Haiti today

Likening the situation in Haiti to a tragedy is an understatement, and I do so only for lack of better words! In the days that have passed since this catastrophic occurrence, news inputs indicate an unprecedented scale of damage in this already impoverished nation.

Here are some mournful excerpts from the wires in CNN, taken as recently as 10:38 am EST today;

"If help doesn't come quickly, it probably will [get worse]," Agnes Pierre-Louis, manager of the Le Plaza hotel in Port-au-Prince. "We're not hearing anything from the government. We're not seeing any foreign aid yet."

Former US President Clinton told CNN's 'American Morning' this - "Think how you would feel if you lost everything? You were wandering around streets at night, they were all dark; you were tripping over bodies, living and dead, and you didn't have water to drink or food to eat. That's what we're facing now. That's what we've got to get through now."

"Water is the key thing," said Ian Bray, senior emergency press officer for the humanitarian agency Oxfam. "You can go for some time without food, but you can't go all that long without water. What is the real killer, certainly in refugee situations, is the lack of decent sanitation, because people produce human waste and that, if it's not disposed of safely, is a huge risk to health."

Across town, an 11-year-old girl pleaded for water and screamed in agony as a group of people painstakingly tried to lift a piece of metal off her right leg. After sunset, they managed to free her.

The smell of dead bodies wafted in the air after two days under a tropical sun, and throughout the city people covered their noses.

Diesel fuel is selling on the black market in Port-au-Prince for $25 a gallon. It usually sells for $3 a gallon.

I pray for those who have been affected by this tragic happening and hope that recovery is fast and all permeating to ensure that relief, food and medical supplies reach all those who are in need!

Footnotes:

News room source : CNN