Aid arrives for frenzied Haitians as death toll soars

Bush: "Just send your cash."

I already made a donation to the International Red Cross who I trust more than this White House to help the Haitians.

Them sneaky varmints in the White House. I bet they staged this earthquake just to get your cash.

Hillary Clinton has arrived in Haiti, so that should help.

bush's comment

“I know a lot of people want to send blankets or water. Just send your cash,”

george bush's comments rang of sarcasm. There are groups across the country that have put together mass amounts of aid, whether it be toiletries or blankets, etc. They feel good to help in some way. And bush's comment was inappropriate. he could definitely could have said it differently. < :-)

Oh Bush is so evil. He wants cash. Maybe it's to pay for supplies. But that said being the government I'm sure lots of money got wasted no matter who would be in power. It's in the nature of the government to spend more than it should on things.

bush is a joke

They feel good to help in some way. And bush's comment was inappropriate.

I doubt if Bush was being sarcastic. Most likely he was briefed on the need for cash and the lack of need for blankets and bottled water before the press conference with Presidents Bush and Obama. Donations of blankets and bottled water may have been made with good intentions and make the donators "feel good", but, apparently, those donations are not helpful.

They feel good to help in some way. And bush's comment was inappropriate.

I doubt if Bush was being sarcastic. Most likely he was briefed on the need for cash and the lack of need for blankets and bottled water before the press conference with Presidents Clinton and Obama. Donations of blankets and bottled water may have been made with good intentions and make the donators "feel good", but, apparently, those donations are not helpful.

WAY TO GO ALL ,MISSION HELP HAITI going full scale.

Another 14 days wait only haiti folks,WFP will feed 1 million and more,nice meals ,daily by then.

sarge -

I already made a donation to the International Red Cross who I trust more than this White House to help the Haitians.

I made a donation to the International Red Cross because I care about the Haitian people, and not so I could use it as another hateful, un-American way to bash Obama and his administration.

Very Slow response, why? how many people will die and what really caused this earthquake.

with any disaster it seems the first 24hrs are the most important and the infrastructure to accept aid must be formulated as quick as possible. -Bureaucracies by definition are slow at this.

You would think you could get many more supplies by U.S. ships than air -but perhaps I am wrong and don't understand the situation of these people and their "hell hole"

U.S. ships can't unload en masse because the ports were demolished too. Those are currently being fixed ASAP, as well as the airports.

Bellerive said 100,000 would “seem to be the minimum.

Jesus it's like Hiroshima and Nagasaki all over again....

problem: when you text donations these organization may need 30+ days before they are paid (cell bill in the mail and payment sent). You would think that sort of donation to a relief effort would be as ineffective like building your slab house on a muddy hillside (Haiti).

There is some questionable logic going on here and you have non-profit organizations that have a checkered past: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011504024.html

=I am not sure if money can help these people.

Eric Calais, a French geophysicist who works at Purdue University in Indiana, is among those trying to assess the danger. He had warned Haitian officials years ago of dangerous pressure in the fault which caused this week's devastating quake, but little could be done to reinforce the desperately poor nation's weak buildings. "The Haitian government is not to blame in this," Calais told AFP. "They listened to us carefully and they knew what the hazard was. They were very concerned about it and they were taking steps. But it just happened too early." Calais began researching the fault line in 2003 and soon took his initial findings to the Haitian government, even meeting with the prime minister. In March 2008 he and Mann presented a paper showing that the fault had built up sufficient pressure to cause a 7.2 magnitude quake. But they could not pinpoint when the quake might strike and the government was occupied with recovering from a series of four hurricanes which struck that year. While the government had begun work on an emergency response plan, little could be done to retrofit and strengthen key buildings such as hospitals, schools and government buildings from which rescue operations could be organized. "It's a poor country," Calais said. "Strengthening a building to resist a large earthquake can be as costly as replacing the building." The devastation will allow Haiti to rebuild stronger than before, Calais said, noting that there are relatively cheap engineering solutions that can be applied to ensure that new buildings will not collapse in the next quake. "It's very important for Port-au-Prince to rebuild properly," he added. "There are other segments of that fault that could rupture in the future."

I would be interesting to see the big banks that made money off Haiti pay the fine that Obama proposed to help Haiti.

Haiti will be Obama's big test in the eyes of the World. If he fails there it could be the end of his political career. -But as of now only the big banks/Federal Reserve/drug traders have been successful in Haiti and the people have suffered.

Like these banks -Haiti is proving to be a house of cards.