Grieving for their own losses and those of a nation, the exhausted and overwhelmed officials sat in a circle on a concrete slab outside a police station, seeking to put some order into their response to a catastrophic earthquake.
Loosely-speaking, the United Nations is leading the relief effort, while the U.S. military is in charge of air-traffic after Tuesday’s disaster that Haitian officials say killed between 100,000-200,000 people.
But in line with diplomatic propriety, Haitian leaders are being consulted, and are giving approval, at every step.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive led yesterday’s cabinet meeting. President Rene Preval raised a hand of greeting to the team as he entered the police station that has become his home and office since the presidential palace partially collapsed.
Foreign ambassadors and heads of U.N. and other international agencies joined the ministers in what officials said would now be a twice-daily meeting to try to coordinate the world’s rush to help Haiti.
