Life remained extremely difficult Monday for the millions of Haitians affected by last week’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake, but there were signs that a massive international effort to supply food, water, medical care and other necessities to sustain life in the island nation finally is starting to gain traction. Logistical bottlenecks at Port-au-Prince’s airport and harbor seemed to ease, allowing supplies and aid workers to move a bit more smoothly if slowly. Still, massive problems persist.
Water and food are in short supply, though water was available in more places around the capital on Monday than previously. Food was beginning to become available, too, but officials agree distribution needs to speed up if it is to help people who have been without sustenance since last Tuesday. Sporadic looting complicated delivery of food and water, as well, but civilian and military officials pledged Monday to renew efforts to expedite their delivery as well as medical care.
Speed is of the essence. Though nearly 70 people — including several on Monday — had been pulled from pancaked buildings by international search-and-rescue teams in the days after the earthquake, the likelihood of finding other survivors a week after they were entombed is slim. Without water, survival for more than a few days is rare. Indeed, some of those unearthed Monday survived, officials say, only because they were trapped in a supermarket and could reach peanut butter and jelly to sustain them.
As time passes, the rescue mission, sadly, will turn to recovery. That, in fact, already started in many areas with damaged buildings being razed and the dead being buried in mass graves. There’s no official death toll yet, and one is unlikely for weeks. For the moment, the number of dead stands at about 70,000, though officials say it could reach 100,000 or even 200,000.
For now, expediting the delivery of food, water and medical care, providing shelter and restoring infrastructure is the task at hand. In the next day or so, officials say, there will be more than 10,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Haiti and aboard vessels off shore. They’ll take the lead in helping to maintain order, to establish distribution channels for needed supplies and to rebuild infrastructure, including the airport and harbor. The United States is not acting alone. The world community quickly pledged more than half a billion dollars as well as personnel and material to short and long-term relief efforts.