John Walsh, in one of the makeshift hospitals that has been set up in Haiti. (Photo: Callahan Walsh)
Haiti's massive earthquake devastated that small nation, ripping apart families and leaving many children alone in its wake. With no infrastructure in place to help the most vulnerable of the quake’s victims, John Walsh traveled to the battered nation to assess the situation and see what aid he could provide.
John flew to Port-au-Prince with his close friend, Florida entrepreneur Hank Asher, his son, Callahan Walsh, and several others hoping to make a difference. They landed Sunday, Jan. 24 and were instantly blown away by how dire things were.
"I was at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing, the only crew allowed at Ground Zero and in the boats in the Ninth Ward in Katrina, and I’ve never seen devastation like this,” John said. “This country has literally collapsed."
"It was tough," Callahan said. "You smell the death as soon as you get off the airplane. Within 15 minutes of landing, I had medical gloves on and was moving bodies."
It was immediately clear to John that the work was cut out for all those assisting on the ground. UNICEF is stretched thin, with just seven people responsible for all of the children – many of whom are wandering the streets and sleeping under makeshift tents alone at night.
After the floods caused by Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was given the job of reuniting children with the families. But in Haiti, John quickly realized, there’s no such organized effort – and one is badly needed.
Near the capital's collapsed presidential palace, John met with University of Miami's Dr. Barth Green, who’s constructed two makeshift triage centers. Each holds about 200 patients and is providing greatly-needed medical aid to patients whose limbs were crushed or skin badly burned.
But the need won't end when the cameras disappear, so John is calling on all Americans to do as much as they can to help Haiti recover from this disaster, and to rebuild. He's hoping to return to the country soon to help with that effort, and to make sure Haitian children are reunited with their families.
John Walsh and the AMW crew filming in front of Haiti's ruined presidential palace. (Photo: Callahan Walsh)
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Hank Asher, Director of Neurological Surgery at University of Miami Dr. Barth A. Green and John Walsh, at the makeshift triage Dr. Green has set up in Haiti. (Photo: Callahan Walsh)
During his visit to Haiti, John Walsh met with a business owner whose establishment was destroyed by vandals in the earthquake's aftermath, despite the number of heavily-armed forces in Port-au-Prince. (Photo: Callahan Walsh)
UN troops are doing the best they can to distribute aid to earthquake survivors, and face an enormous challenge. (Photo: Callahan Walsh)
Displaced Haitians wait their turn to get a portion of rice near downtown Port-au-Prince. (Photo: Callahan Walsh)
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) Two weeks after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti, the numbers have mounted. The numbers tell stories of death and destruction, as well as a global outpouring of aid.
CNN has compiled the latest, most reliable figures available as the devastation continues to unfold:
THE TOLL
150,000: Latest estimate of the death toll, from the Haitian Health Ministry. The European Union and the Pan American Health Organization, which are coordinating the health-sector response, have estimated the quake killed 200,000 people. 194,000: Number of injured 134: Estimated number of people rescued by international search teams since the quake
THE EFFECT
9 million: Population of Haiti 3 million: Estimated number of people affected by the quake 1 million: Estimated number of displaced people 800,000 to 1 million: People who need temporary shelter 235,000: People who have left Port-au-Prince using free transportation provided by the government. The number who left by private means is undetermined. At least 50: Aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or higher that have hit Haiti since the January 12 quake
300,000: Children younger than 2 who need nutritional support 90: Percentage of schools in Port-au-Prince that have been destroyed 363: Haitian orphans who have been evacuated
THE RESPONSE IN DOLLARS
$1.12 billion: International aid pledges $783 million: Funds received as of Tuesday $317 million: U.S. assistance as of Monday
THE RESPONSE IN MANPOWER
17,000: U.S. military personnel in and around Haiti 8 million: Meals the World Food Programme has delivered to nearly 400,000 people 300: Aid distribution sites that are up and running 130 to 150: Flights arriving every day at the single-runway Port-au-Prince airport with aid
12,000: U.N. workers in the country at the time of the quake 53: U.N. workers still missing At least 82: U.N. workers dead 27: U.N. workers injured or hospitalized 11,500: Americans and family members who have been evacuated 4,800: Americans unaccounted for
by Robert Singleton The Black Urban Times Staff Writer
Almost daily someone will exclaim,"Why won't people do what they are supposed to do?", or why don't they act the way they are supposed to act?", or, "why are things this way in the world rather than that?" What is wrong with people? What is wrong with the world? Maybe there's nothing wrong at all.
