Trapped Haitian rescued after 12 days
HAITI: Stunned rescuers working on dimmed hope pulled out a
man alive in Haiti on Tuesday 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.
Port-Au-Prince, AFP |