Chile Shock 500x Energy of Haiti Quake

(AP)  The 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile early Saturday morning released 500 times the energy of the 7.0-magnitude quake that struck Haiti last month, a geophysicist told CBS' "The Early Show."

Tsunami warnings were issued for much of the Pacific, including Hawaii, following the quake that struck near the Chilean coast, killing at least 76 people.

"When the earthquake occurred, it moved the land and then it moved the water causing the tsunami," said U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Jessica Sigala. "And the coastal areas of Chile have already noticed the wave heights up to about 7 feet."

Sigala said Hawaiians can expect to see the waves from this tsunami around 11:20 a.m. local time (about 4:20 p.m. ET). "So we have to wait and see how big the waves will be."

8.8 Mag. Chile Quake Prompts Tsunami Fears

"It's not so much the height [of the wave] but it's the width, it's how long the duration, and then it's also the speed at which it's traveling," said co-anchor Kelly Cobiella "Correct me if I'm wrong, but these waves are traveling at the speed of a jetliner, about 500 miles per hour?"

"That's correct. It's a big block of water coming onto the land," Sigala said.

Chile has already experienced several aftershocks following the quake.

"Aftershocks are definitely a concern," said Sigala. "We always see aftershocks with a large quake and a shallow quake, which this one was. And as of right now, we've located about maybe 15 aftershocks and those are of the larger kind. I'm sure they felt much more than that.

"A shallow earthquake just means that it happened pretty close to the surface," said Sigala. "And because of that the energy is really close to the surface, where all the buildings and people are."

In addition to last month's Haiti quake, Japan's Meteorological Agency reported on Saturday that a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit off Japan's southern coast, shaking Okinawa and nearby islands.

Sigala said scientists see on average one magnitude 8 earthquake every year. "So this is very alarming for us."

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Voodooists attacked at ceremony for Haiti victims

By PAISLEY DODDS

Angry crowds in a seaside slum attacked a group of Voodoo practitioners Tuesday, pelting them with rocks and halting a ceremony meant to honor victims of last month's deadly earthquake.
Voodooists gathered in Cite Soleil where thousands of quake survivors live in tents and depend on food aid. Praying and singing, the group was trying to conjure spirits to guide lost souls when a crowd of Evangelicals started shouting. Some threw rocks while others urinated on Voodoo symbols. When police left, the crowd destroyed the altars and Voodoo offerings of food and rum.
"We were here preparing for prayer when these others came and took over," said Sante Joseph, an Evangelical worshipper in Cite Soleil, near the capital's port, who joined the angry crowd in a concrete outdoor civic center.
Tensions have been running high since the Jan. 12 earthquake killed an estimated 200,000 people and left more than 1 million homeless. More than 150 machete-wielding men attacked a World Food Program convoy Monday on the road between Haiti's second-largest city of Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince. There were no injuries but Chilean peacekeepers could not prevent the men from stealing the food, UN spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux said.
Religious tension has also increased: Baptists, Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientologists, Mormons and other missionaries have flocked to Haiti in droves since the earthquake to feed the homeless, treat the injured and jockey for souls. Some Voodoo practitioners have said they've converted to Christianity for fear they will lose out on aid or a belief that the earthquake was a warning from God.
"Much of this has to do with the aid coming in," said Max Beauvoir, a Voodoo priest and head of a Voodoo association. "Many missionaries oppose Voodoo. I hope this does not start a war of religions because many of our practitioners are being harassed now unlike any other time that I remember."
Voodoo, or Vodou as preferred by Haitians, evolved in the 17th century when the French brought slaves to Haiti from West Africa. Slaves forced to practice Catholicism remained loyal to their African spirits in secret by adopting Catholic saints to coincide with African spirits, and today many Haitians consider themselves followers of both religions. Voodoo's followers believe in reincarnation, one God and a pantheon of spirits. Voodoo leaders say that although they do not believe in evil spirits, some followers pray for the spirits to do evil.
"There's absolutely a heightened spiritual conflict between Christianity and Voodoo since the quake," said Pastor Frank Amedia of the Miami-based Touch Heaven Ministries who has been distributing food in Haiti and proselytizing.
"We would give food to the needy in the short term but if they refused to give up Voodoo, I'm not sure we would continue to support them in the long term because we wouldn't want to perpetuate that practice. We equate it with witchcraft, which is contrary to the Gospel."
A magnitude-4.7 quake, meanwhile, rattled the capital at 1:26 a.m. (0626 GMT) Tuesday, followed by a smaller aftershock whose magnitude was still unknown, said Eric Calais, a geophysicist from Purdue University who is studying seismic activity in Haiti.
A magnitude-4.7 aftershock struck Monday, followed by two other small tremors. Both Tuesday's quake and Monday's aftershock struck near the epicenter of the Jan. 12 quake. The U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado usually detects Haitian quakes of magnitude 4 and above, but smaller tremors often are not detected due to a lack of seismometers in Haiti.
Some walls that had toppled in last month's quake spilled onto the street Tuesday and damaged telephone polls split in half. There were no reports of injuries.
"It feels like the Earth is shaking all the time since last month," said Ermithe Josephe, 48, who is still sleeping outside in a tent next to her crumpled house. "We can't sleep with all of these aftershocks and we're too afraid to go to work sometimes."
Last month's earthquake occurred along the east-west Enriquillo Fault, where two pieces of the Earth's crust slide by each other in opposite directions. The USGS said Tuesday there is between a 5 percent and 15 percent probability that another magnitude-7 quake would occur on the Enriquillo in the next 50 years.

