International

Man rescued alive in Haiti after 12 days

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti:  Stunned rescuers working on dimmed hope pulled out a man alive in Haiti on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) after an amazing 12 days under the rubble, as vast and desperate crowds clamored for more earthquake relief.

The latest survivor was not buried by the 7.0-magnitude quake that struck on January 12 but two days later, perhaps by one of the massive aftershocks that were common in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

“He was buried in the rubble for 12 days. The man had a broken leg and severe dehydration,” said a statement from the US military who found the man in a collapsed Port-au-Prince building, on the aptly-named Rue de Miracles.

The 31-year-old man, who emerged covered in dust with facial injuries and a broken leg, survived on small amounts of water and was said to be amazingly well considering his ordeal—the longest of any Haiti quake survivor so far.

Against a backdrop of new political and seismic aftershocks, a stung Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended America’s role in the relief operation from charges of heavy-handed incompetence, as US officials backed plans to cancel Haiti’s debt and consider easing immigration rules.

The capital Port-au-Prince was rattled by two new earth tremors, two weeks after the deadly earthquake that killed at least 150,000 people, scaring a weary and destitute people from their improvised beds in makeshift camps.

“We just can’t get used to these quakes. Each aftershock is terrifying and everyone is afraid,” trader Edison Constant said, exhausted by a stream of aftershocks since the devastating 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12.

The US Geological Survey, which has warned the beleaguered Caribbean nation to expect tremors for the next month, measured the second tremor at 4.4.

“I hid under my bed,” said iron merchant Julien Louis. Others were more resigned, shuffling out under heavy, humid skies to rejoin queues outside money transfer agencies, banks, immigration offices and aid distribution centers.

In the Cite Soleil slum several thousand desperate people converged on a walled police compound to receive sacks of relief supplies, surging against the steel gates as officials struggled to let them in one by one.

All across the city, ad hoc street committees have hung imploring banners in English and French—”SOS,” “We need help here” and “We need food and water “—in desperate attempts to attract the attention of aid agencies.

With its helicopters in constant rotation overhead, and foot patrols increasingly in evidence in the city, the US military has assumed a dominant role in the aid operation, and has been largely welcomed by Haitians.

But Clinton was forced to defend the operation from criticism that it had been badly coordinated with other states’ and agencies’ efforts and had been too heavy-handed in the immediate chaotic aftermath of the quake.

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