A shortcut might be to go back to where it all began, back to a time before there were people, if we want to understand the world. In its most primeval and 'primitive' state our world, this Earth, was, and still is, a wild, stormy place, a place of earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and consuming fires. It has always been that way. Geological evidence will reveal cataclysmic activity that has buried countless ruins of features that were never seen by man.
When we come to the world of men (and women) we can consult recorded history. Of course, people existed before there was recorded history, but we can assume, I think, that these people were somewhat more 'primitive' than those we might encounter today. So, what is the problem? There might not be one."
We don't have to be particularly bright students to realize that, voila!, there has never been a time when people did what they are supposed to do! According to our norms, nor has there been a time when people acted the way they are supposed to act. Where there was one renowned for "righteousness," it was generally enough a mark of distinction for the name to have come down to our time.
In our minds we might see a better time and a better world. Surely, these exist only in our minds, since there is no evidence such a state of affairs has ever existed in reality. Writing in his novel, 'Candide,' Voltaire refers to "the best of all possible worlds." Chances are, this might be it.
So, where is the problem?
We ourselves might be the problem. We should not expect that a state of affairs that has never BEEN before will BE or BECOME in our lifetimes. We have to admit it would be ridiculous to do so. People and things will be as they are, as they have always been.
In order to live sensibly, then, in the world, or have any peace in our minds while we do so, we have to come to terms with the world they way it is. But, we can do a little more than that: we won't be able to stop the storms, we may never change other people actions, but we ourselves are able to do the right things. No matter whether other people do so or not, we can take control of ourselves. We can do what WE are supposed to do, and act as WE are supposed to act. If we do only this, we will be at least one person closer to the ideal world we see in our minds, and the world will that much closer to the way we think it is supposed to be.
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An elite team of city cops and firefighters yesterday returned from Haiti after rescuing six people from the rubble of that nation's devastating earthquake.
Nearly 80 members of the team landed at Kennedy Airport just after 1 a.m., to applause from relatives and co-workers.
"It's good to be back," said firefighter Joe Downey. "It was a great experience and an extraordinary mission . . . We went there trying to make an impact, and we think we did."
The highlight came last week, when the team pulled an 8-year-old boy and his 10-year-old sister from the wreckage of a three-story supermarket.
William Farrington
CHAOS & RECOVERY: Desperate survivors fight in Port-au-Prince over rice found amid rubble. Above, Navy Lt. Aron Boney treats student Yolande Sylvarin.
"It was humbling, in a way," Downey said of the weeklong mission. "We were in a different area every day, and every area was poorer than the last. The devastation is unimaginable."
The team's return came as another aftershock struck Haiti's capital, causing no new casualties.
Meanwhile, truckers filling mass graves reported that more than 150,000 victims had been buried by the government.
"Nobody knows how many are buried in the rubble -- 200,000, 300,000?" said Haiti Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue. "Who knows the overall death toll?"
US officials said the 45 search-and-rescue teams that had flocked to the Caribbean from around the globe had pulled out 134 survivors since the Jan. 12 disaster.
Downey said the New York rescuers spent their nights in tents -- first-class accommodations, considering that hundreds of thousands of survivors are homeless.
"People down there had little to start with and now have nothing," Downey said. "They're living in streets and parks. Very few are living in their homes."
They said it would happen again ... and it did. Another brief aftershock sent scores of homeless in Port-au-Prince running for what little open land was available in the middle of the night.