People destroy objects that were to be used in a voodoo ceremony in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Tuesday Feb. 23, 2010. The crowd attacked a group of voodoo practitioners, pelting them with rocks and halting a ceremony meant to honor victims of last month's deadly earthquake. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

A man throws stones at people holding a voodoo ceremony from a camp set up for earthquake survivors left homeless, in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Voodoo followers stand against a wall as stones are thrown at them while trying to hold a ceremony in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Voodoo followers sit as a crowd screams at them while trying to hold a ceremony in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010. The crowd later threw stones and did not allow the voodoo ceremony to take place.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

People scream at voodoo followers trying to hold a ceremony in a plaza at the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010. The crowd later threw stones and did not allow the voodoo ceremony to take place.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Voodoo followers watch as a crowd screams at them while trying to hold a ceremony in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010. The crowd later threw stones and did not allow the voodoo ceremony to take place.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Children watch as a policeman carries his gun during a protest against a voodoo ceremony in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Tuesday Feb. 23, 2010. The crowd later threw stones and did not allow the voodoo ceremony to take place. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

People protest against a group of Voodoo practitioners trying to hold a ceremony in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010. The crowd later pelted them with rocks and halted a ceremony meant to honor victims of last month's deadly earthquake.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

A child listens to a radio at a camp set up for earthquake survivors left homeless in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

A child throws a rock at the objects that were to be used in a voodoo ceremony in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Tuesday Feb. 23, 2010. The crowd attacked a group of voodoo practioners, pelting them with rocks and halting a ceremony meant to honor victims of last month's deadly earthquake. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

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Orphanage director: Haitians holding 6 orphans cleared for adoption in US

By FRANK BAJAK

The Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

Six U.S.-bound orphans seized by Haitian police despite having their papers in order remained in a government-run nursery more than two days later, the orphanage director said.
The seizure of the orphans and the brief detention of their escorts Saturday came amid fears that foreigners are exploiting post-earthquake chaos to illegally take children from the country — a perception fueled by an ongoing case involving 10 U.S. Baptist missionaries.
"The youngest has developed diarrhea and is very dehydrated," said Jan Bonnema of Prinsburg, Minnesota, founder and director with her husband, Bud, of the Children of The Promise orphanage, where the six children originated.
Bonnema, whose orphanage is located in the northern city of Cap-Haitien, said late Monday that the children had been bound for the United States via Miami, where their adoptive parents were waiting for them.
Police detained the children and the four women escorting them, including the orphanage's Irish field director and one American adoptive mother, Sarah Thacker of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, as they were about to depart this earthquake-shattered country from Port-au-Prince airport on Saturday, according to Bonnema.
"They were just inside the terminal. They hadn't gone through immigration," she said in a telephone interview from Minnesota, because they were waiting for U.S. Embassy staff to come with adoption papers signed by Haiti's prime minister.
"A large group of Haitians attacked them," Bonnema added. "They were swearing at them and saying, 'These are Haitian babies. You cannot take them. You are child trafficking.'"
U.S. and Haitian officials had earlier confirmed the detentions but without providing details.
The children, ages 1 to 5, and women were all detained by police, and the women were released several hours later from a nearby police station after U.S. diplomats intervened.
But the children remained in a government nursery in a tent camp on Monday night, Bonnema said.
"Our staff were not allowed to stay with the children," she said. "They're very traumatized."
She said U.S. and Haitian officials were expected to meet Tuesday to resolve the situation.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota has intervened on behalf of the women. She told The Associated Press that the orphanage is legitimate and said the adopting families in Minnesota have been working with her office.
"The main thing now is to make sure the kids are reunited with the women and get to the families that have been waiting for them," she said.
The incident occurred after 10 Baptists were arrested trying to take 33 Haitian children across the border to the Dominican Republic without the proper paperwork.
The missionaries said the children were orphaned in the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, but the AP established that they all had parents who willingly gave their children up in hopes they would get an education and a better life.
A judge released eight of the missionaries last week, but leader Laura Silsby, 40, and her assistant, Charisa Coulter, 24, remain jailed as the investigating judge interviews officials at the orphanages the two visited before the quake.
Bonnema said all the orphans in the Children of The Promise orphanage "have been in our care since they were infants."
She said most are "true orphans or they've been abandoned."
UNICEF says Haiti had some 380,000 orphans prior to the quake — nearly 4 percent of its population — and an estimated half were not true orphans. Child trafficking is a major problem.
After the quake, the government halted all adoptions by foreigners that had not been approved beforehand — and said children only could leave the country with papers signed by Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.
Bonnema said Bellerive had indeed signed the proper papers.
"The Haitian police didn't believe that it was the Haitian prime minister's signature," she said.
———
Associated Press Writers Michelle Faul in Haiti and Sarah Rafi in Chicago contributed to this report.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Haiti PM Fears Collapse of Government

