‘She’s alive!’ Haitian girl saved after 15 days

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – – “She has her whole life ahead of her,” exclaimed an emotional rescuer after 16-year-old Darlene Etienne was dragged from the wreckage of Haiti’s quake after 15 days buried alive.

A French search team pulled the desperately dehydrated girl from a collapsed building in the Carrefour-Feuilles district of Port-au-Prince after neighbours searching in the debris heard a faint voice in the rubble. Related article:Almost half haiti’s injured may be children

Dazed rescuers spoke of a miracle as they rested at the field hospital in the capital’s Lycee Francais where Etienne was taken for emergency treatment after being slowly extracted from the ruins on a stretcher.

“She just said ‘thank you,’ she’s very weak, which suggests that she’s been there for 15 days,” rescue team spokesman Commander Samuel Bernes told AFP.

“She was in a pocket surrounded by concrete, completely dehydrated,” he added.

“She was treated on the spot, she wasn’t able to get out alone.”

No one was expecting any more miracles after more than 130 people had already been pulled alive from the ruins in Port-au-Prince since the 7.0-magnitude quake, which devastated much of the capital and killed nearly 170,000 people. Related article: Haiti’s child slaves set to swell after quake

Haitian authorities officially called off search and rescue efforts on Friday, saying they wanted foreign aid workers to concentrate on recovery.

Then the French team heard from Etienne’s neighbours.

They had partly dug the girl out after they heard her cries, then called the French rescue team to finish the job safely. They had to do relatively little digging to free her, rescuers said.

“When we got there we could only see her scalp. I made the hole bigger, I talked to her. We rehydrated her intravenously and in three quarters of an hour, she was free,” said Claude Fuilla, the chief medic with the French civil defence team working in Haiti.

“We don’t know if she had water while she was buried. She spoke with great difficulty,” he said.

Etienne joins a tiny but extraordinary group of survivors who held out for more than 10 days.

US troops on Tuesday rescued a 31-year-old man, although he may have been buried by a building that collapsed after the earthquake. The troops said he had been trapped for 12 days.

On Saturday, search teams pulled a 25-year-old man out alive after 11 days under the rubble. He had been trapped in a grocer’s shop and was able to grab a small amount of food and drink to keep himself alive.

After Wednesday’s rescue, Etienne was treated at the scene for dehydration and a weak pulse, and then after the field hospital she was taken to the French navy ship Siroco which anchored off the coast on Sunday.

Colonel Michel Orcel, a doctor at the field hospital, said the girl was “happy” following her rescue.

“She is 16 years old, she is alive and she has her whole life ahead of her. She was speaking, she said that she was happy,” Orcel said. “She was worried about her friends but we weren’t able to answer all her questions.”

He added: “She is in a very advanced state of dehydration. For the moment we have to calm her, tranquilise her, stabilise her. She is very thin and has arterial tension.

“She has undergone a debilitating ordeal. Her return to life must be done progressively but she doesn’t have any injuries that would worry us, subject to further investigations,” he said.

Hopes of finding more survivors are now fading by the day, especially as Haiti has been rattled by dozens of aftershocks following the initial quake.

Experts say each powerful new tremor diminishes remaining hopes for people buried in rubble, who risk being crushed by masonry dislodged by the new tremors.

Cases of trapped survivors holding out for a week after an earthquake are considered extraordinary, while surviving beyond 10 days is extremely rare.

But the rescue teams are not giving up.

“Surviving for more than two weeks, it’s difficult but apparently it’s possible,” said Sebastien Caussade, another doctor who was waiting at the young girl’s beside before the helicopter took her to the hospital ship.

Source: AFP.com

(UPDATE) 4th Filipino found dead in Haiti

MANILA, Philippines – The body of the last missing Filipino peacekeeper in Haiti has been found, the Philippine military said on Thursday, bringing the total Philippine fatalities in the devastating earthquake that hit the country last week to 4.

Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, spokesperson of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said the body of Air Force Sgt. Janice Arocena was pulled from under the Hotel Christopher at 1:40 p.m. Wednesday (Manila time).

