LONDON (AlertNet) - Relief and medical supplies are finally reaching towns outside the Haitian capital that were devastated in last Tuesday's earthquake but the aid is coming too late for many of the victims.
Jacmel and Leogane, to the south and west of Port-au-Prince, were both demolished in the 7.0 magnitude tremor, aid workers said. Gressier and Petit-Goave, coastal towns west of Port-au-Prince and very close to the quake's epicentre, were also badly hit.
Tens of thousands of people are sleeping on the streets without tents, medical facilities are overwhelmed and dead bodies lie underneath the rubble, relief workers said.
"At least 50,000 people are living on the streets or in small camps (in Jacmel)," said Raul Rodriguez, a disaster risk reduction specialist for Plan International. "They need tents, food and water and sanitation. We're seeing a lot of open defecation because they don't have sanitary facilities," he told AlertNet from Port-au-Prince, after visiting Jacmel, some 30 kilometres south of the capital.
"Tents are a particular priority. There are people sleeping on the streets outside without any protection against storms and rain - occasionally we have rain at night," he added.
Much of the massive aid effort has focused on the capital Port-au-Prince since the earthquake and relief organisations have come up against huge logistical problems, including fuel shortages, damaged infrastructure and security concerns.
Rodriguez said there were few signs of a coordinated relief effort in Jacmel, where some 40 percent of houses have been destroyed.
Plan delivered 4,000 tents and more than 300 family survival kits containing soap, towels, flashlights, batteries, cups, diapers and toilet paper by ship to Jacmel on Monday but Rodriguez said many more were needed.
Canada has focused its efforts on Jacmel and is air-lifting aid and sending in troops by sea. They will also clear heavy rubble off the road between Port-au-Prince and Jacmel to allow heavy convoys of aid to come through.
There are also security concerns on the fastest road - a two-hour drive - between the capital and Jacmel, relief workers said, with reports of gangs of men with machetes asking people for money. An alternative route takes ten or twelve hours.
The number of dead in Jacmel is estimated at 356, according to Plan, which is low compared to the capital, but survivors are in desperate need of aid and disease is now a concern.
AID TRICKLES IN
Reporters on the ground said local people had been without medicines or supplies for days after the quake in Jacmel and Leogane. A trickle of outside help began to arrive on Monday in Leogane, according to The Washington Post.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday it was setting up first-aid posts in Leogane, 30 kilometres west of the capital or a drive of one and a half hours. The ICRC also plans to increase medical aid to the town in coming days.
"There was large large destruction, some 80 percent of the city was affected, and the hospitals are overwhelmed and malfunctioning," Stuart Schorno of the ICRC told AlertNet from Port-au-Prince. "It is difficult, the damage is so widespread."
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has carried out exploratory missions in Leogane, Jacmel and Petit-Goave, amongst other towns and doctors are at work in some of the towns. Merlin also said it was working with partner organisations in Leogane and Petit-Goave to provide basic healthcare, medical screening and referral to Merlin surgeons.
Hauke Hoops, emergency coordinator for CARE International, said teams from CARE were starting water distribution in Leogane but security was an issue with survivors in desperate need and tensions rising.
"We need to work out the best way to arrange distribution. There is a huge security concern about whether you can distribute aid safely or whether you can only do it with armed protection," Hoops said by telephone from Port-au-Prince. "We're taking all the security measures we can take."
Search and rescue teams reached Leogane five days after the earthquake but struggled to find survivors.
Elisabeth Byrs, spokesperson for OCHA, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said there was still hope of finding survivors in Haiti. Search and rescue teams are increasingly reaching out to affected areas outside Port-au-Prince, OCHA said.
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