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Risky move: A C-17 like the one used by the U.S. to parachute aid in to Haiti yesterday
May cause more damage than good .May cause riot as there is not ground distribution centre and security once aid are air dropped to the very desperate violent survivors.
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Why aid is not getting through: This aerial view shows the traffic near the airport in Port-au-Prince yesterday. The heavy traffic is making it difficult to move aid to where it is needed, so the U.S. military forces have air-dropped in specific areas throughout the capital
Scramble for aid: An air crewman drops supplies from a helicopter to earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince yesterday
Send in the Air Force: Humanitarian aid parcels are dropped into the region by a U.S. Air Force plane
Help trickles through: U.S. Marines carrying supplies arrive at a camp in Port-au-Prince
People take goods from buildings collapsed during last week's earthquake in the market area of Port-au-Prince
Looters fight for goods taken from a destroyed store in Port-au-Prince
...Maintaining calm: Indian members of the peacekeeping forces shoot fire gas to disperse a group of Haitians who were asking for supplies outside of International Airport in Port-au-Prince yesterday
A girl reaches out for goods thrown by looters from a destroyed store in downtown Port-au-Prince
Crush: People swarm a UN aid convoy to grab at food and supplies in Petionville
Pitching in: Former President and U.S. envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton helps load supplies at Haiti's General Hospital during his one day visit to the island yesterday
* U.S. had ruled air-drops out for fear they would cause riots
* France accuses U.S. of 'occupying not helping' Haiti
* U.S. authorities preparing for mass migration of Haitians
* Bill Clinton: Haitian doctors 'using vodka to sterilize equipment'
The transport situation in Haiti is so chaotic that the U.S. has been forced to parachute in aid to desperate earthquake survivors, it has emerged.
The U.S. military resorted to an air drop from C-17 transport planes yesterday, parachuting pallets of supplies to a secured area outside Port-au-Prince rather than landing and unloading at the overwhelmed airport.
A military spokeswoman said the plane, flying out of Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, dropped 14,500 ready meals and 15,000 litres of water into a secured area five miles north-east of the Haitian capital.
Earlier, military officials had decided such a move was too risky. Now the U.S. is considering whether to start air-drops throughout the country.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates said last week that early air-drops were ruled out because they might do more harm than good.
Officials feared they could trigger riots if there was no structure on the ground to distribute the supplies.
But with Haitians growing more desperate - and the threat of violence increasing with every day that aid does not get through - the U.S. is willing to take the risk.
At the airport, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Chris Lounderman said about 100 flights a day were now landing.
But with much of the roads leading from the airport damaged or choked with traffic, the aid is still not getting through to those who need it quickly enough.
Transportation bottlenecks, bureaucratic confusion, fear of attacks on aid convoys and the sheer scale of the catastrophe continued to frustrate the international relief operation.
There were reports yesterday that one American had died and three had been injured during a relief operation being carried out at the airport. No further details were available.
Meanwhile desperate, starving and increasingly angry victims were still struggling to find food and water. The UN admitted that, despite the level of international aid flowing in to the country, just 10 per cent of those who needed aid have received help.
U.S. envoy to Haiti and former President Bill Clinton, who arrived in Haiti yesterday with his daughter Chelsea, said: 'It's astonishing what the Haitians have been able to accomplish, performing surgeries at night ... with no anaesthesia, using vodka to sterilize equipment.'
The port remains blocked. Distribution of food, water and supplies from the airport to the needy are increasing but slowly, frustrating many survivors who sleep in the streets and outdoor camps of tens of thousands.
European Commission analysts estimate 250,000 were injured and 1.5 million were made homeless in last week's quake.
'I simply don't understand what is taking the foreigners so long,' said Raymond Saintfort, a pharmacist who brought two suitcases of aspirin and antiseptics to the ruins of a nursing home where dozens of residents suffered.
On the ground, violence was stalking the shattered streets.
‘Whether things explode is all down to whether help gets through from the international community,’ said police commander Ralph Jean-Brice, in charge of Haiti’s West Department, whose force is down by half due to the quake.