Brawner said the military relayed the sad news to Arocena’s family Wednesday night.

Arocena is the 4th Filipino fatality in the Caribbean nation which was hit by a devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake on January 12.

The bodies of her fellow peacekeepers, Army Sgt. Eustacio Bermudez and Navy Petty Officer 3 Pearlie Panangui, and United Nations staff member Jerome Yap were recovered from the same collapsed hotel.

The Hotel Christopher served as the headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Port-au-Prince.

Two other Filipinos, Geraldine “Maggie” Lalican and Grace Fabian, were still trapped under the collapsed Caribbean supermarket in Haiti’s capital.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) had announced that 173 overseas Filipino workers have been confirmed safe. It also said that there are at least 290 Filipino community members in Haiti.

The number does not include the 172 members of the Philippine peacekeeping force.

Rescue ops at supermarket stopped?

Brawner, meanwhile, admitted that the Philippine military has received a report that the search and rescue operations at the collapsed Caribbean supermarket have been halted.

“We are trying to verify that information. We also received the same information,” the military spokesperson said.

He assured the families of Lalican and Fabian that Filipino peacekeepers involved in the search and rescue operations “will not rest until they see the two other Filipinos trapped at the Caribbean supermarket.”

Meanwhile, Brawner said the Philippine government is now negotiating for the repatriation of the bodies of the Yap and the 3 peacekeepers.

He said they are asking the United Nations to have some of their helicopters take the bodies out of Haiti. He said they are looking at several countries, including Cuba or the United States, where the bodies could be transported.

Brawner, meanwhile, admitted that the repatriation might take some time because there were still no incoming commercial flights to Port-au-Prince. – With a report from ANC

100 Pinoys found safe in Haiti

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos and other foreigners in various sections of Port-au-Prince, Haiti have been reached by rescue and relief authorities, and given relief assistance, the Department of Foreign Affairs said last night, citing reports from the peacekeeping force.

In his latest situation report, 10th Philippine Contingent commander Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy said that an initial census of Filipinos in the Delmas district was conducted. Some 100 Filipinos were identified and found to be safe, including two nuns with the ICM Sisters of Haiti.

Delmas is a district in Ouest Department of Port-au-Prince, where a sizeable number of Filipinos reside. The list was drawn from three areas: Delmas 31, Delmas 41 and Delmas 56.

Last Saturday, community members were given rice, sugar, oatmeal and coffee. The relief team composed of UN peacekeepers was guided by Alan Martinez, treasurer of the Filipino community in Haiti.

The team was also able to reach Friday afternoon the group of Fely Tan (Chan) and Henry Reobuya, who earlier requested assistance due to peace and order concerns in their area.

Philippine Honorary Consul in Haiti Fitzgerald Brandt is helping coordinate efforts in responding to the needs of community members.

Meanwhile, efforts are ongoing to rescue Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican, who remain trapped under the rubble of the Caribbean Supermarket in Port-au-Prince.

A 40-person rescue team from the United States is at the collapsed four-story Caribbean Market and is helping in search and rescue efforts.

The Philippine Peacekeeping Contingent requested the US military attaché’s office in Haiti to send the team.

The leader of the rescue team informed the Philippine contingent that they heard tapping and other signs of life beneath the rubble.

Eighteen bodies have been retrieved from the collapsed headquarters of the Mission des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en Haiti (MINUSTAH),

including the remains of Mission Head Hedi Annabi, his deputy Luis Carlos, and Chinese Ambassador to Haiti Shulin Wang.

Extensive efforts to rescue other officials, personnel and affiliated individuals who are still unaccounted, including Filipino UN peacekeepers Sergeants Eustacio Bermudez, Pearly Panangui and Janice Arocena and Filipino UN civilian staff member Jerome Yap, continue.