AP-

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said Thursday his government could collapse because political opponents are capitalizing on its inability to address the staggering fallout of the Jan. 12 earthquake. Bellerive, who has been more visible than President Rene Preval since the deadly quake, told The Associated Press in a 40-minute interview that he has two immediate fears — how the 1.2 million people living in the streets will deal with the impending rainy season and the danger of political divisiveness.
"You have the feeling that everyone is trying to do his little part and accuse the other one of not doing his part," Bellerive said, including Haitian politicians, international groups and the business community. "Everyone is trying to create conflict when we have the same enemy right now: It's misery, it's disaster."
Bellerive had been prime minister for two months when the earthquake struck, have replaced a predecessor ousted mainly by senators from Preval's party. He is the sixth person to hold the post since 2004 in this politically unstable nation.
Preval took power under a U.N.-sanctioned election after two years of a U.S.-backed interim government that filled the void after the 2004 ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Bellerive, an economist whose prior responsibilities included coordinating international aid for this deeply poor nation, said he understood criticism that Haiti's leaders did not do enough to help in the days after the magnitude-7 earthquake killed 200,000 people and leveled nearly every government ministry along with 38 percent of the capital.
"Because we didn't have any administration we could not give the services the population is entitled to. So they say there isn't any government," he said.
Since the quake, Bellerive said, he has spent sleepless nights worrying about impending rains — and their threat to cause landslides and floods that are constant killers in this Caribbean nation.
He said he has struggled to find solutions for those displaced by the quake. Most are still in the streets, trying to cope with poor sanitation and not enough food.
Then there is the potential for a constitutional storm.
A legislative election scheduled for this month has been canceled, threatening parliament's legitimacy. A presidential election planned for later in the year is also in question, with Preval's term expiring in 12 months.
In a country where peaceful transitions to power are rare, that could give opportunities to political rivals, Bellerive said.
"I am not asking for a truce, but I believe we have a serious problem that we have to face right now as a nation," Bellerive said. "The government is not able to resolve this situation alone."

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8 jailed American missionaries leave Haiti for US

 By FRANK BAJAK (AP)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Eight American missionaries were freed from a Haitian jail and left for Miami Wednesday, nearly three weeks after being charged with kidnapping for trying to take 33 children out of the quake-stricken country.
Reporters watched as the U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane carrying the group took off from the tarmac. Officials from the U.S. Embassy and State Department, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, confirmed that the Americans were on the plane.
The group's rapid departure from Haiti began earlier Wednesday when Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said eight of the 10 jailed missionaries were free to leave without bail after parents of the children testified they voluntarily handed their children over to the missionaries.
"The parents of the kids made statements proving that they can be released," he said, adding that he still wanted to question the group's leader and her nanny.
Hours later, just after dusk, the bedraggled and sweaty-looking group walked out of the Haitian jail escorted by U.S. diplomats. They waited until they were safely inside a white van before flashing smiles and giving a thumbs up to reporters.
The missionaries, most from two Baptist churches in Idaho, are accused of trying to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without proper documents. Their detentions came just as aid officials were urging a halt to short-cut adoptions in the wake of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people.
The missionaries say they were on a humanitarian mission to rescue child quake victims by taking them to a hastily prepared orphanage in the Dominican Republic and have denied accusations of trafficking.
Group leader Laura Silsby originally said they were taking only orphaned and abandoned children, but reporters found that several of the children were handed over to the group by their parents, who said the hoped the Baptists would give them a better life.
Saint-Vil said he still wants to question Silsby and nanny Charisa Coulter about their visit to Haiti in December before the earthquake, but he asked for Coulter to be hospitalized because of her diabetes.
Earlier Wednesday, Coulter of Boise, Idaho, briefly received treatment but was then taken back to jail.
"We are very pleased that Paul, Silas, Drew, and Steve have been released by the Haitian court," said Caleb Stegall, a Kansas district attorney who has been helping some of the defendants. "Their families are relieved and anxious to have them safely home, and we are turning all of our energies toward bringing them back as safely and quickly as possible,"
Gary Lissade, the attorney for freed detainee Jim Allen, said he expected the charges to be dropped against the eight.
A legal group issued a statement on behalf of Allen, who is from Amarillo, Texas.
"My faith means everything to me, and I knew this moment would come when the truth would set me free," Allen said in a statement issued by the Liberty Legal Institute in Plano, Texas. "For those whose cases have not been resolved, we will continue to pray for their safe return."
Members of Bethell Baptist Church in north Topeka, Kansas, were elated that their youth pastor, Drew Culberth, had been freed, although a few of them worried what would happen afterward.
"Oh, goodness, I'm going to cry so hard," said Emily Phillips, a 16-year-old participating in the church's regular weekly program for children Wednesday night. "I want to tackle him, but I know that probably won't be the best response."
Silsby's sister in Idaho, Kim Barton, said learning that her sister could not leave Haiti was difficult.
"At this point I don't have any comment. I don't know any more than you do," Barton said.
The group earlier had been embarrassed by revelations that a man who briefly served as their legal adviser and spokesman in the Dominican Republic is wanted on people-smuggling charges in the United States and El Salvador.
U.S. marshals say they are hunting for Jorge Puello, who was already being pursued by authorities in the Dominican Republic on an Interpol warrant out of El Salvador, where police say he led a ring that lured young women and girls into prostitution. He also had an outstanding warrant for a U.S. parole violation.
Puello said he volunteered to help the missionaries after they were jailed and said he never met any of them before they were detained.
Puello — who surged into the spotlight by providing food, medicine and legal assistance to the jailed Americans — acknowledged in a phone interview with the AP on Tuesday that he is named in a 2003 federal indictment out of Vermont that accuses him of smuggling illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States.
He said he is innocent of the accusations.
Puello said he was in Panama and preparing to return to El Salvador to fight the charges against him there. His whereabouts could not be confirmed.
Puello's involvement with the Americans began to unravel when authorities in El Salvador noted his resemblance to the suspect in the sex trafficking case. He acknowledged on Monday that he is in fact the suspect but said he was wrongly accused and will fight the charges.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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French President Sarkozy arrives in Haiti

