Haiti receives US aid airdrops

The US and UN have boosted Haiti’s aid security as food and water supplies are dropped to the thousands of victims of last week’s earthquake.

The US military has dropped 14,000 food packages and 14,000 quarts of water to quake survivors north east of the capital Port-au-Prince by flying round-trip from Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina.

With airport congestion hampering the distribution of aid the US is now considering airdrops across the rest of Haiti. More than 11,000 US military personnel are on the ground, on ships offshore or en route, including some 2,200 marines with earth-moving equipment, medical aid and helicopters.

The US Army’s 82nd Airborne set up a base at the Petionville Club, organising orderly queues to distribute water bottles and meal packs to the 50,000 survivors who pitched tents on Haiti’s only golf course. Exhausted soldiers slept on the tennis courts.

Temporary hospitals

Medical teams have set up temporary hospitals in Haiti but have said they are already overwhelmed by the casualties. The immediate threats of tetanus and gangrene, as well as the spread of measles and other infections were possible, teams warned.

Although the official number of casualties is yet to be determined Haitian officials said the death toll was likely to be between 100,000 and 200,000 with many more injured and displaced.

The United Nations has recommended to the Security Council that 1,500 police and 2,000 troops be added to the 9,000-member UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti to provide security assistance for Haiti’s shattered government. Last Tuesday’s magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated many governmental and UN buildings in Port-au-Prince.

Haitian President Rene Preval said US troops will help UN peacekeepers keep order on Haiti’s streets which have seen lawlessness and looting in recent days.