Early estimates place the death toll around 50,000 in Haiti, and another 3 million Haitians are feared to be injured or homeless. No one really knows, and casualties could rise if aid efforts are inefficacious.
Several impediments are complicating aid delivery. Aid started arriving hours after the quake, but has just started to trickle out. The immediate bottleneck is the Port-au-Prince Airport, where the runway endured the earthquake structurally intact, but the control tower and radar were left inoperable. The airport tarmac was so clogged yesterday that they couldn’t unload relief supplies, and some didn’t have enough fuel for their return flight, leading to a temporary ban on non-military landings.
Other transport routes are worse off. The seaport is badly damaged, and the roads around the capital are impassible.
Intergovernmental cooperation has, so far, eased rescue efforts. Cuba has permitted the United States access to its air space, cutting down on flight times to Haiti by 90 minutes. This morning the Haitian government agreed to cede control of the airport to the US military, a move that is speeding delivery.
Reports of looting are, thankfully to this point, few. Should looting become more rampant that could restrict relief efforts to daylight, and possibly crimp donations.
A less immediate concern is Haiti’s political future. Currently the US military is the actor most capable of managing rescue and relief, but in the next few days, or maybe a fortnight, it will be in an awkward situation if President Préval cannot reassert order. Another potential problem is the re-entry of deposed president Aristide into Haiti. Should he return from exile in South Africa, as he wants to do, he could sew factionalism that further challenges Préval’s government.