By MICHELLE FAUL (AP) – 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — France's national anthem blared across the tarmac on Wednesday as Nicolas Sarkozy made the first visit ever by a French president to Haiti, once his nation's richest colony — offering aid to a country prostrate after a catastrophic earthquake.
Haitian President Rene Preval greeted Sarkozy as a brass band played the Marseillaise to start a quick tour of the earthquake ravaged capital and a French field hospital.
The two, both in dark suits, boarded an olive-drab helicopter and peered out of an open side door for an aerial tour of the devastated capital.
Some Haitians are welcoming France's new interest in their nation as a counterbalance to the United States, which has sent troops there three times in the past 16 years. But Sarkozy's visit is also reviving bitter memories of the crippling costs of Haiti's 1804 independence.
A third of the population was killed in an uprising against exceptionally brutal slavery, an international embargo was imposed to deter slave revolts elsewhere and 90 million pieces of gold were demanded by Paris from the world's first black republic.
The debt hobbled Haiti, it seemed for life.
A country plagued by natural and unnatural calamities was desperately poor and mismanaged even before a magnitude-7 earthquake smashed up the capital Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, killing more than 200,000 people and leaving more than a million homeless.
Haitian politicians this week diplomatically skirted the question of French reparations — a demand put to Paris by ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. That suggests Sarkozy's four-hour visit could herald a new era.
French officials say Sarkozy will announce details of "a French plan for the reconstruction of Haiti" — if Haitian officials agree. It differs little from proposals from Haitian, U.S. and U.N. officials to decentralize power away from the devastated capital and boost agriculture and tourism.
Another bit of help came from Air France on Wednesday. The airline said it will resume commercial flights to Port-au-Prince, operating twice a day, five times a week, beginning Friday. One will go to Miami while the other will fly to the Guadaloupe capital of Pointe-a-Pitre, where passengers can fly on to Paris.
The trip brings Sarkozy to an island where, French officials acknowledge, fascination with things French duels with strong, lingering resentments.
One official close to the French presidency, briefing reporters in Paris on condition of anonymity, hinted that France is not deaf to calls for reparations, calling Sarkozy's visit "an occasion to show that France is mobilizing to give Haitians control of their destiny and pay past debts."
France has already said it was canceling all of Haiti's 56 million euro (US$77 million) debt to Paris.
In 1825, crippled by the U.S.-led international embargo that was enforced by French warships, Haiti agreed to pay France 150 million francs in compensation for the lost "property" — including slaves — of French plantation owners.
By comparison, France sold the United States its immensely larger Louisiana Territory in 1803 for just 60 million francs. The amount for Haiti was later lowered to 90 million gold francs.
Haiti did not finish paying the debilitating debt — which was swollen by massive interest payments to French and American banks — until 1947.
But Haiti's wealth already was destroyed. It had been the world's richest colony, providing half the globe's sugar and other exports including coffee, cotton, hardwood and indigo that exceeded the value of everything produced in the United States in 1788.
By the early 1780s, half of Haiti's forests were gone, leading to the devastating erosion and extreme poverty that bedevils the country today.
France's other former colonies in the region — Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Martin, St. Barts and French Guiana — all have voted to remain part of France and send legislators to the French parliament.

(This version CORRECTS name of French Guiana sted Guiana.)

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Haiti president: 3 years needed to move rubble

