Haiti relief effort to get a boost from three more airfields, seaport reopening

U.S. military officials in Haiti said Thursday that the use of three additional airfields and the capital's seaport would boost of the flow of food, water and medical attention to earthquake victims -- at least half a million of whom, according to one count, are scattered in more than 400 camps around Port-au-Prince.

Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, said the military had begun using two airfields in the neighboring Dominican Republic and one south of Port-au-Prince, which was devastated in the Jan. 12 quake.

The move is aimed at taking some of the burden from the Port-au-Prince airport. Now run by the U.S. military, it is handling 120 to 140 flights a day, but there is a waiting list of 1,400 flights, Fraser said.

Continue reading "Haiti effort to get a boost from added airfields, seaport reopening."

-- Scott Kraft in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Ken Ellingwood in Mexico City

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Photo: Women carry supplies past a collapsed Texaco gas station in Port-au-Prince this week. Gasoline supplies may become a problem as a pier servicing tankers was damaged in the earthquake. Credit: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times