Mass burials after Haiti quake

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Troops and planeloads of  food and medicine streamed into Haiti yesterday to aid a  traumatized nation still rattled by aftershocks from the  catastrophic earthquake that flattened homes and government  buildings and buried countless people.
The Haitian Red Cross said it believed 45,000 to 50,000  people had died and 3 million more — one third of Haiti’s  population — were hurt or left homeless by the major 7.0  magnitude quake that hit its impoverished capital on Tuesday.
The quake flattened buildings across entire hillsides and  many people were still trapped alive in the rubble after two  days, with little sign of organized rescue efforts. About 1,500  corpses were piled up outside the main hospital and bodies  littered many streets.
“We have already buried 7,000 in a mass grave,” President  Rene Preval said.
Planes full of supplies arrived at the Port-au-Prince  airport faster than ground crews could unload them and aviation  authorities restricted non-military flights from U.S. airspace  for fear planes would run out of fuel while waiting to land.
The influx of aid had yet to reach shellshocked Haitians  who wandered the broken streets of Port-au-Prince, searching  desperately for water, food and medical help.
“Money is worth nothing right now, water is the currency,”  one foreign aid-worker told Reuters.
Looters swarmed a broken supermarket in the Delmas area of  Port-au-Prince, carrying out electronics and bags of rice  unchallenged. Others siphoned gasoline from a wrecked tanker.
“All the policemen are busy rescuing and burying their own  families,” said tile factory owner Manuel Deheusch. “They don’t  have the time to patrol the streets.”
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Haiti had suffered  a tragedy beyond imagination and “must become the center of our  world’s attention, the world’s compassion and the world’s  humanitarian help.”
The United States was sending 3,500 soldiers, 300 medical  personnel, several ships and 2,200 Marines. Canadian military  ships with 500 personnel were on the way and a disaster aid  team had already arrived.
“To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with  conviction, you will not be forsaken. You will not be  forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands  with you. The world stands with you,” U.S. President Barack  Obama said.
The United States pledged long-term help for the crippled  Haitian government. Parliament, the national palace, and many  government ministry buildings collapsed and it was unclear how  many lawmakers survived. The main prison also fell, allowing  dangerous criminals to escape.
“The authorities that existed before the earthquake are not  able to fully function. We’re going to try to support them as  they re-establish authority,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary  Clinton told CNN.
There were few signs of organized rescue operations to free  those trapped in debris, and doctors in Haiti, the poorest  country in the Western Hemisphere, were ill-equipped to treat  the injured.
Makeshift tents were strung everywhere and Haitians at one  informal camp approached a journalist shouting “water, water”  in a multitude of languages.
“Please do anything you can, these people have no water, no  food, no medicine, nobody is helping us,” said Valery Louis,  who organized one of the camps.
Groups of women who slept in the streets overnight sang  religious songs in the dark and prayed for the dead. “They want  God to help them. We all do,” said Hotel Villa Creole employee  Dermene Duma, who lost four relatives.
Sobs and wailing erupted each time someone died but  aftershocks interrupted the mourning, sending panicked people  running away from walls.
The quake’s epicenter was only 10 miles (16 km) from  Port-au-Prince, a sprawling and densely packed city of 4  million people in a nation dogged by poverty, catastrophic  natural disasters and political instability.
Bodies lay all around the hilly city, and people covered  their noses with cloth to try to block the stench. Corpses were  delivered by the pickup truck load to the General Hospital in  Port-au-Prince, where hospital director Guy LaRoche estimated  the bodies piled outside the morgue numbered 1,500.
The Haitian Red Cross had run out of body bags and the  International Committee of the Red Cross was sending more.
Haitians clawed at chunks of concrete with bare hands and  sledgehammers, trying to free those buried alive.
A 35-year-old Estonian, Tarmo Joveer, was freed from the  rubble of the United Nations’ five-story headquarters early  today, and told journalists he was fine.
The UN said at least 36 members of its 9,000-strong  peacekeeping mission had been killed and scores were still  missing. Brazil said 14 of its soldiers were among the dead.
Fourteen guests and workers were pulled out alive on  Thursday from the landmark Montana Hotel, which was largely  flattened. Chilean Army Major Rodrigo Vazquez, who was  directing the rescue at that site, said “We estimate 70 more  inside … this is devastating.”
Nations around the world pitched in to send rescue teams  with search dogs and heavy equipment, helicopters, tents, water  purification units, food, doctors and telecoms teams.
Aid distribution was hampered because roads were blocked by  rubble and smashed cars, normal communications were cut off and  relief agencies’ offices were damaged and their staff dead or  missing. The port was too badly damaged to handle cargo.
U.N. peacekeepers seemed overwhelmed by the enormity of the  recovery task ahead.
“We just don’t know what to do,” a Chilean peacekeeper  said. “You can see how terrible the damage is. We have not been  able to get into all the areas.”
Many hospitals were too battered to use, and doctors  struggled to treat crushed limbs, head wounds and broken bones  at makeshift facilities where medical supplies were scarce.
Several nations sent mobile hospitals, surgeons and even  psychologists to help traumatized Haitians. The U.S. Navy  hospital ship Comfort was on the way back to Haiti, where it  delivered medical care after a spate of storms caused massive  flooding and mudslides in 2008.