(January 14, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sri Lanka Guardian) Aid agencies are racing to get help to Haiti where thousands are feared to be trapped under rubble following a devastating earthquake which is believed to have left tens of thousands dead or trapped.The United Nations has mobilised 37 search and rescue teams from a global network to the devastated capital Port-au-Prince.
Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said search and rescue teams were "working against the clock" to save lives.
But more than 24 hours after the 7.0 magnitude quake struck, there was little help in sight on the streets of the capital where numerous bodies lay amid collapsed buildings and the cries of people buried beneath rubble continued to ring out.
Waiting for rescue
Al Jazeera's Sebastian Walker, reporting from Port-au-Prince, said little aid had got in as of Wednesday night and rescue teams were not yet on the scene helping to pull people from the rubble.
"On a drive through the centre of the city we saw no rescue workers; there was no digging go on, there was no water being given out - this could be going on in other parts of the city, but we didn't see it," he said.
"A lot of the structures in Port-au-Prince are not built to withstand anything like what happened.
"People are so scared now of more tremors that they won't sleep in their houses. Everyone seems to sat out on the streets tonight."
Many people were gathered in Port-au-Prince's parks, either sleeping on the ground or under makeshift tents as the waited for aid to arrive.
Ansel Haerz, a journalist in Port-au-Prince, told Al Jazeera that, in the absence of international rescue workers, the people were working together to dig through the debris for survivors.
"Haitians are coming together, I have seen them many times, crowded around a little spot in a building where there is a little space trying to hear if anyone is trapped beneath it and trying to get people out," he said.
Many Haitians are living on the streets fearing that aftershocks will destroy more buildings [AFP]Cargo planes carrying emergency aid have begun to arrive at the airport in Port-au-Prince, but so far the deliveries were insufficient to sustain the population of two million.
'Big priorities'
John Holmes, the UN humanitarian affairs chief, told Al Jazeera that the world body was doing "all that it can to respond to the emergency".
"One of the big priorities is getting enough doctors, medical teams and hospital staff on the ground, then food clean water and shelter," he said, adding that the situation was "dire".
He warned, however, that these emergency operations take time.
"At this point in time, we cannot get teams instantly there, or as quickly as we would like, particularly in emergency situations like earthquakes where the hours count," he said.
Sonia Khush, the emergency preparedness and response director for non-profit organisation Save The Children, said that aid efforts were being delayed by the dire situation on the ground.
"All organisations that were within Haiti, including Save the Children, have been severely impacted by the earthquake," she told Al Jazeera from Washington.
"Our staff are in shock, they are trying to take care of their families. At the same time we have started responding in the neighbourhood around us.
"Because our office didn't sustain as much damage as the buildings around us it has become something of a reception centre and we have been taking in children and families."
Casualty fears
Raymond Joseph, the Haitian ambassador to the United States, told Al Jazeera that 100,000 people may have been killed by Tuesday's quake, while Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, compared the disaster to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people.
"The Indian Ocean tsunami was such a terrible tragedy and with such high loss of life.
This will be a very high loss of life as well," she said, adding that she was shortening her Asian tour to return to the US to help tackle the crisis.
The sheer number of dead bodies was expected to pose a problem.
The World Health Organisation said it had sent specialists to help clear the city of corpses, and the International Red Cross was sending a plane loaded mainly with body bags.
Ambassador Joseph said that, with hospitals among the collapsed buildings in the capital, the US was sending a hospital ship set to arrive next week and two smaller vessels that were set to arrive late on Wednesday.
He added that any assistance by the US military was not "to quell any rebellion" as the Haitian people "are unified and there are no reports of looting".
Reports from witnesses in Port-au-Prince, however, said looters had prowled through shops before blending into crowds of refugees lugging salvaged possessions.
Security fears were also heightened after the United Nations said the main prison in the capital had collapsed, allowing some inmates to escape.
Several thousand Haitian police and international peacekeepers poured into the streets on Wednesday to clear debris, direct traffic and try to maintain security.
Peacekeepers killed
The UN itself, meanwhile, said more than a dozen peacekeepers had been killed in the quake and more than 150 staff remained unaccounted for after its main building in the capital was severely damaged.
Rene Preval, Haiti's president who survived the collapse of his presidential palace on Tuesday, said Hedi Annabi, the chief of the UN mission in Haiti, had been killed.
Holmes said he could not confirm if Annabi was dead and said that the UN was "trying not to be distracted by our own casualties".
"Our first priority is to help the Haitian people, get them out and save them while they're still alive," he said.
Already the one of the poorest nations in the Americas, Haiti has been hit by a series of recent disasters, including deadly hurricanes in 2008.
Tuesday's quake - along with the more than 30 aftershocks measuring up to 5.9 in magnitude - was the latest tragedy to hammer the country scarred by years of unrest, crime and political tumult.
Source:Al Jazeera and agencies
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