The U.S. Geological Survey has yet to release a measurement of the aftershock, but Geophysicist Susan Potter said people can feel aftershocks that register as low as 2.0.
However brief, the shaker further rattled already traumatized Haitians as they attempt to cope and scrounge for whatever food and water may be available.
No injuries or deaths have been reported with the latest aftershock that came on the heels of Haitian officials contemplating a massive relocation of at least 300,000 people from tent cities throughout the Caribbean nation.
Fritz Longchamp, chief of staff to President Rene Preval, said, "They are going to be going to places where they will have at least some adequate facilities. Hopefully by the end of the month."
Right now families are living in squalor with no food or water and often times in the open.
The biggest dilemma facing relief workers and Haitian officials is repairing the badly damaged pier in order to expedite the receipt of food, water and medical supplies. Hundreds are dying due to a lack of medical care and/or supplies. Only four ships have been able to dock since ships loaded with supplies began arriving days ago. The process of unloading and delivering the supplies has been tedious and lengthy.
The damage is so extensive that the military has warned Haitian officials that repairs, which will require Navy divers surveying the damage first followed by underwater construction, may be a long way off. In the meantime, they will have to load relief trucks one at a time.
Widline Germain, in blue striped top, and her relatives in Haiti a few days before the earthquake.
(CNN) -- The list of relatives Widline Germain has not heard from since Haiti's earthquake seems like a town population in itself.
"When you count our extended family -- the dozens of cousins and aunts and uncles -- there's several hundred of us in Haiti, and we don't know where most of them are," she said from her home in Binghamton, New York.
On January 11, the day before the magnitude-7.0 earthquake hit, the 25-year-old who recently graduated from SUNY Cortland returned to New York from an extended New Year's holiday in Haiti.
Drawing attention to a photo of the Haitian presidential palace lit up with Christmas lights, a tree decorated on its grounds, she said, "It's like I'm stuck in a horrible dream. The bed I was sleeping in the day before the earthquake is dust."
On Thursday, Germain went through the names of relatives -- she says she has about 400 in Haiti-- whom she and her parents are searching for and whom they know are gone.
Elise and Benson Germain and their son Junior Germain, missing.
Video: Haiti: A day in the life
Marie Nerla Nicolas and Wilkense Nicolas, missing.
"I lost a cousin on my father's side. My mother lost her sister and all four kids," she said. "There are 10 missing on my mother's side and eight missing on father's side."
She described a mentally disabled uncle who reported being attacked by thugs in Port-au-Prince. Many of her family members live in Jérémie, a river town of about 31,000 that is largely isolated from the rest of the country.
"The ones in Jérémie, I don't think most rescuers are getting to the smaller towns," she said, pausing. "All my little cousins -- like ages 2 to 7 -- how are they ever going to be able to get over walking over dead bodies in the street?
"They were telling us on their cell phones that they don't have water. They have nothing," Germain said. "We are here, and we can't do anything for them. My family is there starving and thirsty, sleeping on the street -- elderly people sleeping on the street -- and I'm here with water and food. I can't stand this. It's wrong."
She and her father and their extended family in New York are prepared to take everyone in.
"It's going to be hard, but we have college degrees, jobs, a big house," she said. "We're going to manage, because they're family, and that's what you do."
While some philanthropists are stripping their wallets to donate for victims of the Haiti earthquake, Amy Fisher is just stripping. The media-savvy Long Island Lolita -- who's getting naked at Scene Restaurant & Lounge in Commack, LI, today, tomorrow and Saturday -- promises to donate a portion of her earnings toward the relief effort. Fisher, now a mother of three, launched her own porn site last year and embarked on a tour as a stripper for hire across the country. Thankfully, she's not taking her act to Port-au-Prince.
A UN peacekeeper yells at a crowd to maintain order while standing guard at a barricade on a road that leads to warehouses where food is stored in Port-au-Prince.