By KIRSTEN JOHNSON and CAROLINA CORREA (AP) – 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — It will take three long years to clear the rubble left by Haiti's devastating earthquake, said President Rene Preval who admitted even he's still afraid to sleep under concrete in case another quake strikes.
In a rare exclusive sit-down interview, Preval told Associated Press Television News on Monday that Haiti faces a long reconstruction process that will result in fewer people living in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
"It will take 1,000 trucks moving rubble for 1,000 days, so that's three years. And until we move out rubble, we cannot really build," Preval said.
Sitting in the airport police station that serves as the country's temporary government headquarters, Preval calmly laid out the difficulties of rebuilding an impoverished country amid aftershocks and the threat of more earthquakes.
He said the government has destroyed some hastily rebuilt structures in the capital, but he said that until alternative housing plans can be completed, the government's ability to regulate reconstruction will be limited.
Asked about residents' assertions that local corruption has interfered with the international aid effort, he replied: "It is possible that there have been irregularities."
"However," he said, "I should point out that the government isn't the direct manager of most of this humanitarian assistance."
He referred further questions to relief organizations and local and international governments engaged in food distribution.
International aid groups have taken pains to at least make Haiti's government the titular head of the relief. But district mayor's offices in Port-au-Prince have been put in control of some food coupon distribution, and some irregularities have been reported.
The president, whose five year term is scheduled to end next year, has rarely spoken publicly with his own people in the weeks since a magnitude-7 earthquake pummeled Haiti's capital city on Jan. 12.
More than 200,000 people were killed. The presidential palace and his own private residence were destroyed, as were most government buildings and the headquarters of a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force that guarantees his security.
Since then, Preval said Monday, he has been staying with friends until a "light, earthquake-proof" structure can be built to replace his home.
"Like you, I am nervous to be under cement," he said.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday said his country will spend up to $12 million to build Haiti's government a temporary base to replace official buildings damaged in the quake.
Despite Haitians' desperate need for shelter, many abandoned houses that survived the quake still stand empty because nobody is quite sure they can withstand another quake.
At least 54 aftershocks have shuddered through Haiti's shattered capital since Jan. 12. They have toppled weakened buildings faster than demolition crews can get to them, sending up new clouds of choking dust. On Monday, three children were killed when a school collapsed in the northern city of Cap-Haitien. It wasn't clear what caused the collapse, which occurred after a late-night tremor and heavy rains.
"I tried sleeping in the house for a night, but an aftershock came and I ran outside," said Louise Lafonte, 36, who beds down with her family of five in a tent beside her seemingly intact concrete house. "I'm not going inside until the ground calms down."
That may be awhile. Seismologists say more, damaging aftershocks are likely and there's even a chance of another large quake following quickly after the initial catastrophe in the capital of 3 million people.
In 1751, a large quake hit the island that Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic. About a month later, another one destroyed Port-au-Prince.
A magnitude-7.4 quake that killed more than 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey in 1999 was followed three months later by another of magnitude-7.2 only 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the initial epicenter.
"There are many other examples like that of two significant earthquakes following each other," said Eric Calais, a geophysicist at Purdue University who said he warned the Haitian government two years ago that the country was vulnerable to a major quake.
The prospect of another quake is on the minds of planners trying to rebuild the country and on those trying to prevent more deaths.
U.N. inspectors have advised people to stay away from dozens of structures.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimated at the end of January that there was a 90-percent likelihood of at least one more magnitude-5 quake in the coming month, a 15 percent likelihood of one of magnitude-6 or greater, and a 2 percent possibility of a shock as great, or bigger, than the Jan. 12 quake.

Associated Press writers Paisley Dodds and Jonathan M. Katz contributed to this report

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Poll: Haitian Diaspora Grieving, Ready to Help

January 28, 2010

Andrew Lam, New America Media

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 28 (New America Media) - Haitians living in the United States are deeply impacted by the devastating earthquake that hit their island homeland earlier this month, according to a poll sponsored by New America Media.
A shocking three out of five respondents said they had lost some of their "loved ones." Two-thirds felt the situation in their country was so dire they were willing to move back to Haiti for a period of time to help with the reconstruction.

A large majority of those interviewed said that they have been sending remittances back home on a regular basis but are now willing to increase the amount. Seventy-eight percent of Haitian adults in the United States reported having sent a financial contribution to help victims of the earthquake.
Additionally, 62 percent indicated that they were willing to adopt or foster a Haitian orphan from the earthquake. Three-fifths felt that the United States should welcome at least 50,000 new Haitian refugees to alleviate the calamity in the island nation.
Pollster Sergio Bendixen, president of Bendixen and Associates which conducted the poll on behalf of NAM, said that Haitian Americans were also aware of the long-term challenges Haiti faces. "The Haitian community in the United States indicates that for them, the most important long-term need is improving the nation's health and education systems," Bendixen said.
"Thirty-seven percent of those polled said the health and education systems needed to be addressed; 24 percent said strengthening the security and safety of the people should be the top priority, while a majority also agreed that Haiti would benefit from the opening of American markets to Haitian agricultural produce and manufactured goods." Haitians in the United States are not concerned about the large U.S. military presence in their homeland.
The Haitian Diaspora in the United States also gave high marks to President Obama and his government (96 percent) and to the United Nations (88 percent) for their response to the earthquake. But three-fifths of the respondents also said the Haitian government has become unresponsive, and 63 percent disapproved of the way president Rene Preval and the Haitian government conducted themselves in the aftermath of the earthquake. Moreover, more than three-quarters of Haitian Americans believe that the $100 million pledged by the Untied States to help the country recover was not enough. They would like to see more than $1 billion given.
The diaspora in the United States is split on whether the Haitian government is still a viable entity. Forty-six percent agree that Haiti will never be able to govern itself, while 41 percent disagree that Haiti is a failed state.
The NAM poll also found that more than 90 percent of Haitians in the United States follow the events in Haiti "closely," mostly through English language television. The large majority -- 87 percent -- characterized coverage of the earthquake by CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS and NBC as fair and comprehensive, and less than 10 percent felt it has been "unbalanced and sensationalistic."
According to Risk Management Solutions, a catastrophe modeling firm, the Haitian earthquake caused an estimated 250,000 fatalities. Disease, starvation and lack of medical care could push the death toll higher. "We're too close to events, but the impact [the earthquake] has among Haitians, as well as among the rest of the world, may be among the worst catastrophes in the last century," Bendixen said.
"This poll should help the American public, as well as our policymakers, understand the strain and emotional connection between Haitian Americans and their native country," said Sandy Close, executive director of NAM. "Some of the responses regarding the respondents' concerns for the recovery effort may also be useful in helping shape U.S. and international policies aimed at rebuilding the nation."

The NAM poll interviewed 400 respondents between January 22-24, 2010, in English or in Creole, depending on their language of preference. According to the U.S. Census, there are approximately 800,000 Haitians living in the United States.

http://us.oneworld.net/article/368711-poll-haitian-diaspora-grieving-ready-help

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Haiti 'will not die' - president

Haiti's President Rene Preval has vowed that his country will live on, during a day of national mourning held a month after the earthquake struck.