The Filipino community members in the Delmar district who were found to be in good health and safe condtion are:

1. MARIFLOR TUIBEO

2. NELSON LARDIZABAL

3. JOCELYN ORTIZ

4. PAUL WILLIAM USANA

5. RAMIL MACALINO

6. MELANIE M VILLAMIN

7. FRANK REPIZO

8. MARIA LUCIA REPIZO

9. KELLY MAY REPIZO

10. KYLE KENNETTE REPIZO

11. BRENDA TAMBO

12. DENNIS TAPAT

13. JONATHAN VILLA

14. LELAINE M VILLA

15. JONNA LEIGH VILLA

16. JOHN LLOYO VILLA

17. MORETO CASUYON

18. ADELINA MANALANSANG

19. BERWYN MANALANSANG

20. DANICA MANALANSANG

21. WENDYL MANALANSANG

22. ELINA A FELIPE

23. JOHNNY J CABE

24. GIL MERU

25. PATRICK GECANGAO

26. JOEL BRISTOL

27. DOMINADOR TIRU

28. NELSON BLANCO

29. ZOSIMO MELO

30. ANDY FRIAS

31. ALBINO VILLALBA

32. JOSELITO MANIULIT

33. DANTE REBANAL

34. ARNEL CARIAGA

35. RUBEN MARTINEZ

36. VENER MANING

37. ROBERTO CUNANAN

38. ARNEL BARRERA

39. CHRISTIAN DE ROXAS

40. RICKSON DAPASIN

41. FREDDIE DE ROXAS

42. SONNY MANING

43. SANDY MANING

44. RONIL MANING

45. RENATO PERA

46. RENE JORDAN

47. REY JORDAN

48. JOSEPH ALAMA

49. ZARINA FLOR

50. MOISES

51. ANGELITA AGUINALDO

52. RYZA BAGADIONG

53. JOAN SESPENE

54. CORAZON OBNIAL

55. RENATO BAGADIONG

56. RENELYN DE VERA

57. FERDINAND DE VERA

58. RIZALINO RAMIREZ

59. ALLZANA RAMIREZ

60. LOURDES CABALHIN

61. MANOLITO CABALHIN

62. DENNIS CABALHIN

63. AURORA AGUINALDO MEHLBAUM

64. ELENITA GRANADA

65. MA SANRIO GRANADA

66. JULIANE DEL ROSARIO

67. JOAQUIN TENA

68. OSCAR MENDOZA

69. MARY GRACE JOY GENARO

70. RICHARD PASAHOL

71. ISRAEL PASAHOL

72. LILIBETH MENDOZA

73. PRICILLA AGUINALDO

74. LEAH TABIGAY

75. ROSALYN FABIAN

76. SHERWIN MAGNO

77. FE LABALANDO

78. REMY VILLERO

79. ARIES MENDOZA

80. AGRIPINO CORNEJO

81. JOVEN CRUZ

82. BOY DURAN

83. PHILIP BENITEZ

84. MARICEL BENITEZ

85. JETRO BENITEZ

86. JANA BENITEZ

87. LILY SONICO

88. AURORA FERNANDEZ

89. FRANKIE BAGADIONG

90. DOLOR BAGADIONG

91. VAL BAGADIONG

92. ARIEL BAGADIONG

93. SHIELA DUBIOS

94. HENRY REOBUYA

95. LUCY TRINIDAD

96. FELY TAN

97. JUN BACURIN

98. DONNA BACURIN

99. SISTER HERMIE

100. SISTER INDEN

Hunger, hope, thirst and frenzy grip Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Precious water, food and early glimmers of hope began reaching parched and hungry earthquake survivors Saturday on the streets of this shattered city, where despair at times turned into a frenzy among the ruins.

“People are so desperate for food that they are going crazy,” said accountant Henry Ounche, in a crowd of hundreds who fought one another as US military helicopters clattered overhead carrying aid.

When other Navy choppers dropped rations and Gatorade into a soccer stadium thronged with refugees, 200 youths began brawling, throwing stones, to get at the supplies.

Across the hilly, steamy city, where people choked on the stench of death, hope faded by the hour for finding many more victims alive in the rubble, four days after Tuesday’s catastrophic earthquake.