Added to the heartbreak in quake-ravaged Haiti is the uncertain fate of tens of thousands of newly orphaned children.
As aid workers scrambled to set up child-friendly zones in Port-au-Prince, a string of relief groups called for a moratorium yesterday on new adoptions.
They fear the potential for children to be whisked out of the country before they could be reunited with their families.
"The vast majority of the children currently on their own still have family members alive who will be desperate to be reunited with them and will be able to care for them with the right support," said Carolyn Miles of Save the Children.
This week, U.S. officials waived visa requirements for Haitian children already on the path to adoption. That paved the way for Tuesday's arrival in the U.S. of roughly 50 Haitian orphans.
But what will happen to the thousands of children who have lost their parents in the earthquake is still being hammered out, officials say.
"We're not sure right now how it's all going to work," said John VanValkenburg, a spokesman for Bethany Christian Services, one of the nation's largest adoption agencies.
Even before the quake, adopting Haitian children was thorny due to the number of kids in orphanages who still have parents.
"It's not at all uncommon for poor families to put [their kids] in orphanages with a view of getting them back later," said Christopher de Bono, a Unicef spokesman.
George Clooney has an endless roster of celebrity friends - not including Kanye West.
Kanye West was named the year's biggest turkey in 2009 — and he's still getting the bird.
On Friday, a who's-who of prominent pop stars from Bruce Springsteen to Alicia Keys are taking part in George Clooney's televised telethon, "Hope for Haiti: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief."
West, however, has been left off the guest list, according to Rob Shuter's Naughty But Nice column on PopEater.com.
The rapper has a history of putting his foot in his mouth.
During a televised goodwill event for Hurricane Katrina victims in 2005, West ranted that "George Bush doesn't care about black people."And at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, the rapper surprisingly stormed thestage to interrupt Taylor Swift as she was accepting an award.
"After what he said on the Katrina telethon and the way he behaved at the MTV Video Music Awards, everyone agrees it's just best that he does not participate," a source said.
"Kayne has to make everything about himself," the source added. "He will do anything to steal the spotlight and, well, this night it's just not about him."
Shaquille O'Neal has a plan to save the NBA's All-Star dunk contest: Bring back the superstars and do it for devastated Haiti.
CLEVELAND - Shaquille O'Neal has a plan to save the NBA's All-Star dunk contest: Bring back the superstars and do it for devastated Haiti.
Following Tuesday night's win over Toronto, O'Neal was asked if he would like to see teammate LeBron James participate in this year's event.
That's when he offered his idea.
He would like to see former dunk champion Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant and others take part along with James.
"As his manager, I will only allow 'Bron to do the dunk contest if Vince Carter comes back out," O'Neal said.
"If Kobe comes back out and if another big name comes back out. If we could get a big prize and have half of the money go to the people of Haiti and the other half to the winner. The guys that are in it, no disrespect to them, but there won't really be any competition for LeBron. I want to see Kobe. I want to see Vince and I will allow my client to enter."
Could he make it happen?
"I'm saying it now," O'Neal said.
"So tweet it. Facebook it. E-mail it and hopefully it gets out. Vince, we're calling you out. Kobe, we're calling you out. We're calling everybody out. If those guys step up in the dunk contest, then I will allow my client to step up."
James has decided to skip next month's event in Dallas after originally saying he would participate.
Large amounts of emergency food and water have begun flowing into the small Haitian town of Leogane.
Members of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit secured a small pasture for helicopters to land and load relief supplies into United Nations trucks. The trucks carry the loads to a separate staging area for distribution.
All the activity has drawn a curious but peaceful crowd. Two Marine translators speak to the onlookers in a relaxed manner -- not only to explain the mission, but to glean information from locals about the situation on the ground.
Originally from Haiti themselves, the translators not only know the language, but also the culture -- which seems to have a calming effect on the residents.
