Haiti ends search for earthquake survivors
Meanwhile, mourners pay final respects to Port-au-Prince archbishop
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti's government declared the search and rescue phase for survivors of the earthquake over, the United Nations announced Saturday, saying there is little hope of finding more people alive 11 days after much of the capital was reduced to rubble. The statement from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs came a day after an Israeli team reported pulling a man out of the debris of a two-story home and relatives said an elderly woman had been rescued. Experts say the chance of saving trapped people begins diminishing after 72 hours, but one mother still missing her children said it's too soon to give up. "Maybe there's a chance they're still alive," said Nicole Abraham, 33, wiping away tears as she spoke of hearing the cries of her children — ages 4, 6 and 15 — for the first two days after the Jan. 12 quake.
Meanwhile Saturday, mourners gathered near the ruins of the shattered cathedral to pay final respects to the capital's archbishop and a vicar in a somber ceremony that doubled as a symbolic funeral for all the dead. "I came here to pay my respects to all the dead from the earthquake, and to see them have a funeral," said Esther Belizaire, 51, whose cousin is among the dead. The 7.0-magnitude quake killed an estimated 200,000 people, according to Haitian government figures cited by the European Commission. The U.N. said Saturday the government had preliminarily confirmed 111,481 bodies, but that figure does not account for corpses buried by relatives. Countless dead remain buried in thousands of collapsed and toppled buildings in Port-au-Prince, while as many as 200,000 have fled the city of 2 million, the U.S. Agency for International Development reported.
'Hope is unfortunately fading'
With the local government essentially incapacitated, the U.N. has coordinated rescue efforts alongside the U.S. and teams from around the world. Spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said the Friday afternoon decision does not mean rescue teams still searching for survivors would be stopped from carrying out whatever work they felt necessary. "It doesn't mean the government will order them to stop. In case there is the slightest sign of life, they will act," Byrs told The Associated Press. She added, however, that "except for miracles, hope is unfortunately fading." All told, some 132 people were pulled alive from beneath collapsed buildings by international search and rescue teams since the Jan. 12 disaster, she said. Some 49 teams — down from 67 — were still in Haiti as of Saturday, the U.N. said.
Col. Gili Shenhar, a senior officer on the Israeli Defense Forces team in Haiti, said team members were still investigating potential rescue sites in Port-au-Prince on Saturday. However, he said it is unlikely more people will be found alive under the rubble and described being called to scenes by relatives who believe, usually incorrectly, they hear voices from the debris. "Maybe there is one person somewhere, but the problem is how to find them," Shenhar said. A day earlier, the team reported saving a 21-year-old man who told The Associated Press he drank his own urine to survive. With the rainy season on the way, U.N. relief workers are concerned that many Haitians are still homeless and Byrs said the focus now will be squarely on providing shelter and medical treatment. About 609,000 people are homeless in the capital's metropolitan area, and the United Nations estimates that up to 1 million could leave Haiti's destroyed cities for rural areas already struggling with extreme poverty.
Burials
On Saturday morning, more than 1,000 people, many weeping and clutching handkerchiefs, gathered in a small park for the funerals of Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, and the vicar Charles Benoit. Classical music wafted over their two closed white caskets covered with flowers. "This is for everyone," Cleopas Auza said of the ceremony before it began. Nepthalie Miot, a niece of the archbishop, choked back tears as she described the man who would have worked to comfort the nation after the disaster had he not been killed himself. "He was a very compassionate person. He tried to help the poor," she told the crowd, which included President Rene Preval, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and the Vatican's ambassador to Haiti, Archbishop Bernadito Cleopas Auza.
