A leading aid group complained of skewed priorities and a supply bottleneck at the US-controlled airport. The general in charge said the US military was “working aggressively’’ to speed up deliveries.
Beside the ruins of the Port-Au-Prince cathedral, where the sun streamed through the shattered stained glass, a priest told his flock at their first Sunday Mass since the earthquake struck, “We are in the hands of God now.’’
But anger mounted that other helping hands were slow in getting food and water to millions in need.
“The government is a joke. The UN is a joke,’’ Jacqueline Thermiti, 71, said as she lay in the dust with dozens of dying elderly outside their destroyed nursing home. “We’re a kilometer from the airport, and we’re going to die of hunger.’’
Water was delivered to more people around the capital, where an estimated 300,000 displaced were living outdoors. But food and medicine were still scarce.
The crippled city choked on the stench of death and shook with yet another aftershock yesterday. On the streets, people were still dying, people were on their knees praying for help, pregnant women were giving birth on the pavement, and the injured were showing up in wheelbarrows and on people’s backs at hurriedly erected field hospitals.
Authorities warned that looting and violence could spread. At the Vieux Marche, police tried to disperse looters by driving trucks through the crowds, as hundreds scrambled over partly destroyed shops grabbing anything they could.
Police used tear gas to scatter looters at street markets near the collapsed presidential palace. At the Cite Soleil slum, moments after police drove by, a reporter spotted a gunman stealing a bag of rice from a motorcycle rider.
“This is one of the most serious crises in decades,’’ United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said as he flew into the Haitian capital. “The damage, destruction, and loss of life are just overwhelming.’’