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Earthquake damage in Jacmel, Haiti PHOTO: JEREMY LOCK/USAF
BY ALICIA CRUZ NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Another strong aftershock shook Haiti this morning just as American troops arrived with long awaited food, water and medical supplies.
At 6:03 am, a 5.9 aftershock centered in Jacmel, Haiti, approximately 25 miles south of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 9 kilometers (5 miles), rocked the already-shattered Caribbean nation as thousands of people still slept in the streets after the initial monstrous 7.0 earthquake eight days ago.
The aftershock has officials worried that already weakened structures, which have been serving as shelters for some, will completely topple. Many survivors are in the throes of despair as they have taken to the streets living in makeshift tent cities throughout Port-au-Prince.
On Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council unanimously backed a request by the U.N. chief, Ban Ki-moon to deploy an additional 3,500 peacekeeping troops to Haiti to assist with relief efforts. The additional troops will bring the total in Haiti to 12,500.
Scattered looting and violence have begun as Haitians fight one another for whatever rations they can get a hold of. This has raised concerns of UN officials who fear the violence could peak at any moment ... hampering the efforts of relief volunteers and medical staff as they attempt to render aid and deliver family kits, food and water.
The increased presence of American troops has made many Haitian anxious about the infrastructure of their government, which has yet to address the ravaged Caribbean nation since the January 12 earthquake.
As military Humvees patrolled the main strip in Port-au-Prince, U.S. Army Colonel Gregory Kane assured reporters that the Haitian government remains in tact and in control of the country, stressing that American troops were only present to assist with relief and peacekeeping efforts.
"There have been some reports and news stories out there that the U.S. is invading Haiti," said Colonel Kane. "We're not invading Haiti. That's ludicrous. This is humanitarian relief."
Despite reports of concerns over the American military presence, most Haitians stressed that their primary concerns were getting medical attention for the injured and receiving food and water.
Their sensitivities over foreign intervention from the past are a distant memory, at least for now, as evident by the cheering and warm welcome received by the U.S. 82nd Airborne as it strode across the grounds of the Haitian Presidential Palace.
Military engineers kept a watchful eye as the French naval vessel Francis Garnier unloaded supplies onto the pier for fear the fractured pilings would not hold the vessel's weight.
The USNS Comfort, which set sail from Baltimore, Maryland several days ago, has not been brought to port at this time. The ship arrived in Haiti today and began rendering aid to patients it received via helicopter. The Comfort, which is equipped to provide top-notch medical care, treated two severely injured Haitians flown to the deck from the USS Carl Vinson. The ship can treat up to 1,000 patients at a time.
The supplies aboard The Comfort will likely be brought ashore by amphibious landing craft until U.S. military divers and engineers certify the pier's stability.
The massive influx of air traffic has forced several planes stocked with equipment and additional supplies to be diverted to the Dominican Republic and Panama due to overcrowding at the Port-au-Prince airport - leading to the frustration of relief workers and Haitians.
Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, head of the U.S. forces,said planes are only being turned away if the airport is full and air traffic controllers do not know what's on the incoming aircraft. Controllers need to know the cargo of the plane so they know what priority to give it in order to clear the plane for landing.
Military officials have ensured the media that they are working to open more airfields, get more trucks to help deliver water and supplies to victims, and bring in repair and construction equipment to start removing rubble. Troops arriving now are being assigned to guard aid distribution sites, which has freed up the U.N. security forces to join American troops in keeping law and order as they patrol areas where looting and violence have broken out.
John Bellini, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey said the aftershock occurred within the zone of the first earthquake and "was not expected."
"There are going to be more aftershocks" in the days and weeks ahead, he said. This was the strongest aftershock since a 5.9 magnitude aftershock registered seven minutes after the initial quake hit.
The latest death toll count is at 75,000 dead, 250,000 injured and one million homeless.
