Washington: A mammoth relief operation slowly geared up on Thursday in a race against time to help survivors of the earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.
People desperately tried to free those who remained totally or partially trapped by tons of concrete, while relief teams were distributing small quantities of food as thousands of hungry and traumatized residents wandered aimlessly through the streets of the Haiti city of 1.9 million.
The capital and its surroundings were the areas hardest hit by the powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the impoverished Caribbean country on Tuesday afternoon.
Relief workers spoke of chaotic conditions and a crippled infrastructure that made it difficult to reach people trapped under the rubble of hundreds of buildings destroyed by the quake.
After plane traffic mostly carrying relief supplies and personnel backed up at Port-au-Prince's airport, the US temporarily suspended Haitian-bound flights at the request of the Haitian government.
The true scale of the disaster remained unclear, with various government officials speaking of tens of thousands, or even up to 100,000 feared dead, and one-third of 9 million population in need of assistance.
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