Tuesday, January 26, 2010

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Alive: Rico Dibrivell, 35, was freed from the rubble of a building in Port-au-Prince - it was reported that he had a crushed leg

A man has been pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in Haiti's devastated capital 14 days after the earthquake which killed thousands of people struck.

U.S. troops rescued the 35-year-old, who was covered in dust and dressed only in his underwear and carried him out from the ruins in downtown Port-au-Prince.

The man - named as Rico Dibrivell - was taken for medical treatment. It was reported that he was suffering a crushed leg.

The rescue, two weeks after the magnitude-7.0 earthquake killed as many as 200,000 people, came as the U.S.-led relief effort was focused on getting help to hundreds of thousands of survivors left homeless, hungry and injured.

U.S. army specialist Andrew Pourak said: 'We don't know if he was there from the beginning or in one of the aftershocks he may have gone under.

'He got sent to the hospital, he's going to make it.'

Brazilian U.N. peacekeeping troops fired tear gas at a frenzied crowd of thousands of Haitians crowding a food handout outside the wrecked presidential palace as delays in getting help to earthquake survivors continued.

'They're not violent, just desperate. They just want to eat,' said Brazilian Army Colonel Fernando Soares.

'The problem is, there is not enough food for everyone.'


Hanging on: The man was found two weeks after the earthquake struck killing up to 200,000 people


Facing persistent complaints by survivors that the huge amounts of aid flown in to Haiti is not reaching them on the ground, U.S. and U.N. troops plus aid workers have widened and intensified the distribution of food and water.

Some of the food handouts in the capital have turned to conflict, although the United Nations said the overall security situation in the city remained stable.

It said about 60 per cent to 70 per cent of Haiti's police force has returned to work.

At the presidential palace, U.N. troops with shotguns handed out sacks of rice with American flags on them.


Treatment: The man was attended to by U.S. medics before being taken away


Armoured trucks formed a cordon to control the crowd and people were searched as they entered the checkpoint.

'Yesterday they gave us rice, but there was not enough. There were too many people,' said Wola Levolise, 47, who is living in the camp with her nine children.

The World Food Program said it handed out 60 tons of food at the camp but ended the distribution early when the crowd got out of control.

'The vast majority of distributions in Haiti are being carried out in an orderly manner. There are isolated, regrettable incidents but these are the exceptions and not the rule,' a WFP spokesman said.

The U.N. agency said it has delivered nearly 10million meals to almost 450,000 people since the quake.


Working to restore order: Temporary workers remove rice from a storehouse as the clear-up gets underway in Port-au-Prince

Unsanitary living conditions in Port-au-Prince have raised fears of an outbreak of disease.

So far, doctors on the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort anchored offshore said they had seen only one case each of typhoid and dysentery, and several of tetanus and malaria.

In a bid to get the economy started, the United Nations is offering 150 gourdes ($3.77) a day plus food rations to those willing to take two-week jobs clearing rubble from roads and removing waste that posed a potential health threat to those sleeping on the streets.

There were signs the ruined capital was slowly returning to life. A city garbage truck hauled away piles of rubbish at a makeshift camp near St. Peter's Church and a long line snaked outside a bank in the suburb of Petionville.

A street market along Rue Geffrard in Port-au-Prince was crowded and chaotic.

The capital's destroyed downtown commercial area, however, had few open shops.

Scavengers picked at smashed buildings for planks of lumber, steel bars and other building materials.

Authorities are trying to relocate at least 400,000 survivors from more than 400 makeshift camps across Port-au-Prince to temporary tent villages outside the city.

Almost daily aftershocks have shaken Port-au-Prince since the quake, raising the possibility the city might have to be rebuilt on a safer location, away from geological fault lines.

Since the quake about 236,000 people have left for the countryside but the United Nations said most had moved in with relatives and large-scale shelter wouldn't be needed.


source: dailymail

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