At 6:03 a.m. (EST) a 6.1 aftershock hit Haiti. The story was originally reported by WPIX/Channel 11 News (NYC)
Just after first light, the 6.1 aftershock, centered 26 miles west-northwest of Jacmel, Haiti, the capital of the south eastern part of the French colony Saint-Domingue and 25 miles south of Port-au-Prince, rocked the already shattered Caribbean nation as thousands of people still slept in the streets after the initial monstrous 7.0 earthquake that hit last week. Reports on damage or injuries have not been released.
The aftershock is the strongest to have hit Haiti and has officials worried that already weakened structures, which have been serving as shelters for some, will completely topple adding to the woes of Haitians already in the throes of despair as they await much needed supplies.
Word of looting frenzies and violence has spread and has officials concerned for the safety of aid workers. In addition to looting and violence, debris littered streets have also delayed aid from reaching areas in Port-au-Prince.
by Robert Singleton The Black Urban Times Staff Writer
Late in the afternoon on January 12th, a powerful earthquake struck Haiti, a nation already known for bad luck. In less than a minute, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere became even more poor. Almost entirely destroyed by a force of nature that seemed to single it out for punishment, this island, or part of an island, the population of which is primarily descendants of slaves, suffered the loss of tens of thousands, saw its physical and political infrastructure reduced to ruins, its people reduced to mournful wailing and tears. The world looked on horrified at the images of pain, fear, and desperation. A powerful reminder of similar images from Hurricane Katrina's aftermath in New Orleans, another similarity was recalled in the minds of many sympathetic viewers, the image of masses of black people crying, suffering in pain. The image was eerily familiar.
Drawing more on the parallels of black people crying, there was the haunting reminder that while each of these communities was devastated by natural forces which some will call acts of God, the tears were not only the outpouring of grief for those who lost friends and family members, but of those who had lost everything, everything past, and maybe every hope for the future. These were poor people in Haiti, just as they were poor people in New Orleans, who lost what little they had, and a moment of reflection on the future could only have brought tears to their eyes.
Contrasted to these events, are those of recent floods in south Florida that destroyed whole communities of high-priced homes. The cameras of the media never captured pain and tears, but the sound-bites were from those who had horses to move, who were concerned about their airline reservations, who, indeed smiled as they told reporters about their bad luck. Some came to move their older relatives to temporary shelter in luxury hotels, or put them up in their vacation homes. There were no photos of bodies floating in the water, of children crushed under rocks and debris, of masses going hungry in the streets, wondering how they would eat, where they would get water to drink, who would dress their wounds. There were also no black people there, few poor people, fewer tears. It's amazing how that works.
Does the world ever tire of black people crying? Does the world see that there are some who have nothing because others have everything? Does anyone really believe that all contrasts in the news and in the world are acts of God?
Maybe when all the bodies are cleared from the streets of Port-au-Prince, when the last leg is amputated to save what's left of a crumpled life, someone might wake up and take another look at the world. They might see that some things are the acts of God, others the acts of men, and never the twain shall meet.
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(CNN) -- Four days after Haiti's massive earthquake, efforts are under way to bury the dead as thousands of bodies crumpled in the streets of Port-au-Prince lay exposed to the sun or draped in sheets and cardboard.
Throughout the city, people covered their noses from the stench and some resorted to face masks. CNN correspondents in Haiti reported efforts to remove the bodies, including the creation of a mass grave. It's still unclear how many people have been killed in Tuesday's earthquake; the prime minister suggested there could be several hundreds of thousands.
CNN's Anderson Cooper, reporting Friday from a mass grave on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, described seeing hundreds of bodies mixed with garbage in open pits. Some bodies were bulldozed into the half-filled pits.
"These people will vanish," Cooper said in a phone report. "No one will know what happened to them. That's one of the many horrors.
"There's no system in place here. Literally these people here are being collected off the streets, dumped into a dump truck, then brought out here and dumped in the pits," he said.
The fear of disease is frequently the reason for rapidly burying bodies in mass graves. But contrary to popular belief, bodies do not cause epidemics after natural disasters, experts said.