Only a small number of funerals have been held since the quake, with most people buried anonymously and without ceremony in mass graves on the outskirts of the city, or burned in the streets. "The hardest thing for us is the smell of all the dead bodies," said Josette Elisias, 45, wearing a red handkerchief to cover her nose and mouth on Saturday as workers cleared rubble and debris from streets with brooms, rakes and wheelbarrows. Scores of aid organizations, big and small, have stepped up deliveries of food, water, medical supplies and other aid to the homeless and other needy in seaside city. In the U.S., celebrities and artists made impassioned pleas for charitable donations during an internationally broadcast telethon Friday night. "The Haitian people need our help," said actor George Clooney, who helped organize the two-hour telecast. "They need to know that they are not alone. They need to know that we still care." More than a dozen Latin pop stars including Shakira, Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, Paulina Rubio, Daddy Yankee and Juanes were to appear Saturday on a special live edition of a popular Univision variety show to raise money for the American Red Cross to help aid earthquake victims.
Celebrities unite to help Haiti in telethon
Haitian people ‘need to know that they are not alone,’ says Clooney
NEW YORK - Grim-faced celebrities and musicians with mournful tunes set the tone for the all-star, international "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon, which featured two hours of desperate pleas for an even more-desperate nation. But it ended on a hopeful note, with a buoyant call for Haiti's revival by native son, Wyclef Jean. "Enough of this moping man, let's rebuild Haiti, let's show 'em how we do it where we come from!" Jean shouted after singing the slow song "Rivers of Babylon," with a Haitian flag around his neck. He segued into the joyful tune "Yele" with an island beat, as musicians danced around him, singing the refrain: "Earthquake, we see the earth shake, but the soul of the Haitian people will never break!" It was a stark contrast from the opening of the telecast: no words, simply photos of Haiti's tragic citizens as a backdrop, as Alicia Keys called for the help of angels in somber tune.
“Can you send me an angel to guide me?” Keys sang from her song “Prelude to a Kiss.” There was no audience or applause, allowing the moment to sink in for the millions expected to watch. "The Haitian people need our help," said George Clooney, who helped organize the two-hour telecast. "They need to know that they are not alone. They need to know that we still care." Then, after an impassioned plea from Halle Berry, Bruce Springsteen dedicated a song for Haiti — "We Shall Overcome." Since Haiti suffered the devastating earthquake on Jan. 12 that killed more than 200,000 people, the entertainment world has responded with an outpouring of charity, from million dollar donations to songs designed to raise money for relief.
On Friday night, those efforts became collective as the biggest celebrities from music, film, sports and even politics joined together for the telethon. Stars like Mel Gibson, Reese Witherspoon and Julia Roberts manned telephone lines while CNN's Anderson Cooper gave reports about the situation from Haiti. Heartbreaking video showed Haitians buried in rubble and badly injured, with tears and overwhelming sorrow etched on their faces. Although the celebrity phone bank appeared to be continuously busy with donation calls, some of which were piped into the telecast, it was not immediately known how much money was raised by the show. Most of the musical performances were downbeat, emotional songs. John Legend sang "I Feel Like A Motherless Child." Kid Rock, Keith Urban and Sheryl Crow sang "Lean On Me." Beyonce, with Coldplay's Chris Martin backing her on piano, revised her hit "Halo" with new lyrics: "Haiti we can see your halo, we pray you won't fade away."
Madonna provided one of the few upbeat moments with her choir-backed performance of "Like A Prayer," while Sting's "Driven To Tears" was also spirited. Jay-Z, Rihanna and U2's Bono and The Edge debuted a new song, "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)," as Jay-Z rapped from London: "When the sky falls, and the earth quakes, we can gon' this back together, we won't break."
Mickelson Civil, a Haitian filmmaker, fought back tears as he talked about relatives who died and those who are barely surviving: "The survivors shouldn't have to go hungry or be afraid now," he said. Jean made one of the more personal celebrity appeals of the evening, speaking of his experience after witnessing the torment of the nation first hand. "I carried bodies of my people in the cemetery. They should have been walking," he said. "Instead they were heavy in my arms. Right now we can see the second wave of the disaster coming . We have to make sure that the second wave never makes it to Haiti."