He spoke at an emotional ceremony in the capital, Port-au-Prince, near the ruins of the National Palace.

"Haiti will not die, Haiti must not die," he told mourners.

At least 217,000 people died in the devastating earthquake on 12 January, which also left about 300,000 injured and one million homeless.

Representatives from Haiti's two official religions - a Catholic bishop and the head of the Voodoo priests, both robed in white - joined ministers from Protestant denominations for the main prayer service in central Port-au-Prince.

AT THE SCENE
By Mike Wooldridge, BBC News, Titanyen

Amid scrub-covered hills to the north of Port-au-Prince, some 50 worshippers led by a Haitian bishop celebrated mass on the graves where tens of thousands of the earthquake victims lie buried.
A small wooden table atop one of the mass graves in the scrub-covered low hills served as the altar.
Swinging incense above the graves and sprinkling water on them, the bishop said he aimed to give dignity to their hasty burial.
"Tend to your brothers and sisters, calling out from under the ground," he said.

Thousands of people gathered for the ceremony in the shade of mimosa trees. President Preval wept during the service, and was comforted by his wife.

"Wipe away your tears to rebuild Haiti," he said in his address.

"Today, allow me as citizen Rene Preval, the man, the father of a family, to address you to say that I cannot find the words to speak of this immense pain.

"It is in your courage that we will find the strength to go on."

Other prayer services were held across the country, including one at the site of a mass grave outside the capital which is believed to hold tens of thousands of victims.

Later, Haitians at home and abroad were asked to kneel and pray at exactly the time the earthquake hit, at 1653 local time (2153 GMT).

The Associated Press news agency reports that the remaining churches in Port-au-Prince's Petionville suburb were so packed that loudspeakers had to be set up so those left outside in the streets could follow the service.

"All families were affected by this tragedy and we are celebrating the memory of the people we lost," one mourner, Desire Joseph Dorsaintvil, told AP.

Rain threat

The BBC's Mike Wooldridge says the act of national reflection came as one of the largest humanitarian operations ever mounted grappled with challenges on many fronts.

HAITI QUAKE

• Magnitude seven quake strikes south-west of Port-au-Prince at 1653 local time (2153 GMT), 12 January
• Government now reports between 217,000 and 230,000 dead, 300,000 injured
• About three million affected, one million homeless, 250,000 homes destroyed
• Quake sparks massive international aid effort - more than $500m (£320m) donated from US
• UN says 53 million tonnes of rubble must be removed
• US has assigned 13,000 military personnel

He says a heavy downpour on the eve of the anniversary provided a foretaste of the misery that lies ahead for the many people who still have only the flimsiest shelter in impromptu camps, if the pace of getting out more tents and stronger shelter materials is not stepped up before the start of the rainy season.

In the biggest of the camps that sprang up in the capital after the earthquake, people are still living under sheeting strung across wooden poles.

The government says the seasonal rains could be the biggest threat now to the nation's attempts at recovery.

The European Union has proposed a military mission to step up the provision of shelter before the rains worsen.

The UN aid co-ordinator for Haiti, ex-US President Bill Clinton, said Haiti could get through the crisis with the help of international donors.

"Though conditions are improving each day, countless people remain in urgent need of shelter and building materials, water and sanitation, food and clothing, and essential medical supplies," he said in a statement.

The White House warned that the situation in Haiti "remains dire", but added that the US "continues to stand with our Haitian friends as they recover".

This week's Haitian government figures suggesting up to 230,000 dead means the quake toll is approaching that of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed 250,000 people.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8511997.stm

Published: 2010/02/12 22:15:53 GMT

© BBC MMX

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We are the world 25 for Haiti

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US lawmakers pledge more funding for Haiti

By JONATHAN M. KATZ Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press
Feb. 12, 2010, 6:12PM

Ramon Espinosa AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A delegation of U.S. lawmakers led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Haiti's president Friday that they will seek increased funding for the country's recovery from the catastrophic earthquake.

The 12 legislators toured destroyed areas of Port-au-Prince and a hospital overwhelmed with injured before meeting with President Rene Preval at an airport police station that is serving as the government's temporary headquarters.

"It was a very somber and a very sober meeting ... but there were a lot of exchanges of ideas and we heard a lot of good information from President Preval which I think we can take back and put into some kind of action plans," Pelosi told reporters.

She did not specify how much more money would be requested. The United States has already provided more than $537 million in assistance and deployed thousands of military personnel to help with the recovery.

Preval greeted Pelosi with a hug. He wore a white linen shirt and a black arm band, part of the observance for the one-month anniversary of the Jan. 12 disaster that killed more than 200,000 people. Preval joked with the press as the legislators spoke, but did not offer comments of his own.

Pelosi praised Preval's effort to design a "reconfiguration plan" for remaking the economy of a country where 80 percent of people live on less than $2 a day. The plan is to be presented at a March conference of aid donors.

Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa who is a key member of the money-directing Senate Appropriations Committee, passionately defended the need to step up funding despite the United States' own financial difficulties.

"If we can spend almost a trillion dollars in Iraq, you mean to say we can't do what's necessary here to help our own neighbors?" Harkin asked The Associated Press.

The meeting with Haiti's president took place at the same police station where 10 American missionaries are jailed on accusations of trying to kidnap Haitian children, but there was no indication the legislators visited the prisoners.