"The reality is that most of the disease that live in us -- once our body is dead they can't survive very long," said Oliver Morgan, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Fecal matter from the deceased could contaminate the water supply, posing a risk, but "it's nowhere near the risk of all the survivors living in the streets with no sanitation," said Morgan, who contributed to the World Health Organization's guidelines on managing bodies after a natural disaster.
There has never been an epidemic after a natural disaster that was traced to exposure to bodies, according to the WHO.
The chief priority must lie with the living, experts said.
"Body collection is not the most urgent task after a natural disaster," according to the WHO's 2006 guidance on the Management of Dead Bodies after Disasters. "The priority is to care for survivors. There is no significant public health risk associated with the presence of bodies. Nevertheless, bodies should be collected as soon as possible and taken away for identification."
Mass graves, it warned, are "not justified on public health grounds. Rushing to dispose of bodies without proper identification traumatizes families and communities and may have serious legal consequences."
"There's always talks about mass graves because that's always the easiest solution," said Frank Ciaccio, vice president of commercial services at Kenyon International Emergency Services, a disaster management company that responds to mass fatality accidents. "We don't strongly recommend them. However, sometimes in situations in very developing nations, that's the only thing to do."
In cases of mass graves, teams should at least document or photograph the individual for future identification, he said. Kenyon has deployed an emergency response assessment team to Haiti. Ciaccio was part of the crew that responded to the tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2004 and New Orleans, Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Having bodies on the street is very distressing to survivors.
"That's going to be very stressful," Ciaccio said. "It's hot temperatures and that's not a pleasant sight. There's decomposed bodies. And the hotter the weather, the quicker the decomposition."
Decomposition starts as early as the day of death, bringing stench and pests.
"When you have bodies on the street that begin to decompose, you eventually get maggot infestation because of flies and you have a potential of rats," said Vernie Fountain, the disaster task force leader of the National Funeral Directors Association.
At one of the capital city's cemeteries, people opened up old crypts and shoved corpses of quake victims into them before resealing them. Workers loaded bodies -- piled on the sides of roads -- into the basket of a front-loader tractor, which then deposited them into blood-stained dump trucks, according to CNN correspondents in Haiti.
Sometimes in situations in very developing nations that's the only thing to do. --said Frank Ciaccio, vice president of commercial services at Kenyon International, about mass graves
"There's little dignity in death in Port-au-Prince these days," Cooper said in his report.
The United States is deploying mortuary teams to identify and bury the dead in a public safety rescue mission, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, said Thursday.
After huge disasters, mortuary teams often face logistical nightmares, working with little resources, thousands of bodies, collapsed infrastructure, language barriers and different cultural and religious views.
After working in the aftermath of landslides, cyclones, hurricanes and tsunamis with mass fatalities, Morgan realized the lack of a guidelines for handling the bodies was a recurring problem.
"What we often see are these pictures of mass graves which are dug three feet deep with hundreds of bodies thrown into this large hole," Morgan said. "That's discouraged in preference to having a more organized situation with a long trench grave and putting bodies in an ordered way, or marked graves so people know where the victims are buried."
One possible solution is to move the bodies to a temporary, organized collection point and to gather as much information to help with future identification, said Fountain, who served as a national officer for Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, a national response team designed to provide mortuary assistance in mass fatality incidents.
After the tsunami killed 225,000 people in 2004, various Southeast Asian countries handled the dead differently based on location and available resources.
While none of the countries affected by the tsunami had enough refrigerated storage to handle the corpses, many found alternatives by burying the dead in temporary, shallow graves with the intent to exhume them later. Other bodies were hastily buried within 24 hours in mass graves.
"The parallels are mass fatalities and catastrophic events," Ciaccio said. "We have a significant loss of life; we have people that are unknown; we have a significant number of missing people. The one minor difference in Thailand was that it was isolated to shoreline about a mile in. Here you have total destruction of an infrastructure system."
Ken and Peggy Bourland hold their sons Charley and Andrew. She has not heard from him since he sent an e-mail from Haiti.
