Obama pledges swift aid for Haiti

The US president pledges "a swift, co-ordinated and aggressive effort" to help the severely impoverished Haiti recover from a devastating earthquake.

WASHINGTON // Barack Obama, the US president, dispatched rescue teams to Haiti yesterday and pledged "a swift, co-ordinated and aggressive effort" to help the severely impoverished nation recover after it was rocked by a devastating magnitude-7.0 earthquake. "The people of Haiti will have the full support of the US in the urgent effort to rescue those trapped beneath the rubble and to deliver the humanitarian relief - the food, water and medicine - that Haitians will need in the coming days," Mr Obama said in a morning press conference, flanked by Joe Biden, the vice president, as reports of mass casualties and devastation trickled into the US capital. "We will be resolute in our response and I pledge to the people of Haiti that you will have a friend and partner in the United States of America today and going forward." The US state department was trying to account for embassy personnel and their families as well as US citizens living in Haiti. Military overflights had already assessed the damage, Mr Obama said, and civilian disaster teams were en route to the country, about 970km off the Florida coast. They were expected to be there by yesterday afternoon. The president said his national security team convened an emergency overnight meeting to work on a "unified" response among various government agencies and departments, including the state department and defence department. He also appointed Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development (US-AID) as "unified disaster co-ordinator" and said he urged officials to be as "forward-leaning as possible." The disaster is a test for Mr Obama, who is dealing with his first largescale natural disaster since taking office a year ago. The stature of his predecessor, George W Bush, was severely damaged by his administration's sluggish and uncoordinated response to another natural disaster, Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged a large stretch of the US Gulf Coast in 2005. The extent of the devastation in Haiti remained unclear early yesterday but casualty estimates had already soared into the thousands, according to some reports. A spokesman for US Southern Command in Florida said officials were considering deploying a hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, which is currently stationed in Baltimore, Maryland. "We are considering all our options," said Sgt Michael Mena. Scores of homes and other buildings, from the Haitian presidential palace to the UN peacekeeping headquarters, were reportedly toppled by the earthquake, which was the worst to hit Haiti in more than 200 years. The State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said the US Embassy was "OK" but that personnel were "literally in the dark" after power failed. "They reported structures down. They reported a lot of walls down," he told reporters in Washington on Tuesday evening. "They did see a number of bodies in the street and on the sidewalk that had been hit by debris. So clearly, there's going to be serious loss of life in this." A warning issued by the US Embassy in Haiti said there had been several aftershocks and directed US citizens there to seek shelter from follow-up tremors "under a heavy table or desk, or in a doorway" and to avoid downed power lines and using flames in case of disrupted gas lines. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimated that more than three million people could be affected by the disaster. "Amid the crying and wailing, people are spending the night outside," the ICRC's head of delegation in Haiti, Riccardo Conti, said in a statement yesterday. "People are trying to comfort each other. What you are hearing in the streets are the prayers of thanks of those who survived." The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it has supplies in Haiti to reach 3,000 families, including enough for 500 families in the capital of Port-au-Prince. The American Red Cross announced the release of $200,000 (Dh735,000) in aid to help those affected by the quake. Civilian rescue teams were activated from California, Florida and Virginia, according to USAID. Battalion Chief Chris Schaff, of the Fairfax Country Urban Search and Rescue team, based in Virginia, said a "heavy team" consisting of 71 personnel, including rescue specialists and doctors, had already been dispatched and would reach Haiti by the early afternoon. The team, equipped with dogs, jackhammers, digging tools, listening devices and medical equipment, specialises in rescuing victims trapped in confined spaces and collapsed structures, Mr Schaff said. "They are still in a search and rescue mode," he said. "They are still hoping to be able to provide resources to locate some live people who may be trapped there." The earthquake, Mr Schaff said, "seems to be a significant challenge just because of the type of construction [in Haiti]". Rescuers planned to be there for two weeks, he said.