Still, here and there, the murmur of buried victims spurred rescue crews on, even as aftershocks threatened to finish off crumbling buildings.

“No one’s alive in there,” a woman sobbed outside the wrecked Montana Hotel. But hope wouldn’t die. “We can hear a survivor,” search crew chief Alexander Luque of Namibia later reported. His men dug on.

Elsewhere, an American team pulled a woman alive from a collapsed university building where she had been trapped for 97 hours. Another crew got water to three survivors whose shouts could be heard deep in the ruins of a multistory supermarket that pancaked on top of them.

Nobody knew how many were dead. Haiti’s government alone has already recovered 20,000 bodies – not counting those recovered by independent agencies or relatives themselves, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told The Associated Press.

In a fresh estimate, the Pan American Health Organization said 50,000 to 100,000 people perished in the quake but Bellerive said 100,000 would “seem to be the minimum.”

Truckloads of corpses were being trundled to mass graves.

A UN humanitarian spokeswoman declared the quake the worst disaster the international organization has ever faced, since so much government and UN capacity in the country was demolished. In that way, Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva, it’s worse than the cataclysmic Asian tsunami of 2004: “Everything is damaged.”

Also Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton flew to Port-au-Prince to pledge more American assistance and said the US would be “as responsive as we need to be.”

President Obama met with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and urged Americans to donate to Haiti relief efforts.

As the day wore on, search teams recovered the body of Tunisian diplomat Hedi Annabi, the United Nations chief of mission in Haiti, and other top UN officials who were killed when their headquarters collapsed. – Rainier Allan Ronda, AP – (Philstar News Service, http://www.philstar.com)

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/star/20100117/tph-100-pinoys-found-safe-haiti-quake-541dfb4.html

Palawan safest, no earthquake faults

RP Fault Zone one of world’s longest at 1,200 km

By Alcuin Papa
Philippine Daily Inquirer

APART from the profusion of spectacular landscapes and seascapes that has made it the favorite of many travelers, it would seem that the paradise island of Palawan also offers the safest haven for those fearful of a Haiti-like tremor occurring in the country.

Compared to other parts of the Philippines, Palawan is “relatively stable” geologically, according to Mahar Lagmay, a professor of the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences (UP-NIGS).

“There are hardly any earthquakes in Palawan and certainly none strong enough to cause major damage. The whole island is probably the most stable area of land in the country,” Lagmay said.

An expert on earthquake faults, Lagmay has constructed a map of earthquake epicenters which he plotted using information from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from 1929 to 2009.

Lagmay said there were hardly any active faults under the island compared to the rest of the country. (A fault or fault line is a fracture in the rock within the earth’s crust that is the causal location of most earthquakes.)

Continental, not oceanic, rock

While Palawan does have fault lines, these are “old” and experts are still debating whether these fault lines are active or not, Lagmay said.

For instance, there is an ongoing and heated debate on whether the Ulugan Bay fault near the famed Palawan Underground River is active, Lagmay said.

Lagmay believes Palawan is stable largely because the island was once part of continental Asia which separated around 100 million years ago and drifted toward the Philippines.

“The rock of the island is continental and different from other parts of the country, which is made of oceanic rock,” he said.

Hence, the crust of the island is thicker at 30 kilometers, compared to the oceanic rock’s 12 km, having derived from the Pacific seabed.

“The crust of the island is thicker and older and, therefore, not as prone to earthquakes,” said Lagmay.

No major faults

The island is also not bordered by any major trench or fault line, he said.

“The South China Sea area is more stable tectonically. Combined with the continental material, there is little chance for the development of active faults in Palawan,” he said.

Also, the movement of the ground in the South China Sea is not as fast as the eastern side of Luzon, which is moving toward the Asian mainland at the rate of 7 centimeters a year, and the eastern side of Mindanao, which is moving toward the Asian mainland at 10 cm a year.

“Because of the slow movement, there is no compression of forces in the island,” Lagmay said.