(CNN) -- Peggy Bourland can't eat. When she lies down to sleep, she fights the urge to go outside and curl up on the cold, hard ground.
"Ken can't eat right now. He can't sleep in our bed," she said, her husband's military dog tags around her neck. "I won't have what he cannot have."
Last Tuesday, from his room at the Hotel Montana near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, U.S. Air Force Maj. Ken Bourland sent an e-mail to his wife telling her that he was fine and had just settled in for what was going to be an exciting time taking a disaster preparedness course.
It was 4:51 p.m. ET.
Less than 10 minutes later, an earthquake leveled much of the Haitian capital, including the Hotel Montana.
"I had just clicked off the e-mail and was trying to find some cartoons for the kids to watch," she said. "And then I saw this breaking news. An earthquake. I thought, 'Did California get hit again?' Then I saw Haiti."
Bourland popped her laptop open and fired off an e-mail: "Please tell me you're OK."
Crews have spent the past six days searching mounds of rubble, 30 feet high in places, that was the Hotel Montana, popular with tourists and visiting officials. Some United Nations employees who lived there remain unaccounted for, the U.N. said Sunday, and Alain Joyandet, the French minister of cooperation, said approximately 200 French tourists staying there had not been heard from.
There is reason to hope. On Friday, a woman trapped in the hotel's collapsed bar was rescued. In the past few days, students from South Florida's Lynn University, who were in Haiti on a humanitarian mission to feed the poor, were freed from the Montana's rubble. Six others with the university are reportedly still missing.
Peggy Bourland gets two calls a day at her suburban South Florida home -- one at night, one in the morning -- from the family's assigned military liaison. There's nothing to say, really. She's told to be optimistic. She tries.
After the second call, when she has tucked the couple's sons, 16-month-old Andrew and 3-year-old Charley into bed, she allows herself to cry. "I don't do it in front of them."
She finds it overwhelming to return to thoughts about the Sunday before Ken Bourland left. It was Charley's birthday, and another military family came over. "Ken sang to him and we all said, 'Daddy's going on another trip.'"
The Bourlands' fifth wedding anniversary will be in March. Their first date -- set up by her boss and his sister -- was one with hours of talk and lost time. She liked the fact that he asked questions about every conceivable scenario that might arise from a decision. He analyzed, where she just went with it. He prepared for the small and big things. He had been mulling for weeks, exhausting Google, over what kind of television to buy.
Ken's steady demeanor has rubbed off on Chance, his stepson. Peggy's son was 9 when she introduced him to Ken. The helicopter pilot endeared himself quickly with camping and a mutual zest for video games and remote control cars. Now 13, Chance understands what's going on.
"I let him talk when he wants to," she said. "But sometimes there's nothing to say. You just wait and continue to wait, hoping for something good."
There is a silence from the black church regarding Haiti that seems to speak volume. Organizing on a smaller scale starts at the grass roots level. President Obama can only do so much about the crisis in Haiti. The mega churches of Bishop T D Jakes and Creflo Dollar have enough money to fill their coffers for private jets and mansions, but not enough to send just $1000 to Haiti in the name of the "Black Mega Churches". In 2010, a new leaf should be turned over for these mega churches. A social responsibility could be the change that will give these churches the backbone that those in the black community will never talk about. We're letting everyone help the nation that started the first slave revolt, defeating Napoleon and starting the movement for free slaves. In all of our thoughts,prayers, donations, and sacrifice, there's a looming sadness. It comes from an entire continent, of Africa, not being able to send help or money. It comes from Black Mega Church Pastors staying silent, it comes from the tearing down of Wyclef's efforts with Yéle, and the lack of coordination amongst the nation's efforts causing a recipe for another situation, riots and looting. We should be reminded that the Phoenix rose from the ashes of rubble and Haiti will do the same as well. Pray for Haiti and pray for the enlightenment of the entire African race as well. Media Outlets must credit The Black Urban Times
