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| US takes control of Haiti's airport for rescue operation |
| Lalit K Jha/ PTI / Washington Jan 16, 2010, 12:21 IST |
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The US military took control of the main airport in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince to accelerate relief and rescue operation in the earthquake devastated country as Americans rallied behind to raise about $11 million through text messaging for the victims.
"This afternoon the Haitian Prime Minister (Jean-Max) Bellerive signed a memorandum of understanding granting airport control to the United States.
Flights are now being spaced, you know, and congestion has decreased, as we hope to reach a capacity of 90 planes a day at the airport in Port-au-Prince," the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, P J Crowley, said.
Meanwhile, the Mobile Giving Foundation said cell phone users in the US contributed more than $11 million for the Haiti earthquake relief fund through text messaging; which is a record of short.
Jim Manis, its chief executive officer, said it was receiving up to 10,000 text messages per second.
The American Red Cross said so far it has received $37 million in donations, breaking records for pledges to the Red Cross made within the same time period after a disaster.
More than half of the donations have been through online contributions, with strong support from corporations and record-setting activity in mobile giving.
US first lady Michelle Obama also released a Public Service Announcement asking people to join her in supporting the Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.
Film maker Tyler Perry and pop queen Madonna announced to donate $250,000 each for the Haiti earthquake relief fund.
Dr Rajiv Shah, Administrator of US Agency for International Development, said they have mobilised and have en route 600,000 humanitarian daily rations.
These will be provided via the aircraft carrier.
"In addition, we have mobilised $48 million worth of food assistance. This will be enough to provide several months of food for the affected population of 2 million individuals," he said.
On water, they are in the process of mobilising 100,000 10-liter containers, collapsible containers so that people can access potable water and we can prevent some of the challenges that will occur, if that is limited, especially in the area of public health, Shah said.
"We're bolstering its capabilities to use satellite imagery and improve its planning capacities to make sure that it has the resources and the capacities to really help be strategic and targeted about putting assets and putting commodities in the hands of the nonprofit organisations and other types of entities on the ground that can deliver those services to people, and that we can map that in an effective way and make sure we're covering affected areas in a broad and effective manner," he said.
There are now 24 total teams on the ground actively engaged in search and rescue. Most of these teams have between 70 and 80 individuals and are fully equipped. Four of those teams are from the United States, he said.
"Our first and foremost goal is to meet basic needs:
food, water, shelter, blankets, tarps. Those are the types of things that we are focused on meeting in a sustainable and effective way," Shah said.
"Second, as with our urban search-and-rescue operation, we want this operation to be deeply coordinated, both across civilian and military assets of the United States, and even more important, across all of the different relief efforts that are taking place with other countries and other organisations.
So we've been actively engaged in staying connected with those partners," he said.
"Third, we want this to be the groundwork for a sustainable redevelopment of Haiti and of Port-au-Prince.
As the counsellor has mentioned, we've had a long-standing and important relationship with Haiti, which with significant financial flows and significant partnerships to improve the development and health outcomes for that population.
So we want to do things now that lay the groundwork for being effective in that area in the future," he said.
"And fourth, we really do want people thinking out of the box. In next few days, we are confident that we'll be able to provide the traditional channels of distribution, the NGO partners and the other humanitarian relief partners, with enough commodities and support to saturate their basic distribution capacities given the limited capacities they -- that so many partners have in this current context," Shah said.
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