Humanity First USA is deploying its Disaster Response team to the affected areas with emergency supplies. Preliminary relief efforts will be concentrated on food aid, water, sanitation, medical assistance and emotional support.
Ahmadiyya Times | News Desk | Haiti
Source & Credit: BBC News | Google News
Journalist in Haiti, Ansel Herz, spoke to the BBC's Matt Frei
Edited by Ahmadiyya Times staff.
Haitian President Rene Preval has said tens of thousands of people are feared dead following a huge quake which has devastated the country's capital.
Mr Preval said the UN mission chief in Haiti was among the dead, but the UN cannot confirm this. It said 14 other UN staff had died and 56 were injured.
The 7.0-magnitude quake, Haiti's worst in two centuries, struck on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told US network CNN he believed more than 100,000 people had died.
The Red Cross says up to three million people are affected.
The capital's Catholic archbishop, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, is also among those killed.
In his first interview since the earthquake, President Preval told the Miami Herald newspaper in the US he feared thousands of his people had died.
Describing the scene in the capital as "unimaginable", he said: "Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed.
"There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them."
Mr Preval later said that Hedi Annabi, the Tunisian head of the UN stabilisation mission in Haiti (Minustah), had died after the UN HQ building was destroyed.
The UN said it could not confirm the news but that Mr Annabi had been in the building at the time and was likely to be under the rubble, along with many others.
The main prison in Port-au-Prince has also collapsed, with a UN humanitarian spokeswoman saying there had been reports of escaped inmates.
A number of nations, including the US, UK and Venezuela, are gearing up to send aid.
Speaking in Washington, US President Barack Obama vowed "unwavering support" for Haiti after what he called a "cruel and incomprehensible" disaster.
He said he had ordered "a swift, co-ordinated and aggressive effort to save lives" and that the first US rescue teams would arrive later on Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that she was cutting short a trip to the Pacific in order to return to Washington because of the earthquake.
A US Navy aircraft carrier is expected to reach Haiti in a couple of days and a number of smaller vessels are already in the area, US defence officials said.
Rajiv Shah, of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said US teams were on their way to Haiti with specialised rescue equipment and that some efforts were already under way on the ground.
Read the rest of the article here: Haiti earthquake: Thousands feared dead
Many organizations such as Red Cross are are scrambling to rescue their own staff and infrastructure in Haiti.
Haitian Red Cross spokesman Pericles Jean-Baptiste said his organization was overwhelmed. "There are too many people who need help ... We lack equipment, we lack body bags," he told Reuters.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said volunteers in Haiti were assisting the injured and supporting hospitals which had been overwhelmed by the disaster.
Humanity First USA, an international disaster relief organization is deploying its Disaster Response team to the affected areas with emergency supplies. Preliminary relief efforts will be concentrated on food aid, water, sanitation, medical assistance and emotional support. Humanity First has a proven track record of providing significant and valuable support to various natural disasters in the past. Humanity First USA is also accepting donations for the relief work. You may donate online by going to http://usa.humanityfirst.org.
Ahmadiyya Times staff writer edited the story.
Ahmadiyya Times | News Desk | Haiti
Source & Credit: BBC News | Google News
Journalist in Haiti, Ansel Herz, spoke to the BBC's Matt Frei
Edited by Ahmadiyya Times staff.
Haitian President Rene Preval has said tens of thousands of people are feared dead following a huge quake which has devastated the country's capital.
Mr Preval said the UN mission chief in Haiti was among the dead, but the UN cannot confirm this. It said 14 other UN staff had died and 56 were injured.
The 7.0-magnitude quake, Haiti's worst in two centuries, struck on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told US network CNN he believed more than 100,000 people had died.
The Red Cross says up to three million people are affected.
The capital's Catholic archbishop, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, is also among those killed.
In his first interview since the earthquake, President Preval told the Miami Herald newspaper in the US he feared thousands of his people had died.
Describing the scene in the capital as "unimaginable", he said: "Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed.
"There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them."
Mr Preval later said that Hedi Annabi, the Tunisian head of the UN stabilisation mission in Haiti (Minustah), had died after the UN HQ building was destroyed.
The UN said it could not confirm the news but that Mr Annabi had been in the building at the time and was likely to be under the rubble, along with many others.
The main prison in Port-au-Prince has also collapsed, with a UN humanitarian spokeswoman saying there had been reports of escaped inmates.
A number of nations, including the US, UK and Venezuela, are gearing up to send aid.
Speaking in Washington, US President Barack Obama vowed "unwavering support" for Haiti after what he called a "cruel and incomprehensible" disaster.
He said he had ordered "a swift, co-ordinated and aggressive effort to save lives" and that the first US rescue teams would arrive later on Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that she was cutting short a trip to the Pacific in order to return to Washington because of the earthquake.
A US Navy aircraft carrier is expected to reach Haiti in a couple of days and a number of smaller vessels are already in the area, US defence officials said.
Rajiv Shah, of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said US teams were on their way to Haiti with specialised rescue equipment and that some efforts were already under way on the ground.
Read the rest of the article here: Haiti earthquake: Thousands feared dead
Many organizations such as Red Cross are are scrambling to rescue their own staff and infrastructure in Haiti.
Haitian Red Cross spokesman Pericles Jean-Baptiste said his organization was overwhelmed. "There are too many people who need help ... We lack equipment, we lack body bags," he told Reuters.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said volunteers in Haiti were assisting the injured and supporting hospitals which had been overwhelmed by the disaster.
Humanity First USA, an international disaster relief organization is deploying its Disaster Response team to the affected areas with emergency supplies. Preliminary relief efforts will be concentrated on food aid, water, sanitation, medical assistance and emotional support. Humanity First has a proven track record of providing significant and valuable support to various natural disasters in the past. Humanity First USA is also accepting donations for the relief work. You may donate online by going to http://usa.humanityfirst.org.
Ahmadiyya Times staff writer edited the story.
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