On the other hand, large parts of the Philippine archipelago are sandwiched between two trenches, the Manila Trench in the west and the Philippine Trench in the east.

“Movements in these trenches generate stress in the faults. That is why there are so many earthquakes in the mainland [Philippines],” he said.

“If you ask me where I would build a house in the country, I’d say Palawan,” he said.

Longest fault system

According to Lagmay, the Philippines is encased in an intricate network of trenches and faults that is one of the most, if not the most complex in the world in terms of tectonics and geology.

The centerpiece of the country’s fault system is the Philippine Fault Zone (PFZ) which is one of the longest in the world at around 1,200 km.

The PFZ starts in Aparri and snakes past the Cordilleras, passing through Nueva Ecija, down to Quezon and the Bondoc Peninsula into Leyte, and from there skipping into northern Mindanao to the southern end of the island into Davao.

The PFZ, Lagmay explained, is a left-lateral strike slip fault. This means that if you were to put one foot on one side of the fault and the other foot on the other side of the fault, the left side of the fault would be moving toward you while the right side would be moving away from you. Also, the right side, or block, would be more advanced than the left block.

A strike-slip fault means the two blocks are moving against each other horizontally.

Lagmay explained that the length of the fault is related to its capacity to generate a large- magnitude earthquake.

“The larger the fault, the greater its potential to produce a strong earthquake,” he said.

In 1990, the PFZ generated a 7.9-magnitude quake that shook Metro Manila and Luzon.

Underwater trenches

Other earthquake fault lines are the trenches running underwater on the western and eastern sides of the country.

There is the Manila Trench on the west of the country which runs from the Batanes islands, curving through the waters off the Ilocos region, Pangasinan, Zambales and into Mindoro island.

According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), movement in the Manila Trench caused the Jan. 12 magnitude 5.2 earthquake near Olongapo City that was felt in Metro Manila.

There is also the longer Philippine Trench located underwater east of the country. It runs roughly from waters off Aurora down to Samar, and past Mindanao.

Other underwater trenches in the country include the East Luzon Trough, the Negros Trench that is connected to the Sulu Trench, and the Cotabato Trench.

Smaller faults

In addition, there are also the smaller faults. Notable of the smaller fault lines is the Valley Fault System, also known as the Western Marikina Valley Fault System, which is nearest to Metro Manila.

According to Lagmay, Metro Manila was damaged heavily six times in the last 400 years by earthquakes. But the source of these earthquakes is uncertain.

A study by the USGS and the Phivolcs in 2000 showed that the Valley Fault experienced four large surface rupture events since 600 AD, occurring over a period separated by between 200 and 400 years. The study also said the last fault event in the Valley Fault occurred in the past 200 years.

Lagmay said the Valley Fault is capable of generating an earthquake with a magnitude of between 6 and 7.

Luzon, Mindanao faults

Besides the Valley Fault system, other faults in Luzon include the West Ilocos Fault System, the Dummon River Fault System in Cagayan, the East Zambales Fault, the Iba Fault and the Lubang Fault.

Fault systems in the Visayas include the West Panay Fault, the Southern Samar Lineament, the Central Negros Fault, the Cebu Lineament and the East Bohol Fault.

In Mindanao, there is the Mindanao Fault, the Lanao Fault System, the Davao River Fault, the Central Mindanao Fault and the Tangbulan Fault.

The result of all these faults is that between 5,000 and 7,000 earthquakes occur in the country each year, or an average of between 200 and 250 quakes a day, according to Phivolcs. But most of these earthquakes are not felt. Last year, Phivolcs tallied around 210 earthquakes in the country.

“As we are talking right now, there is a small earthquake occurring somewhere in the country,” Lagmay said.

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Is Metro Manila prepared for a major earthquake?

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Mother asks for prayers for trapped UN worker

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga , Philippines  – A prominent pediatrician here appealed yesterday for prayers and help for her son, believed to be among those still trapped in the collapsed building of the United Nations in Haiti

which has been devastated by a powerful earthquake.

