Military to Ramp Up More Runways in Haiti

Working to get more relief aid into earthquake stricken Haiti, the U.S. military says it will begin using two additional airports in the next two days.

Army Major Gen. Daniel Allyn, second in charge of the military operation in Haiti, says a runway in the town of Jacmel will open for C-17 flights in 24 hours.

Another field in San Isidro in neighboring Dominican Republic will also be used, though the timing remains uncertain.

Allyn said officials are working to build up their ability to move more aid into the country despite major damage to ports of entry caused by the quake.

The U.S. military says it can now get 100 flights a day through the airport, up from 60 last week, but still could use more.

A shortage of aviation fuel has also limited access to bringing in relief. Some cargo planes carrying supplies and medical teams from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) had to land in Santo Domingo, more than 230 miles away, from where material and staff members had to be transported over land.

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Troops parachuted pallets of supplies to a secured area outside the city on Monday rather than further clog the airport. American Airlines said it has warehouses full of donated food in Miami but has been unable to fly it to Port-au-Prince.

A week after the magnitude-7.0 quake struck, killing an estimated 200,000 people, the port remains blocked and while the flow of food, water and supplies from the city's lone airport to the needy is increasing, it remains a work in progress. Tens of thousands of people sleep in the streets or under plastic sheets in makeshift camps. Relief workers say they fear visiting some parts of the city.

Just four blocks from where U.S. troops were landing at the Presidential Palace, hundreds of looters were rampaging through downtown.

People in one hillside Port-au-Prince district blocked off access to their street with cars and asked local young men to patrol for looters.

Medical relief workers say they are treating gunshot wounds in addition to broken bones and other quake-related injuries. Nighttime is especially perilous and locals have formed night brigades and machete-armed mobs to fight bandits across the capital.

"It gets too dangerous," said Remi Rollin, an armed private security guard hired by a shopkeeper to ward off looters. "After sunset, police shoot on sight."

Elsewhere, overwhelmed surgeons appealed for anesthetics, scalpels, and saws for cutting off crushed limbs. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, visiting one hospital, reported its staff had to use vodka to sterilize equipment. "It's astonishing what the Haitians have been able to accomplish," he said.

Because of delays for patients receiving treatment, wounds became infected. said Dr. Diana Lardy of the Los Angeles-based International Medical Corps.

Because several hospitals in Port-au-Prince collapsed in the quake, MSF doctors are working in tents or field hospitals set up on their grounds, using whatever equipment or supplies could be salvaged from the damaged facilities. A medical unit established in Carrefour, in the southwestern part of the city, treated hundreds of patients on Monday, its first day of operation,

In the Pacot area of Port-au-Prince, more than a thousand patients received primary medical care in tents outside what was La Trinité trauma hospital, which was badly damaged during the earthquake.

MSF also has two surgical theaters at Choscal Hospital in Cite Soleil, where 300 patients have been transferred, and sets up tents in front of what was La Trinité trauma hospital and rehabilitation center Pacot.

But even if a hospital is open, getting to it has been difficult.

Orphanage manager Suzette Manassero told Sky News she had heard there were hospital ships waiting in the port to treat victims, but there was a lack of transport to get them there.

Three-year-old Clifford, whose leg was shattered by falling masonry in the quake. He is being cared for at the orphanage on the outskirts of the city.But his wound has become infected and he is likely to die unless he gets the treatment he urgently requires.

A Mexican hospital ship is expected in Port-au-Prince today, and the USNS Comfort will arrive tomorrow morning, joining portable hospitals from 5 nations already in place. Colombia is also sending a medical vessel.
"Our medical capacity has grown every day that we're here, as is our understanding of where the resonse is needed the most," said Allyn.

"We are making steady progress. We have a lot more work ahead of us."