Rescuers battle to reach Haitians still alive in rubble

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

'Nadia call Ksene': Haitian radio key link for survivors
Port-Au-Prince (AFP) Jan 17, 2010 - "Hello, Nadia Chaduc. If you're alive call Ksene Camartiniere at 3428-3218," squawked the Haitian radio Sunday, one of many desperate calls into the station as survivors search for loved ones. Ever since the massive earthquake devastated the already impoverished nation, local radio stations have been providing a key link for people desperate for news of their families and friends. "Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to Radio Caraibes. It's 8:00 am in Port-au-Prince and we will spend another day together," the 94.5 FM station told Haitians huddled around radio posts. The radio team has set up shop on a sidewalk in front of the cracked office building they had to abandon. Armed with headphones and microphones, three anchors sat around a black table under the gaze of a couple dozen passersby, including two wearing "Barack Obama" T-shirts.

"We will start with official orders," said Israel Jacky Cantave. "A state of emergency has been declared until the end of the month." And another order signed by Haitian President Rene Preval: from Sunday to February 17, Haiti will observe a "national mourning" in honor of the tens of thousands of victims the quake has claimed. But with many people still trapped beneath the crumbled buildings and a massive influx of aid slow to reach those in need, the station's primary aim now is to broadcast personal messages, giving a glimmer of hope to a devastated people. Those who survived Tuesday's massive temblor have mostly been left homeless in a country where the already wobbly infrastructure was destroyed, and they lack access to any communications. Tens of thousands have died, and there is little hope of identifying the dead for surviving, grieving relatives. Many bodies still lie beneath the twisted concrete slabs and metal, others are rotting in the streets and thousands more have been buried in unmarked mass graves.

"My name is Jocelyne Junie. I am indeed alive. I was treated at Renaissance Hospital. I would like my parents to bring me food," another announcement read. One father dictated his message to one of the radio station's 40 employees. "My little girl got lost during the event. From what I was told, she came by the radio station but I haven't seed her. I am going to send a message. Maybe someone kept her with them," said Jean-Andre Baptiste. An electrical generator and the radio's big red antenna that still stands atop the roof of the building are providing power for the French and Creole broadcasts. "We are journalists first and foremost, so we have to work. People are waiting for news about their loved ones. Our priority was to tell our listeners this was an earthquake and not the end of the world as many believe," Cantave said. "It's not easy because we have to bring all the journalists together and they are sleeping in the street."

A television post sitting atop the table was tuned to the French channel "I Television," which broadcast reports from the scene of the wreckage. Across the street from the makeshift radio station, onlookers took advantage of the generator and its power strips to charge up nearly a hundred mobile phones. Further away, a man walked down the street with his little black radio glued to his ear, a now familiar scene in the leveled capital. Nearby, a woman cooked spaghetti. Two streets down, Radio Melodie broadcast its programs on 103.3 FM from its studios, among the few buildings left standing. "We have a humanitarian calling because the people feel abandoned. It's so bad that it's our audience who is bringing us gallons of fuel for the generator. I am very proud of all this," said station chief Elsie Etheat.

by Staff Writers
Port-Au-Prince (AFP) Jan 17, 2010
Hearing Jules's strained voice pushes on adrenaline-fueled Israeli rescue workers racing against time to pry him from the ruins, as hopes fade of finding more survivors after Haiti's devastating earthquake.

The quake may have came and gone days ago but the urgency here remains palpable: this team has pulled out all the stops to save someone whose life is hanging in the balance.

And the clock is ticking.

With hearts set racing by the slim chance they could help pull off a miracle this long after Tuesday's devastating quake, the team of 22 men toils on to save just one person, sweating through the back-breaking work, hour after hour, inch by inch, amid the stench of rotting corpses.

"Today is the last day that I think we will be able to find survivors, mainly because of dehydration," said Rami Peltz, one of the rescue workers on the Israeli team.

Facing the real possibility that what remains of this collapsed tax office could come crashing down on them, the rescuers grimace as they chip, dig, saw and drill their way, slowly, painstakingly, inching closer to the person trapped beyond their sight.

It is grueling, exhausting work. "We work centimeter by centimeter," said one team member soaked with sweat after 10 minutes in an cavity where the team is hacking and drilling toward their target.

The survivor has made it this far, four days after the 7.0-magnitude quake felled thousands of buildings across the capital of the poorest country in the Americas.

But he is trapped with a steel reinforcement cable around his neck and a huge piece of ceramic flooring pinning his legs, said one team member Moshe Sadir.

All around them, there are dead bodies and more dead bodies. Some of the people survived the building collapse but then expired in the days that followed. No rescue team made it their way in time.

That is what happened to Nadine, the wife of Adras Belly, a Haitian man who brought the Israelis to this spot to search. But it was bad news for him; rescuers called and called. She did not answer, and dogs found no trace of her.

Foreign rescue teams are spread out across the sprawling Caribbean capital of two million even as the clock ticked down on chances for a miracle.

They take their cues from various sources: UN staff sent some to locations where survivors were believed to remain, and desperate relatives dispatched others to spots where loved ones were still missing, and voices and moaning could be heard inside.

Very few of the stories have a happy ending.

Most end in sorrow and the discovery of a tangle of dead bodies.

"The first 72 hours are so important. After that the chances just drop off dramatically. That is why it is so important to hurry" early on, said Jose Ignacio Bugella Yudice, here from the civil protection service in the Spanish city of Getafe.

The Spanish team worked with colleagues from Iceland in a half-collapsed building where rescue dogs can detect any lucky if unlikely survivors.

"Only the dogs can tell us if there is life in there. Then we pinpoint the spot and we secure it. The rescue operation can take 10 minutes, or several hours," said Magnus Hakonarson, with the Icelandic rescue team ICESAR.

At the Port-au-Prince telecoms building, a rescue team from Costa Rica had no luck as it called and called but got no answer from inside the flattened building.

"When the dogs do not confirm somebody is alive in there, we have to move on to another spot swiftly. So now we are going to a school. But I would say there is a less than three percent chance of finding survivors in this city," said William Hernandez, leader of the Costa Rican rescuers.

"The best hope really is for a small person, who needs little oxygen, which is why a child may be found alive" even at this point, he said.

"That has happened before," Hernandez said. "But it all depends on the space they have and what shape they are in after the collapse."

But surviving a building collapse and then 30-degree Celsius daytime temperatures without a drop of water for days on end is unlikely -- and less likely by the minute.

"Some people end up dying of their injuries, or from dehydration or brain trauma," said Andres Madrigal with the Costa Rican team.

But for Jules, his will to live help him beat the longest odds.

"He just kept saying when we finally saw him at the bottom of the hole -- 'I want to live, don't leave me,'" a member of the Israeli team said.

Meanwhile, off the Haitian coast, a Haitian woman gave birth to a boy on board of a US Coast Guard cutter as she prepared to take a US Navy helicopter bound for the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. The baby and mother are in good condition.

The carrier is currently off the coast of Haiti providing humanitarian aid to victims of the quake.

Rescuers battle to reach Haitians still alive in rubble
Port-Au-Prince (AFP) Jan 17, 2010 - Hearing Jules's strained voice pushes on adrenaline-fueled Israeli rescue workers racing against time to pry him from the ruins, as hopes fade of finding more survivors after Haiti's devastating earthquake.