Latest From Haiti: Aid Starts To Arrive; Grim Search Continues; Tears Flow

Aid Starts To Arrive — “Turning pickup trucks into ambulances and doors into stretchers, Haitians were frantically struggling to save those injured in this week’s earthquake as desperately needed aid from around the world began arriving Thursday.

“Massive Amounts Of People On The Move” — [1] NPR’s Carrie Kahn reported for Morning Edition from Port-au-Prince on the devastation in Haiti’s capital, where building after building is destroyed and “massive amounts of people” are on the move.

“Grim Search For Untold Dead” — “Foreign aid trickled into Haiti’s devastated capital on Thursday morning as the victims of Tuesday’s earthquake, many of them injured and homeless, began to wake from another night spent in makeshift accommodations or out in the open.

At Port-au-Prince School, “We’re All Trying To Talk About The Fact That We’re Scared” — A private school in Haiti’s capital has turned an outdoor basketball court into a shelter for its students and their families.

Haiti Despairs As Quake Deaths Mount” – “PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Cries from victims entombed beneath concrete debris pierced the air of seemingly every street in this crowded capital Wednesday, where shocked residents carried the injured and the dead a day after the nation was hit by a quake that some estimate has killed more than 100,000 people.”

In Haiti earthquake coverage, social media gives victim a voice

[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/jan/14/socialnetworking-haiti

With many of the official lines of communication down, user-generated content played an important role yesterday in spreading news about the [3] Haiti earthquake. Social media partly made up for the lack of information from the affected area on what had happened and what was most needed.

Twitterfeeds [4] gave an impressive picture of the ongoing earthquake, and the Guardian’s [5] live blog on the rescue mission used social media as well as information from other news organisations. The BBC also covered the event [6] combining tweets from the area with the work of its reporter Matthew Price in Port-au-Prince.

Up to 200 UN staff still missing after Haiti quake

[7] http://ow.ly/Wnjx

Source: Reuters

GENEVA, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Up to 200 United Nations’ staff in Haiti, including peacekeepers, remain unaccounted for after its headquarters and other buildings collapsed in a devastating earthquake, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Thursday. “Between 50 to 100 MINUSTAH (peacekeeping) staff are believed trapped in the building. In total, between 115 and 200 are unaccounted for, but it is an estimate from last night,” Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Reuters. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, editing by Sam Cage and Charles Dick)

How to donate to Haiti earthquake victims

[8] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6987704.ece

British people wishing to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake are being advised by the UK government to donate money to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal.

Donors can call the [9] DEC’s dedicated Haiti Earthquake appeal line which is open 24 hours a day on 0370 6060 900, or go to the [10] website and follow the simple instructions.

Donations can also be sent to the DEC by post, with a cheque made payable to DEC Haiti Earthquake and addressed to DEC Haiti Earthquake, PO Box 999, London, EC3A 3AA

Haiti Despairs as Quake Deaths Mount

[11] http://ow.ly/16kUTW

Prime Minister Says Toll May Top 100,000; People Buried in Rubble Around the Capital; ‘Where Are the Rescue Teams?’

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—Cries from victims entombed beneath concrete debris pierced the air of seemingly every street in this crowded capital Wednesday, where shocked residents carried the injured and the dead a day after the nation was hit by a quake that some estimate has killed more than 100,000 people.

Haitians tried digging through rubble with their bare hands to rescue people trapped after the biggest earthquake to hit the impoverished Caribbean nation in two centuries. Thousands of buildings from shanties to the presidential palace were destroyed, streets were blocked by debris and telephone service was knocked out. Countries around the world, meanwhile, scrambled to send in help.

“Amwe! Amwe!”—”Help me!” in Creole—one woman called out amid the rubble of a primary school that collapsed in the Turgeau neighborhood.

Wyclef Jean lends voice to Haiti earthquake cause

[12] http://bit.ly/7iHEUt

Haitian-born rap star Wyclef Jean has urged fans to donate to relief efforts in the wake of the huge earthquake that struck the Caribbean state on Tuesday.

The former Fugees star has since said he is now on his way to the Caribbean state, via the Dominican Republic.

Frequent victim in the past, Asia to aid Haiti

[13] http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HAITI_EARTHQUAKE_AID?SITE=CTDAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&utm_source=WorldNews_One&utm_medium=twitter

BEIJING (AP) — Asian leaders cited their own experiences with natural disasters Thursday in offering help to quake-shattered Haiti as part of a massive international effort to alleviate the effects of the catastrophe.

Haitian officials have predicted a horrific death toll of more than 100,000 in the wake of the magnitude-7 quake Tuesday that left most of the capital Port-au-Prince in rubble.

Haiti’s devastation is all too familiar to Indonesia: a mammoth quake struck off the country’s western coast in 2004, spawning a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in 14 countries - half of them in Indonesia.