Emergency Operations Center Situation Report #3 - Haiti Earthquake
For public distribution
Friday, January 15, 2010
6:00 PM, EST
OVERVIEW
- Six members of the PAHO/WHO Regional Response Team arrived in Haiti on Friday, January 15 and have now integrated into the PAHO/WHO country team that has been operating under difficult conditions since Tuesday. Other members remained in the Jimaní field office.
- The airport is open for humanitarian flights only. There are reports of planes not being able to land or having to be diverted to other countries due to congestion on the only functional airstrip.
- Roads from the Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince are open.
- Preliminary assessments have shown widespread devastation to infrastructure and an estimated 50 percent of buildings in some areas have been destroyed or seriously damaged. The number of people without access to water, electricity and communications could number in the millions (UN Emergency Relief Coordinator).
- The largest prison in Haiti, where PAHO/WHO has a health project, has been completely destroyed and more than 5,000 prisoners may have escaped.