Former provincial board member Dr. Leticia Yap told The STAR that she has lost communication with her son, Jerome Yap, 43, since the earthquake struck.

Leticia said Malacañang told her that Philippine peacekeeping personnel were helping in efforts to rescue people trapped in the UN building.

“He was home only recently and went back to Haiti only last Friday,” she said.

“Jerome just stayed home during his three-week visit to the country,” added Raffy Angeles, Jerome’s brother-in-law.

Leticia said Jerome has been a civilian employee of the UN for 15 years and has been stationed in Haiti for the last three years.

He was among UN personnel assigned to assist forces from various nations in their deployment to areas where they are most needed in Haiti, she said.

At one time, Jerome, a fine arts graduate from the University of Sto. Tomas, was also assigned by the UN to Liberia.

Leticia believes her son is among those still trapped in the collapsed UN building since the earthquake was reported to have struck at around  4:56 p.m. Tuesday (early Wednesday morning in Manila).

“At that time, Jerome was supposed to be in his UN office when the building collapsed,” she said. “I know he is still alive, so I ask for prayers from everybody for his rescue.”

Thankful

In a related development, a police officer who once served as personnel and finance officer of the UN peacekeeping force to Haiti, yesterday said he felt happy to learn that friends he left there are safe.

Superintendent Eric Noble, who has been cited as one of Metrobank Foundation’s outstanding policemen of the country, told The STAR in a telephone interview that the moment he learned about the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that toppled down buildings and killed many in Haiti, he immediately tried to contact his friends there via telephone and e-mail.

After learning that they were safe, he whispered a thanksgiving prayer to God.

“We were like siblings with our fellow peacekeeping contingent and overseas Filipino workers  and it pains me to learn this kind of tragedy that befell them,” Noble said.

Noble, a former police chief in his hometown of Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan, was in Haiti from February 2006 to November 2007, together with 42 other Filipino policemen as part of the UN peacekeeping force. – With Eva Visperas

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Hillary Clinton meets with Haiti leader after arrival

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in quake-battered Haiti on Saturday afternoon and immediately went into meetings with officials there.

Clinton warmly greeted Haitian President Rene Preval outside a tent at the airport, where she was meeting with military personnel and U.S. ambassadors.

Clinton, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the devastated country, was traveling with Rajiv Shah, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is leading relief efforts.

The U.S. Coast Guard plane she arrived on was carrying 100 cases of water, 100 cases of meals-ready-to-eat, and food and toiletries for about 140 U.S. Embassy staff members. Fifty American citizens, who have been waiting to be evacuated, will fly back to the United States when Clinton departs.

Clinton indicated Friday that she would not leave the Port-au-Prince airport during her visit, saying she did not want to use vehicles that could be transporting much-needed aid to victims of Tuesday’s 7.0-magnitude quake.

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Clinton landed hours after President Obama announced Saturday that former Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush have agreed to lead an effort to raise funds for Haiti.

President Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, said he wants to accomplish a fundraising effort such as the one he help organized with President George H.W. Bush after the 2004 tsunami.

“Right now, all we need to do is get food and medicine and water and a secure place for them to be,” he said.

American officials announced the massive search and rescue operation would continue through the weekend, and medical resources began to trickle in as the number of the quake’s injured mounted.

Shah, the USAID chief, said the United States had mobilized $48 million worth of food assistance, enough to help 2 million Haitians for several months. But he said physical and logistical impediments are hampering aid delivery.

Raymond Joseph, the Haitian ambassador to the United States, said Hillary Clinton’s visit is critical to coordinating aid efforts.

“I think her presence there will help smooth operations between the Haitian officials — some who are reticent in relinquishing some power — and U.S. officials,” Joseph said.

Aid workers continued to trickle into the country Friday, trying to provide water and food to survivors in the country’s capital that is still being rocked by aftershocks.

The quake toppled many of Port-au-Prince’s buildings, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who will travel to Haiti on Sunday, estimated that it left as much as “50 percent of buildings in the worst-hit areas damaged or destroyed.”