In some cases, police fired tear gas to disperse looters in the city’s downtown area as several nearby shops burned.
‘We’ve been ordered not to shoot at people unless completely necessary,’ said police officer Pierre Roger ‘We’re too little, and these people are too desperate.’
The U.N. humanitarian chief, John Holmes, said not all 15 planned U.N. food distribution points were up and running yet.
The U.N. World Food Program said it expected to boost operations to feeding 97,000 yesterday. But it needs 100 million prepared meals over the next 30 days, and it appealed for more government donations.
Yesterday there were some signs of progress as international medical teams took over damaged hospitals where the seriously injured had lain untreated for days.
Doctors say that in some cases they have had to amputate broken limbs rather than reset them because they had turned gangrenous.
There were jostling scrums for food and water as U.N. trucks distributed food packets and U.S. military helicopters swooped down to throw out boxes of water bottles and rations.
As the situation grows increasingly desperate, the aid effort risked falling apart with a diplomatic row over America's role in Haiti.
A French minister has asked the UN to step to ensure the U.S. is not occupying the shattered country.
Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet told French radi: 'This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti.' He is in Brussels for an EU meeting on the ravaged country.
Meanwhile, American authorities are stepping up contingency plans for a potential mass migration of Haitians.
The migration plan, known as 'Operation Vigilant Sentry', calls for clearing space at Miami's Krome detention centre by moving existing detainees to other facilities. Officials say some migrants could also be housed temporarily at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
So far officials say there's no indication of a Haiti migration.
The earthquake has triggered no change in U.S. policy regarding Haitian migrants who are caught trying to reach the U.S. by sea - they will almost all be sent back.
Security was expected to improve with the arrival last night of 2,200 Marines – part of a 10,000 U.S. military deployment to the area.
U.S. forces have the authority to protect 'innocent Haitians' and themselves if necessary, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday.
However he insisted the U.S. had not taken on a policing role in the devastated country.
He spoke as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon asked the Security Council yesterday to approve 3,500 more peacekeepers for Haiti - a nearly 40 per cent increase - to help cope with the chaos that followed last week's earthquake.
The number of peacekeepers in Haiti currently stands at just over 9,000. Ban's proposal would take the strength to more than 12,500 - up to 8,940 troops and 3,711 police.
Lt General Ken Keen, the U.S. commander in Haiti, said he feared the death toll could exceed 200,000 and said relief agencies were dealing with ‘a disaster of epic proportions’.
Donations can be made to the earthquake appeal by visiting www.dec.org.uk. You can also call 0370 60 60 900, donate over the coutner at any post office or high street bank, or send a cheque payable to 'DEC Haiti Earthquake Appeal' to PO Box 999, London, EC3A 3AA.
The £23million raised in three days
Money is pouring into the official British appeal for victims of the Haiti earthquake. More than £23million has been raised since the Disasters Emergency Committee launched its TV appeal on January 15.
DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley said: ‘The response from the public has been absolutely overwhelming.
‘It shows that whatever financial concerns people are experiencing here in the UK, they feel a deep level of empathy for the people of Haiti, and will give whatever they can.’
Despite concerns that the aid is not getting to those most in need , he was optimistic that the obstacles could be overcome.
‘We know that people are being reached, but there is a huge challenge ahead, and much more work to be done,’ he said. ‘The area affected by this earthquake is huge, and devastation wrecked upon the infrastructure of Haiti means agencies face many obstacles.’
The DEC is an umbrella organisation of 13 humanitarian aid agencies including ActionAid, British Red Cross, Cafod, Save The Children, Oxfam and Christian Aid.
The British Government has pledged £20million in aid. The Department for International Development said £2 million would go on providing logistical support and communications to help speed up the distribution of supplies.
On the ground, Oxfam teams gave out water to thousands of people in the capital over the weekend and aid workers from Concern Worldwide distributed 2,000 jerry cans and 100,000 water purification tablets.
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