Huge death toll feared; U.S. mobilizes resources

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Dazed survivors wandered past dead bodies in rubble-strewn streets Wednesday, crying for loved ones, and rescuers searched collapsed buildings as officials feared the death toll from Haiti's devastating earthquake could reach into the tens of thousands.

The first cargo planes with food, water, medical supplies, shelter and sniffer dogs headed to the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation a day after the magnitude-7 quake flattened much of the capital of 2 million people.

Tuesday's earthquake brought down buildings great and small -- from shacks in shantytowns to President Rene Preval's once-gleaming white National Palace, where a dome tilted ominously above the manicured grounds.

Hospitals, schools and the main prison collapsed. The capital's Roman Catholic archbishop was killed when his office and the main cathedral fell. The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission was missing in the ruins of the organization's multistory headquarters.

At a triage center improvised in a hotel parking lot, people with cuts, broken bones and crushed ribs moaned under tent-like covers fashioned from bloody sheets. "I can't take it any more. My back hurts too much," said Alex Georges, 28, who was still waiting for treatment a day after the school he was in collapsed and killed 11 classmates. A body lay a few feet away.

"This is much worse than a hurricane," said doctors' assistant Jimitre Coquillon. "There's no water. There's nothing. Thirsty people are going to die."

Haiti's leaders struggled to comprehend the extent of the catastrophe, the worst earthquake to hit the country in 200 years, even as aftershocks still reverberated.

Preval told The Miami Herald that he had stepped over bodies and heard cries from people trapped under the collapsed national Parliament building.

"Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed," he said. "There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them."

Preval said thousands of people probably were killed. Leading Sen. Youri Latortue said 500,000 could be dead, but conceded that nobody really knows.

"Let's say that it's too early to give a number," Preval said.

Looting began almost as quickly as the quake struck at 4:53 p.m. and people were seen carrying food from collapsed buildings. Many lugged what they could salvage and stacked it around them as they slept in streets and parks.

People streamed into the Haitian countryside, where wooden and cinderblock shacks showed little sign of damage. Many balanced suitcases and other belongings on their heads. Ambulances and U.N. trucks raced in the opposite direction, toward Port-au-Prince.

The international Red Cross said a third of the country's 9 million people may need emergency aid, a burden that would test any nation and a crushing catastrophe for impoverished Haiti.

President Barack Obama promised an all-out rescue and humanitarian effort and American officials said they were responding with ships, helicopters, transport planes and a 2,000-member Marine unit, as well as civilian emergency teams from across the U.S. "We have to be there for them in their hour of need," Obama said.

The first C-130 plane carrying part of a military assessment team arrived in Haiti, the U.S. Southern Command said.

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was expected to arrive off the coast of Haiti today. More U.S. Navy ships were under way as well, the U.S. Southern Command said.

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter evacuated four critically injured U.S. Embassy staff to the hospital on the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the military has been detaining suspected terrorists.

Cuba, which already had hundreds of doctors in Haiti, treated the injured in field hospitals. The aid group Doctors Without Borders helped quake victims in tent clinics set up to replace its damaged facilities.

Haiti's quake refugees likely will face an increased risk of dengue fever, malaria and measles -- problems that plagued the impoverished country before, said Kimberley Shoaf, associate director of the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters.

Some of the biggest immediate health threats include respiratory disease from inhaling dust from collapsed buildings and diarrhea from drinking contaminated water.

She said swamped clinics may not be able to give people help they need for broken bones and other injuries, leading to complications -- a warning borne out on the streets where people, some covered in the dust of collapsed buildings, nursed wounds that bled through crude bandages.

The United Nations has released $10 million from its emergency funds, even as U.N. workers and peacekeeping troops on the island nation at the time of the quake struggled with their own losses. The U.N. headquarters building collapsed, and the reported death toll there was mounting.

"We'll be using whatever roads are passable to get aid to Port-au-Prince, and if possible, we'll bring helicopters in," said Emilia Casella, a spokeswoman for the U.N. food agency in Geneva. Its 200 staff in Haiti were trying to deliver high-energy biscuits and other supplies, despite looting and the threat of violence in a nation long plagued by lawlessness.

The American Red Cross ran out of medical supplies on the ground in Haiti, a spokesman said Wednesday. The small amount of medical equipment and supplies that were available to Haiti had been distributed, spokesman Eric Porterfield said. More were being sent, but he said he did not know when they would be arriving.

Across the globe, governments and aid groups were sending sniffer dogs to search for victims. They also were sending food and tons of emergency medical aid.

The sheer number of dead bodies was expected to pose a problem. The World Health Organization said it had sent specialists to help clear the city of corpses, and the International Red Cross was sending a plane today loaded mainly with body bags.

Sixty-five rubble-clearing specialists and six sniffer dogs left France on Wednesday, while Spain dispatched three planeloads of rescuers and 100 tons of tents, blankets and cooking kits. Israel was sending in an elite Army rescue unit of engineers and doctors.

A military reconnaissance team from Canada was arriving aboard a C-130 transport plane to assess the need for mosquito nets, basic household goods, tents and sanitation packages.

One of the first teams expected to arrive in Haiti was a 37-member search-and-rescue unit from Iceland, along with 10 tons of rescue equipment.

The Irish telecommunications company Digicel said it would donate $5 million to aid agencies and help repair Haiti's damaged phone network.

China pitched in with a pledge of $1 million, while the European Commission has approved $4.37 million. European Union member states Spain, the Netherlands and Germany promised millions more.

How to Help

Here is a list of organizations accepting donations for earthquake-stricken Haiti:

--Water Missions International is preparing water-purification systems for deployment to Haiti. Anyone who wants to help can do so online at www.watermissions.org or by calling 843-769-7395 or toll free 866-280-7107.

--To donate $10 to the American Red Cross, text "Haiti" to 90999. The amount will be added to your next phone bill. The organization also is accepting donations through its International Response Fund, www.redcross.org. You also can donate through your local Red Cross chapter by calling 843-764-2323 ext. 355 or make a secure donation online at www.LowcountryRedCross.org.

--To donate $5 to Wyclef Jean's Haitian Yele charity, text 501501. The money will be added to your next phone bill.

--To find out how to help the International Rescue Committee, visit www.theIRC.org or call toll free, 1-877-REFUGEE.

--To donate to Oxfam's emergency appeal, visit oxfam.org.uk

--InterAction, a coalition of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations, has a list of agencies responding and how to donate to them. Find it at www.interaction.org/crisis-list/earthquake-haiti

Family inquires: The State Department has set up a hot line for Americans to inquire about family in Haiti: 888-407-4747.