WRAP Haiti envoy, State Dept, aid preps, church service ADDS more

(13 Jan 2010) US President Barack Obama has promised an all out rescue and humanitarian effort to help the people of Haiti overcome a "cruel and incomprehensible" tragedy, the ruinous earthquake that ravaged the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Obama said on Wednesday that the relief effort is gearing up for the estimated three (m) million people affected by the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Haitian officials even feared hundreds of thousands may have perished but admitted there was no firm count.

"I have directed my administration to respond with a swift, coordinated and aggressive effort to save lives," Obama said.

Haiti''s Ambassador to the United States, also in Washington, appealed for international assistance on Wednesday.

Raymond Joseph described the earthquake as a "major catastrophe for Haiti" and appealed for "international solidarity."

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake caused thousands of buildings to collapse in Haiti''s capital, Port-au-Prince, trapping untold numbers in tons of rubble.

The International Red Cross said a third of Haiti''s 9 (m) million people may need emergency aid and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge.

Aid officials already working in Haiti are working to clear rubble from roads, build makeshift hospitals and remove bodies from the rubble despite transportation problems and broken phone lines.

A spokesman for the US Red Cross said the aid organisation had run out of medical supplies in Haiti on Wednesday.

The US Navy aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, is under way and expected to arrive off the coast of Haiti on Thursday.

Additional US Navy ships are sailing to Haiti, a statement from Southern Command said without more specifics.

General Douglas Fraser, the Southern Command Commander, said the US was assessing whether it needed to send any troops to assist the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti.

However he admitted the situation was unclear.

"I am hesitant to say exactly what the situation is on the ground," he told a news conference.

Meanwhile aid teams were flying to Haiti from across the globe.

Dozens of countries have pledged rescue teams, doctors, cash and supplies.

Britain, China and US have sent search and rescue teams on Wednesday night as the length of time in which the people might likely survive being trapped under rubble ticked away.

"We''ll be looking for live human scent. That is what our dogs are trained for," one US search and rescue dog handler, Ron Sanders, Fairfax County Search And Rescue, said before boarding a flight.

The UN''s 9,000 peacekeepers, many of whom are from Brazil, were distracted from aid efforts by their own tragedy: Many spent the night hunting for survivors in the ruins of their headquarters.

The UN humanitarian office says 115 to 200 foreign UN staff remain unaccounted for in Haiti.

The UN''s Haitian mission - spread across the country - includes 7,000 peacekeeping troops, 2,000 international police, 490 international civilian staffers, 1,200 local civilian staffers and 200 UN volunteers,

Meanwhile, Haitian-Americans gathered at St. Mary''s Cathedral in Miami, Florida for a morning Mass.

One Haitian-American said he found out through another relative that his sister was alive.

Most Haitians are desperately poor, and after years of political instability the country has no real construction standards.

In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of buildings were shoddily built and unsafe normally.

Keyword Haiti earthquake



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