Residents say only about a dozen of nearly 1,000
families there have real tents. The rest are makeshift dwellings
erected with wooden branches, dug in the ground with machetes and rocks.
Haitian and relief officials are asking the world to
send tents, tents and more tents to shelter hundreds of thousands of
homeless who are sleeping outdoors before a mini-rain season starts
next month.
“If it rains, we’ll get all wet,” said Dieubon
Accine, 17, whose family improvised their tent from rice and bean sacks
provided by the
From his makeshift dwelling, he could see over the airport wall to where
The quake so ravaged the nation’s infrastructure that even President
— to serve as an office. Meantime, he issued an urgent international
appeal this week for 200,000 tents, each of which can hold a family of
eight.
to get psychological counseling for the children while the Haitian
government considers ways to resume their education, possibly creating
classrooms in tents.
“They’ve begun to think about reopening schools, even if not traditional,” she said. “The children are in shock.”
Meantime, the Haitian first lady received a gift
Tuesday — a white envelope with stars drawn in black ink by a
6-year-old girl named Ellie.
“For the people of Haty” read the envelope, which the girl’s father, a
Two weeks after the quake, celebrities continue to use their star power to try to ease the suffering of the Haitian people.
Actor
Monday night with 50 doctors, 7,000 pounds of medical supplies and
4,500 military rations onboard for hungry Haitians. He returned to
Rescue efforts have been refocused on recovery. Senior officials from 19 nations met in
U.N. officials in
said Tuesday they were close to deciding on sites outside the capital
to house since-recaptured prisoners who escaped in the earthquake.
Some 5,100 prisoners escaped, 36 of whom have been caught in
He stressed that most were not convicts but rather Haitians under arrest who were awaiting criminal trials.
“Most of the people do not represent a threat,” he
said, adding that security officials do not believe previously
dismantled gangs will regroup.
U.S. and U.N. officials plan to build housing areas
for recaptured inmates. A U.S. assessment team was scheduled to arrive
Tuesday to help Haitian officials decide on locations for the prisoner
housing areas, most likely outside of the capital.
But in the short term, the focus is on tents and other temporary shelters as a stepping stone toward a more normal way of life.
“Schools will reopen. They will reopen under tents,”
No timetable was offered. “This is a government of
decision that they intend to implement and they are looking to the
international community for help,” said Duguid. “They are there, and
they are working.”
Homelessness, added U.S. Ambassador
“The immediate thing is for us to provide temporary
shelter,” Lucke said. “The rains haven’t started yet, fortunately, but
it’s not going to be that case forever, so we have to help.”
In
and more were “in the pipeline, perhaps a couple hundred more.” Haitian
government officials have to issue permits for each orphan to leave
their homeland.
About 460 Haitian citizens were also granted humanitarian parole “for medical and other reasons” to come to
also has confirmed 59 Americans were killed in the quake: an embassy
official, three U.S. government workers’ family members and 55 private
citizens.
As hopes of finding survivors fade, the
have begun working on a plan to bring back the remains of American
citizens in the absence of functioning mortuaries or commercial
flights,
—
(c) 2010, The Miami Herald.
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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
