, will feature the following:
Wyclef Jean, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira and Sting will appear in New York City.
Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow will perform in Los Angeles.
Coldplay, Bono, The Edge, Jay-Z and Rihanna will perform in London.
The event will be hosted jointly by Jean, George Clooney and CNN's Anderson Cooper.
Among other celebrities lending their presence to the cause are Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and former President Bill Clinton.
1:29 p.m. EST: CBS News' Arden Farhi witnessed a Haitian police officer shoot and kill a Haitian man at a major Port-au-Prince intersection after the man tried to jump on the back of a USAID food distribution truck.
A mob had formed around the truck before it pulled away. Two men chased after it and one tried to board the vehicle as it stopped at a red light.
According to the Farhi, the victim was shot in the side.
1:16 p.m. EST: Banks still standing in Port-au-Prince will open once again this weekend, Haiti's commerce minister said Thursday.
According to Reuters, banks will restart operations Friday and Saturday and remain open Sunday to allow people to withdraw money. The surviving banks will share customers whose banks were destroyed during the massive earthquake.
Haiti's economy was in dire straits even before the quake, with 70 percent of the population living on less than $2 a day, according to the report. The International Monetary Fund is working with donors to pump money into the country to buy food for residents and pay civil servants engaged in the rescue efforts.
12:57 p.m. EST: A Russian An-124, largest plane in the world, is at Homestead Air Force Base in Miami loading a new control tower for Port-au-Prince's airport, reports CBS News correspondent David Martin. It's scheduled to arrive in Haiti at 5 p.m. EST.
12:42 p.m. EST: Two aftershocks struck Port-au-Prince Thursday, sending rescue teams scrambling and further panicking already nervous residents, reports the Associated Press.
There were no immediate reports of damage.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake that hit at 11:45 a.m. EST registered a magnitude 4.9.
"I am told that this declaration was met with silence," Ambinder told CBSNews.com.
Regardless, the former presidential candidate arrived in the earthquake-devastated country Thursday.
The former Democratic presidential candidate's political career has been crippled since he admitted to having an extra-marital affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter in August 2008.
On Thursday, another layer was added to the scandal with Edwards confirming what was long-speculated - that he fathered Hunter's daughter.
11:36 a.m. EST: British music and television mogul Simon Cowell is planning to release a charity single to benefit the victims of Haiti's earthquake within 10 days.
The "American Idol" judge said he was asked to help with the relief effort by U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who promised to exempt the single from sales tax, according to the Associated Press.
There's no word on who might lend their voice to the song, but British singers Susan Boyle, Leona Lewis and Cheryl Cole may be involved, Cowell said.
"I don't know who's available, but I will get a record out within seven to 10 days," Cowell said.
11:20 a.m. EST: In a speech on Internet freedom, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took time to address how important communication technology is to helping Haiti deal with a "tragedy of staggering proportions."
Clinton said that $27 million has been raised so far through text message donations.
And while Haiti's already scant communications infrastructure was crippled during the quake, technology has helped a few miracles come to fruition.
Clinton cited a story of a girl and two women being found amid the rubble of a supermarket after the girl sent a text message that alerted authorities to their location.
And earlier this week, NBC's "Today Show" reported on the rescue of Dan Woolley, a worker for Compassion International, who used an iPhone first-aid app to help treat a fractured leg and a cut on his head.
Woolley, who was trapped in an elevator shaft at the Hotel Montana, learned how to make a bandage and tourniquet for his wounds. The application also advised him not to fall asleep if he felt he was going into shock, so he set his iPhone alarm to go off every 20 minutes.
10:55 a.m. EST: Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, the U.S SouthCom commander overseeing the military aid mission to Haiti, said the security situation remains "calm" and "stable" during a news conference in Miami Thursday. Here are some other key highlights:
• Roughly 3 million people are estimated to be impacted
• The Port-au-Prince airport now supports 120 to 140 flights a day and has received over 840 flights since it opened (They have had to reduce the number of slots per day because too many flights were being diverted). There are more than 1,400 flights on a waiting list.