"We just hope that it will be resolved soon," Pelosi said of the case as she left for the nearby airport.

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Doubts about adviser snag Americans in Haiti

By DIONISIO SOLDEVILA
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 13, 2010; 7:41 AM

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Preparations for the provisional release of 10 Americans detained in Haiti on child kidnapping charges may be on hold after questions arose about a Dominican man who served as their legal adviser.

Officials in the Dominican Republic said Jorge Puello did not have a license to practice law in his native country, and The New York Times reported the Haitian judge might delay the group's release because of questions about the adviser's possible links to a human-trafficking case.

Puello has been a high-profile advocate for the jailed Baptists as they navigate the Haitian justice system. He also now is in apparent violation of Dominican law for failing to register with the local bar association or obtain a license, said Jose Parra, vice president of the Dominican Lawyers Association.

Parra said his organization was investigating the situation and might file a complaint with the Justice Department, which could pursue criminal charges.

Puello declined to comment in a brief telephone interview, saying he would be busy in court representing a U.S. firm seeking to establish a business in the Dominican Republic. He could not be located in court and did not return later phone calls.

The Web site for Puello Consulting says it has offered "full legal services" for businesses in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere since 2005. The site was taken down Friday for unknown reasons.

The New York Times first reported that authorities in El Salvador are investigating whether Puello is a man suspected of leading a trafficking ring in that country involving Central American and Caribbean women and girls.

The newspaper reported that police said his picture appeared to match that of a suspected trafficker.

Puello denied any connection to trafficking in an interview with the newspaper and said he had never been to El Salvador.

Police Commissioner Howard Cotto, deputy director of investigations for the Salvadoran national police, told The Associated Press on Friday that authorities would need to compare fingerprints before they could determine if Puello was the man being investigated.

Late Friday, the Times quoted Haitian Judge Bernard Saint-Vil as saying that before he can let the Americans out of jail he must learn more about Puello.

The judge previously recommended provisional release for the group while their case is investigated.

"I am working as fast as I can, but I must first understand Mr. Puello," the Times quoted the judge as saying Friday.

The Americans were detained in Haiti for allegedly trying to take 33 children out of the country without proper authorization following the country's Jan. 12 earthquake.

Although the judge has recommended provisional release for the Americans, all 10 remain jailed pending a response from the prosecutor. The prosecutor has said he will respond next week.

Puello had said last week that nine of the 10 were about to be released, and he told reporters Wednesday the Haitian court was going to drop all charges against his clients.

Sean Lankford of Meridian, Idaho, whose wife and daughter are among those detained, said Puello provided his services for free.

"He's really shown himself to be completely trustworthy, and I truly believe he has done everything to help our people and to help us," he said in a telephone interview from Idaho.

Lankford said Puello contacted relatives of the Americans to volunteer his services.

Lawyers for another of the detained Americans, Jim Allen of Amarillo, Texas, issued a statement saying that Puello does not represent or speak for their client. They appealed to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to personally intervene in the case.

The lawyers said Allen came to Haiti on two days' notice to help the country recover from the earthquake. "No one benefits from Jim languishing in difficult conditions in a Haitian prison," the statement said.

---

Associated Press writer Marcos Aleman in San Salvador, El Salvador, contributed to this report.

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Haiti judge recommends 10 US missionaries detained on kidnapping charges be released

chicagotribune.com
Haiti judge recommends 10 US missionaries detained on kidnapping charges be released

FRANK BAJAK

Associated Press Writer

10:36 AM CST, February 11, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The Haitian judge deciding whether 10 U.S. missionaries should face trial on charges of trying to take a busload of children out of the country said Thursday he will recommend that they be released.

Judge Bernard Saint-Vil must now send his recommendation to the prosecutor, who may agree or object, but the judge has the final authority to decide whether they stay in custody or go free.

Saint-Vil made his recommendation a day after questioning the Americans and hearing testimony from parents who said they willingly gave their children to the Baptist missionaries, believing they would educate and care for them.

"After listening to the families, I see the possibility that they can all be released," Saint-Vil told The Associated Press. "I am recommending that all 10 Americans be released."

He would not elaborate, and it was not clear whether his decision means the charges may be dropped.

Gary Lassade, an attorney for one of the Americans, said he expects the judge to issue a final decision later Thursday recommending the case be dropped entirely, though the prosecutor could appeal that ruling.

The Americans, most from an Idaho Baptist group, were charged last week with child kidnapping and criminal association after being arrested Jan. 29 while trying to take 33 children, ages 2 to 12, across the border to an orphanage they were trying to set up in the Dominican Republic.

The following day, group leader Laura Silsby of Meridian, Idaho, told the AP that the children were obtained either from orphanages or from distant relatives. She said only children who were found not to have living parents or relatives who could care for them might be put up for adoption.

However, at least 20 of the children are from a single village and have living parents. Some of the parents told the AP they willingly turned over their children to the missionaries on the promise the Americans would educate them and let relatives visit.

In a brief conversation afterward through cell bars in the stuffy, grimy jail where they have been held, the missionaries refused to be interviewed by the AP.

"We've said all we're going to say for now. We don't want to talk now," Silsby said. "Maybe tomorrow."

The women were held separately from the men, who shared their cell with nine Haitian men, some of whom played checkers on the cell floor.

"We will not talk unless our lawyer is present," said Paul Thompson, pastor of the Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho. Lassade represents Thompson's cousin, Jim Allen of Amarillo, Texas.