Many of the capital’s 3 million people are without access to food, water, shelter and electricity, Ban said, and crews are working “to save as many lives as possible.”

Haitian President Rene Preval identified three priorities in the recovery effort — get the government back up and running, clear the roads, and sanitize the city of the scores of corpses riddling the streets, he told U.N. television.

Tens of thousands are feared dead in the quake that struck Tuesday afternoon, although there is not yet an official death toll.

Get the latest developments in Haiti

There were small signs of progress in food and water distribution by Friday afternoon. A few fire trucks and tankers were seen distributing water.

A U.N. distribution center also was set up — guarded by Bolivian U.N. peacekeeping troops — where some 10,000 plates of cooked chicken and rice got handed out to a patient line of survivors. Elsewhere, dozens of hungry people rushed a U.N. food convoy, clamoring to reach handouts of nutritional biscuits and water purification tablets.

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The relief effort has been challenged by the destruction and the need for more supplies, Ban said, citing blocked roads and limited capacity at the capital’s one-runway airport. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a ground stop on all U.S. flights into Haiti on Friday because of a lack of ramp space.

Haiti aid efforts hampered in critical hours

But, he said, aid flights are arriving, and food and medical supplies are beginning to be distributed in Port-au-Prince.

Several countries began marshaling in their medical resources Saturday . The Israel Defense Forces began operating a field hospital at an abandoned football field, and the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort, staffed by a crew of 64 and 560 hospital personnel, left Baltimore, Maryland, on a trip that will take about five days.

The Israeli delegation of 220 arrived at the Antoine Izmery soccer field Friday to begin setting up tents and equipment. Its doctors and other medical personnel anticipated treating about 500 casualties a day. Much of the aid will be focused on helping any survivors of the destroyed U.N. headquarters in Port-au-Prince.

The Comfort carries fully equipped operating rooms, a 250-bed hospital, digital radiological services, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, a CT scan and two oxygen-producing plants. The ship has a deck capable of landing large military helicopters.

On Friday, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson arrived with 19 heavy-lift helicopters, 51 hospital beds, three operating rooms and the ability to produce hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day, according to U.S. military officials.

“Although it is inevitably slower and more difficult than any of us would wish, we are mobilizing all resources as fast as we possibly can,” Ban said Friday, announcing an appeal for $550 million.

The United Nations announced Friday that at least 37 of its personnel had died — 36 with the U.N. mission and one with the World Food Programme. The number of unaccounted for people stands at 330. There are 12,000 people working for U.N. entities in Haiti.

As world agencies and countries marshaled their relief resources, President Obama spoke for about a half-hour with Preval on Friday, pledging the “full support of the American people,” including long-term help.

Preval said he has been touched by the friendship of the American people. He expressed his condolences for the loss of American citizens in Haiti. The State Department has identified at least six U.S. deaths so far, and a spokesman said Friday that toll “will go up.”

Edmond Mulet, U.N. assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, said Friday on “Larry King Live” that 13,000 bodies have been recovered so far. Haiti’s Minister of Civil Protection said Friday that the government estimates more than 50,000 people were killed, with the number possibly closer to 100,000. Other estimates put the number even higher.

Meanwhile, rescuers raced against a crucial 72-hour window of time to free those who still may be alive trapped under the remains of buildings. An 18-month-old baby was pulled from the rubble Friday, seemingly unharmed.

Still, those rescued weren’t out of danger as hospitals lacked proper supplies to treat some of them. An 11-year-old girl rescued Thursday died later that night from her injuries after a first-aid station said it couldn’t treat her severe leg wound, her family said.

Despite relative calm, there was some sporadic looting and violence.

“If help doesn’t come quickly, it probably will (get worse),” said Agnes Pierre-Louis, manager of her family-owned hotel, the Le Plaza, in downtown Port-au-Prince. “We’re not hearing anything from the government. We’re not seeing any foreign aid yet.”

But Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, deputy commander of the U.S. Southern Command, said forces have not “seen a great deal of insecurity.” The priority now, he said, is cranking up rescue and relief efforts to stave off restiveness.