• Three other airports are open: San Ysidro, Maria Montez, and Jacmel
• Twenty ships are in the area, including the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, an amphibious readiness group, Coast Guard cutters and the hospital ship USNS Comfort
• There are 63 helicopters in the region
• The military has distributed 1.4 million bottles of water, more than 700,000 meals and roughly 22,000 pounds of medical supplies.
• Starting Thursday, the port has the capability to move roughly 150 containers per day through it; the port's capacity will grow to 250 containers per day tomorrow and 800 containers per day by the middle of February.
• To date, the U.S. has spent roughly $100 million on the relief effort
• There are 2,676 US military personnel on the ground in Haiti now; expect to have 4,600 personnel on the ground by the weekend
• 10,445 military personnel afloat in the area
10:15 a.m. EST: A senior U.S. official tells CNN aid to Haiti is arriving much faster, with up to 100 flights coming into the country daily. The official, however, admitted, medical supplies were not reaching doctors fast enough and that aid workers were not always sure what the planes contained.
9:34 a.m. EST: International Rescue Committee's Gerald Martone talks with CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook about the immediate health challenges facing survivors of Haiti's earthquake and how best to help the quake-ravaged country recover.:
9:28 a.m. EDT: CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton reports from Port-au-Prince on the USNS Comfort, the floating Navy hospital designed to treat up to 1,000 patients at a time:
7:48 a.m. EDT: CBS News investigative producer Len Tepper reports there are now 38 confirmed American fatalities in Haiti, with the recovery of two more bodies from the Hotel Montana on Wednesday, according to official sources.
5:54 a.m. EDT: Adoption advocacy groups are reporting dozens of calls a day from Americans expressing interest in adopting children who have been left orphans by the quake. "The agencies are being flooded with phone calls and e-mails," said Tom Difilipo, president and CEO of the advocacy group Joint Council on International Children's Services. "The response is 'Can we help with these children by adopting them?"' The need is vast. Even before last Tuesday's deadly magnitude-7.0 earthquake, Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries, had 380,000 orphans, according to UNICEF. There is no counting children newly orphaned by the quake, but aid groups estimate the number in tens of thousands.
UNICEF cautioned in a press release earlier this week, however, that the dramatic circumstances created by the quake could encourage hopeful foster parents and relevant agencies to try and bypass usual pre-adoption checks.
"Screening for international adoption for some Haitian children had been completed prior to the earthquake. Where this is the case, there are clear benefits to speeding up their travel to their new homes," said the release.
"UNICEF joins with the Committee on the Rights of the Child, International Social Service and other concerned groups in calling on all those involved in relief efforts to ensure that they act in the best interests of children."
5:40 a.m. EDT: The U.S. has started preparing tents at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay for Haitian migrants in case of a mass exodus by earthquake survivors. A senior official says about 100 tents are up, with another 1,000 on hand in case waves of Haitians set out and are captured at sea. Rear Adm. Thomas Copeman says cots have been rounded up and latrine facilities are being tested. He commands the task force running the U.S. detention center that holds nearly 200 terrorism suspects. Any Haitian migrants would be held some 2 miles away from the detention center. (Source: AP)
From Wednesday Night: Our team of correspondents in the field continued to deliver stirring images and stories from the aftermath of the Haiti quake for the "CBS Evening News":
Dr. Jennifer Ashton reported from on board the USNS Comfort the hospital ship with 1,000 beds and eight operating rooms that reached Haiti yesterday. Everywhere on board, medical teams asked Ashton about conditions on the ground and the clinic where she's been working this week.
And Harry Smith reports on life inside a tent city for survivors. "There's a kind of commerce, a sense that life is going on somehow," he writes. "The people here have such resilience and pride. In the middle of this makeshift camp, a woman is doing her laundry clearly. And she is ironing a pair of pants."