A Dallas attorney for Allen, Hiram Sasser, told the AP that his client was recruited just 48 hours before the group left last month for the Dominican Republic on what Silsby termed an emergency rescue mission.

"He did not know many of the other people who were on the mission trip, or what other people were going to do, or about paperwork," Sasser said.

Silsby had decided last summer to create an orphanage in the Dominican Republic and in November registered the nonprofit New Life Children's Refuge foundation in Idaho.

After Haiti's catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake, she accelerated the plan and recruited her fellow missionaries. Silsby told the AP she was only interested in saving suffering children.

She told the AP after her arrest, however, that she did not have all the Haitian papers required to take the children out of the country.

A Dominican diplomat told the AP he warned her that without those papers she could be arrested.





Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Health emergency: Helping Haiti's fragile minds

By FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press Writer Frank Bajak, Associated Press Writer Sun Feb 7, 6:23 pm ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The battered bodies may be mending, but the minds still struggle.

As many as one in five Haiti earthquake victims have suffered trauma so great with the multiple shock of lost homes, jobs and loved ones that they won't be able to cope without professional help, doctors say.

In a country where mental health services barely existed before the quake, building the required support is a huge challenge. The symptoms can't be diagnosed by stethoscopes, blood tests and X-rays, and can take time to surface after the initial shock of the disaster.

"It's not about immediate psychological counseling," said Dr. Lynne Jones, a senior medical adviser for the International Medical Corps. "It's about assisting mourning. People cannot recover if their social needs are not met."

Jones, a veteran of natural disasters and wars from Bosnia to Indonesia, is teaching front-line doctors how to identify "disabling fear" and, quite literally, hold people's hands and listen.

Hugo Emmanuel is one of the untold thousands who doctors say have lost the ability to cope.

"Stay away! I don't want you to touch me," he barks at an American nurse who only wants to wash his shattered lower leg.

Emmanuel, 49, is an educated man of spindly limbs but voluble spirit who lies on a mattress on the floor of the kitchenette in the Espoir Hospital in the capital's eastern hills.

He tore the cast off his leg last week. For days after he arrived two weeks ago, he only let the hospital director feed him; he claimed everyone else was trying to poison him.

Emmanuel, who lies in his underwear beneath a white sheet and towel, is at least getting personal attention. Most of those diagnosed with severe trauma are treated as outpatients because there is no room for them in the country's 91 functioning hospitals.

"The doctors in such situations tend only to hand out tranquilizers," Jones said. "We don't want them to do that."

Tranquilizers are hardly sufficient for earthquake victims like Emmanuel, who lost his house, both of his parents and his job.

"I was in a coma-type situation," Emmanuel says in graceful French that reflects his experience as a Quisqueya University researcher. "Every time I think about losing my family, I lose my mind."

He quickly corrects himself. "I'm not crazy. I just think I'm suffering from psychological shock."

The hospital's director, Dr. Gusse Darline, said Emmanuel is sporadically amnesiac. But that's only part of his problem.

"He didn't want to come into the hospital for treatment. We had to drag him in," she said.

Darline says she doesn't know what to do with Emmanuel once his leg heals.

Port-au-Prince's only psychiatric hospital is barely functioning. All but 11 of its more than 100 pre-quake patients were removed by relatives who feared the building would collapse in another quake, said Dr. Peter Hughes, an Irish psychiatrist who arrived late last week and is studying what to do.

Hospital nurses have refused to accompany Hughes into the building — though it appears structurally sound to him — because "they are absolutely petrified" of another quake, he said.

"There's no electricity and no running water. Some patients are in a barred room. There is a need for mattresses and working toilets."

It is not known how many mental health workers are available to help in Haiti. Pan American Health Organization officials who are coordinating medical care among more than 200 aid groups have only just begun to create a database of hospitals, patients, doctors and medical resources.

But it seems clear that Haiti will have to train more of its own personnel to work on the front lines with people suffering from psychological trauma.

"The most urgent need ... is not food and water which is temporary," said Pierre Brunache Jr., an official with the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs who led a survey of relief workers and victims. "The most urgent need is for psychiatrists."

PAHO Dr. Jorge Castilla, lead coordinator of the aid groups in Haiti, put out an urgent request Sunday for mental health professionals.

"But this is not easy because they have to be able to adapt to the culture and the language," he said. "I can't have hundreds of volunteers coming here who don't speak the languages."

Castilla said he's looking to the French Caribbean islands of Guadelupe and Martinique as possible sources.

One of the most traumatic experiences for tens of thousands of Haitians is knowing that their relatives have been buried in mass graves, deprived of funerals while their survivors are denied the chance to properly grieve.

Walk into any one of the five public hospitals and 14-odd field hospitals in Port-au-Prince and you see the psychological scars of survivors who have not been able to bury their dead.

Many sit quietly in corners, staring blankly into space. Others cadge handouts or wait in line for tranquilizers.

Palpitatations — rapid, fluttering or pounding heartbeats — are rampant among them, doctors say.

At Port-au-Prince's general hospital, Louna Jean-Baptiste waits in line under a punishing sun to be seen. She's had heart palpitations since the quake.

"My heart is racing all the time," said the 34-year-old mother of four. "Sometimes I feel like my heart is in my throat. Other times I can't breathe and feel like I'm going to die."

___

Associated Press Writers Michelle Faul and Paisley Dodds contributed to this report.

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