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Red Cross Asking For Immediate Help For Haiti [message #60552]

Thu, 14 January 2010 01:31

Brody Levesque

Really getting into it

Location: US/Canada
Registered: September 2009
Messages: 733

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Jan 13 | The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is launching a preliminary emergency appeal seeking a total of 10 million Swiss francs (10 million US dollars/6.8 million euro) to deliver assistance to persons affected by the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday.
The earthquake, which reached 7.3 on the Richter scale, has primarily affected the cities of Port-au-Prince, Carrefour and Jacmel, all located in the West Province area which has an estimated population of 2.2 million.

A spokesman for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Jean-Luc Martinage, said, "A massive international aid operation was needed. Emergency stocks are prepositioned in Haiti and will allow us to bring aid to 3,000 families for three to four days," he said. "But we'll have to swiftly bring relief supplies from our regional disaster response centre based in Panama. The most urgent needs at this time are search and rescue, field hospitals, emergency health, water purification, emergency shelter, logistics and telecommunications."

Mr Martinage said supplies in Haiti included kitchen kits, personal hygiene kits, blankets and containers for storing drinking water. Six federation relief experts are due to fly into Haiti from Panama to support the Haitian Red Cross and help coordinate international relief.
A Red Cross team was also due to lead a crucial assessment of the damage in Haiti along with European Union experts that will allow relief agencies to gauge aid needs.
The federation said the area most affected by the 7.0 magnitude quake was Port au Prince, and the West Province with a population of 2.2 million.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs indicated that areas immediately to the west of the capital suffered the full force of the quake.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has staff in the country, said medical needs and clean water supplies would be "considerable in the short term".
"Everything that's infrastructure isn't working," said ICRC spokesman Simon Schorno.

Photo Credit: EDUARDO MUNOZ/REUTERS

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[Updated on: Thu, 14 January 2010 01:33]

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