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I'm not surprised by this, given Cuba's response to other humanitarian crises ~ but I'm glad it's "official" ~ 90 minutes is a VERY long time in a medical emergency ~ Sooz Cuba opens air space for Haiti reliefPublished: Jan. 15, 2010 at 8:58 AM
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Cuba has opened its airspace for medical evacuation flights from earthquake-ravaged Haiti, the White House said Friday.
"We have coordinated with the Cuban government for authorization to fly medical evacuation flights from the U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Miami, Fla., through Cuban airspace," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement.
Vietor said the agreement cuts about 90 minutes from a one-way flight, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Meanwhile, efforts to save the living and retrieve the dead continued in Port-au-Prince, flattened Tuesday by a 7-magnitude earthquake.
An international effort of ships and aircraft struggled to get relief assistance from the airport into the devastated capital city, The Washington Post reported.
"It's a tremendous effort," U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Ken Keen told CNN. "Our priority right now is getting rescue efforts, which are already on the ground, (to the victims) ... and getting medical treatment and working with the government and international organizations to provide much needed relief aid."
Keen said troops have heard of few problems with security or looting.
On Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded private and humanitarian flights from the United States to Haiti's airports for more than five hours, allowing only military planes, the Post said. The temporary stoppage was requested by the Haitian government, a U.S. official said.
The White House said a large shipment of food will arrive Saturday.
A company of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division has been dispatched but as of Thursday, only 329 U.S. troops were on the ground, the Pentagon said.
Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, loaded with 19 helicopters, was to arrive in Haiti Friday. The hospital ship USNS Comfort was preparing to travel to Haiti as well.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said work has begun to set up a temporary port near Port-au-Prince. The main commercial pier, wharf and the crane that removes shipping containers are under water.
"The population of Haiti cannot be sustained without some way of getting large quantities of cargo in quickly," Capt. Peter Brown, chief of response operations for the U.S. Coast Guard 7th District, told the Post.
Breaking cargo into smaller containers to bring ashore would "limit the ability to deliver sufficient quantities," he said, especially food.
Haitian President Rene Preval told The Miami Herald government workers removed 7,000 corpses from the streets and morgue Thursday, burying them in mass graves during a 20-hour period. However, thousands of bodies remain on the streets of the capital.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Internation ... 263560076/
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