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Online criminals launch Haiti earthquake scam

Online scammers lost no time in taking advantage of the killer earthquake that devastated Haiti last on Tuesday, January 12.

Computer security firm Symantec sent out a “threat bulletin” warning the public that cyber-criminals are out to rip-off Good Samaritans.

Just like in past disasters such as ‘Ondoy’, they’ve set up poison search results that can infect computers with malware. They’ve also sent phony emails luring people to Web sites devised to steal their money.
Totally bogus

The Haitian earthquake scam e-mail sent to Filipino users supposedly comes from a Haitian residing in Manila, with the address “Haiti Avenue, Manila.” The bogus address alone would have been a dead giveaway. However, hardly anybody checks addresses when confronted by catastrophes.

The scam email then sender explains that he is the chief coordinator and founder of Yele Haiti, a volunteer organization helping the children of Haiti. In reality, the said organization is the brainchild of musician Wyclef Jean.

The sender goes on to ask people to send their donation to their “regional coordinator accounting officers” in the Philippines via Western Union. The money, according to the sender, would be used to buy “food, medicine, and vaccines.”

As if to assuage any doubts people may have, the sender assured, “We have a base with the Red Cross and UNICEF in the Philippines [and] from this base we cargo all this material by Air Freight to Haiti.”

Common sense measures

Security experts urge computer users to follow best practices for online safety and be more cautious when donating money online. Scammers bank on the outpouring of support during catastrophes.

When it comes to donating to a charity online, experts at Symantec advised, “Avoid clicking on suspicious links in email or IM messages as these may be links to spoofed Web sites. Symantec security experts suggest typing Web addresses, such as those from a charitable organization, directly into the browser rather than clicking on links within messages.”

They reiterated that it’s not wise for anyone to “fill out forms in messages that ask for personal or financial information or passwords.”

“A reputable charitable organization is unlikely to ask for your personal details via e-mail. When in doubt, contact the organization in question via an independent, trusted mechanism, such as a verified telephone number, or a known Internet address that you type into a new browser window. Do not click or cut and paste from a link in the message,” they added. – Faye V. Ilogon, GMANews.TV

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RP govt, PNRC hotlines for info on Pinoys in Haiti

The government and the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) have established several hotlines for families of Haiti-based Filipinos who lost contact with their loved ones after a powerful tremor struck the Caribbean country on Wednesday.

DFA, AFP hotlines

A Department of Foreign Affairs statement posted on its website advised the families to contact its Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA) at +632 834-4996.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has also set up an operation center in Camp O’Donnell in Tarlac province that will provide updates and answer queries in connection with the Filipino contingent in Haiti. The operation center can be reached at +639198776728.

There are 462 Filipinos in Haiti: 290 civilians and 172 military-police peacekeepers. The civilians are mostly workers in garments, telecommunications, and power generation.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo also activated a task force within the Philippine Peacekeeping Contingent in Haiti to conduct relief efforts for Filipinos there.

Romulo instructed Philippine Ambassador to Havana Macarthur Corsino to form a team that will proceed to Haiti as soon as possible, the DFA said on its website

“Ambassador Corsino is also directed to present a plan of action for the repatriation of Filipinos who would want to go back to Manila,” the DFA added.

Red Cross hotlines

Meanwhile, PNRC chairperson Gwendolyn Pang said the Red Cross aims to provide assistance in terms of contact tracing, repatriation, and psychosocial support.

Red Cross can also provide temporary shelters for earthquake victims, since many residential structures in the country had either collapsed or become too hazardous for occupancy.

“We will help them trace these people’s whereabouts,” Pang said. “They can call us or go to our website and state there who they are looking for, and if we get information about the person we will get back at them.”

The PNRC’s Operation Center can be reached through the following numbers:

* 143
* 527-00-00
* 524-57-87
* 666-50-34
* 994-05-03

As of posting, there is still no power in Haiti and communication lines there are largely dependent on satellite phones, according to AFP spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. – Aie Balagtas See/JV, GMANews.TV

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