Jean ended his comments with a message directly to the Haitian people, in Creole. Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation is one of the groups that will benefit from the evening's donations; Jean had come under criticism for the spending practices of the foundation, and before the telethon Friday announced a new accounting firm to handle the group's finances after acknowledging past mistakes. The telethon was broadcast from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti, and was featured on all the major networks and channels. It was also streamed live on sites like YouTube and MySpace. Haitians were able to listen on Radio One Haiti. Leonardo DiCaprio was among those celebrities who urged viewers to donate; on Thursday, he joined the list of previous celebrities donors with a $1 million gift to The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, one of several organizations that will benefit from the telethon.
John Mayer called in a $500,000 donation before the telethon began, according to a representative for MTV. People were able to start donating even before the telethon at a newly established Web site, and also through text or telephone. Viewers will also be able to purchase performances from the evening on Saturday by way of iTunes for 99 cents, with those proceeds going to relief aid as well. The telethon won't be the last major celebrity effort for Haiti; BET plans to hold its own all-star telethon on Feb. 5, with Diddy and Queen Latifah as hosts. It will also be aired on MTV and VH1.
Deported Muslim cleric arrives home, Investigators place al-Faisal under their microscope
JAMAICAN-BORN Muslim cleric, Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal, was quizzed by Special Branch investigators for nearly an hour when he returned to the island last night. One investigator made it clear that al-Faisal had not broken any laws here, but said the police wanted to make sure they knew where and how to find him "because of the international attention he has received". "He is a very smart man. He can tell us he is going to be here or there, but we want to make sure," said one investigator, who recorded the licence plate of the minibus that whisked al-Faisal from the Norman Manley International Airport. Confronted by reporters as he exited the airport, the controversial Muslim cleric said he was too tired to answer any questions after two days of flying.
He would not disclose the route his plane took, but said the flight had been paid for by a South African company. fuel stops
Informed sources told The Gleaner that after leaving Kenya, al-Faisal's plane made fuel stops in the West African country of Burkina Faso, the Republic of Cape Verde and Antigua. One source said al-Faisal told investigators the trip cost US$500,000. The controversial cleric was ordered deported by Kenyan officials who labelled him a security threat. However, since the deportation order, several countries, including the United States, have refused to allow planes carrying al-Faisal to fly over their air space or provide him with an in-transit visa.
Tanker collision causes major scare, Screaming passengers spared the worst
JAMAICA WAS miraculously spared another awful catastrophe yesterday after a tanker filled with oil ploughed into a Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) bus filled with passengers and a large delivery truck along Marcus Garvey Drive. There were no fatalities but several JUTC passengers were injured. Piercing screams reverberated from the 22A JUTC bus heading to Spanish Town from downtown Kingston in the aftermath of the impact. The sounds of terror echoed the fear the passengers said they felt when they realised that the highly flammable tanker could have exploded.
Frightened passengers, assisted by others, scrambled through air vents in the roof of the bus, as well as some of the windows, when the Gleaner team arrived on the scene. Persons claiming to be eyewitnesses from nearby Greenwich Town, as well as employees from companies in the area, said the JUTC bus had stopped to allow the delivery truck to reverse into Industrial Sales Limited when the oil tanker collided into both vehicles. Jessica, a JUTC passenger, was on her way to Spanish Town to take her ailing grandmother to hospital, but she did not make it. She told The Gleaner that she was in pain, having sustained stomach and hand injuries, but that did not prevent her from escaping through one of the windows. The extent of Jessica's injuries was unclear.
Free-FlowingTears
A few metres away, tears flowed freely from two women who were seated in a marked police vehicle preparing to take them to hospital. Quivering and barely able to speak, the women gave their names as Donna Dixon and Michelle. Dixon told The Gleaner that she received a severe blow to the head as she was seated on the side of the bus which received the full impact of the hit from the oil tanker. The tanker had reportedly just loaded up at the nearby Petrojam facility on Marcus Garvey Drive.
Two schoolboys, too frightened to speak, were seated beside them. JUTC personnel took the names of the injured passengers. The police were out in their numbers manning the area, which was choked with traffic, while fire personnel took precautionary measures as others toiled to extricate the three vehicles, the extensively damaged fronts still wrapped around each other. Up to midday, the side of the Marcus Garvey Drive dual carriageway leading to Three Miles was blocked.
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