Haitians claw for life after 'apocalypse'

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Despairing Haitians clawed by hand to seek survivors entombed in rubble Friday, and looters raided UN food warehouses after Tuesday's quake 'apocalypse' that the Red Cross said may have killed 50,000 people, report agencies from Port-au-Prince.
A stench of death hung over the capital Port-au-Prince with rotting bodies littering the streets, where residents spent a third night in the open. Every street has its row of corpses and crowds of wandering refugees.
Despite the launch of a massive global aid operation, there was no sign of heavy lifting equipment among the ruins, as tonnes of material and badly needed supplies clogged up the international airport.
Adding to the logistical nightmare were reports of looting and gunshots in the scramble for help, forcing some rescuers to stop work at nightfall.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said its Port-au-Prince warehouses had been looted, and it had to find fresh supplies. Spokeswoman Emilia Casella said the UN agency was planning urgent food aid for two million people affected by the 7.0 earthquake.
"If international aid doesn't come, the situation will deteriorate quickly. We need water and food urgently," said one survivor, Lucille.
A UN assessment by helicopter found some areas of the capital suffered "50 per cent destruction," estimating 300,000 people had been left homeless.
The UN said search and rescue remained the top priority, while food, clean water and sanitation were also critical. Little aid had trickled down to the streets.
At Port-au-Prince, flights jostled for space on the small airport's tarmac and single runway, as aid poured in from around the world, but the big problem was getting it to where it was needed most. The United States has assumed air traffic control but flights were delayed, as staff struggled to unload supplies.
Some 7,000 dead had already been buried by Thursday, Peru's Prime Minister Velasquez Quesquen said from Port-au-Prince, after Haitian officials earlier warned the overall toll may exceed 100,000.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the quake, the largest to hit the Caribbean country in more than 150 years, had killed 40,000 to 50,000 people.
In the agonising wait for help, some residents erected makeshift shelters with sheets and covers, others trekked with their meagre belongings, looking for refuge outside the city. Doctors struggled to treat the vast numbers of sick and injured.
Hundreds of corpses, some mutilated and half-clothed, lay rotting outside the flattened central hospital, waves of distraught Haitians moving from body to body in search of loved ones. Haitian-born rap star Wyclef Jean called it "the apocalypse."
"We spent the day picking up dead bodies, all day that's what we did," he said. "There are so many bodies in the streets that the morgues are filled up, the cemeteries are filled up."
Meanwhile, the international community has so far pledged some 268.5 million dollars (186.3 million euros) in aid, according to the UN. Governments promised money, experts and equipment, donations rolled in by text message and Internet, and Hollywood idols lent their star power to appeals for funds.
The aid coming in includes field hospitals, doctors, medicines, search and rescue teams with sniffer dogs, water and water purification equipment, food, tents, blankets, heavy-lifting equipment as well as soldiers and experts.
US President Barack Obama said: "To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction, you will not be forsaken, you will not be forgotten."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates were coordinating the US effort, including 100 million dollars in immediate aid and more than 5,000 US troops, plus three ships and several Coast Guard cutters.
The USS Carl Vinson, a giant nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was due to drop anchor off the stricken nation later Friday. Its cavernous space, normally reserved for fighter jets, is filled with 19 helicopters to dispatch water, medicine and other aid.
Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, along with Brazil, Canada and others, plan a conference on Haiti's reconstruction.
The United Nations -- which has been assuming security in the impoverished nation since 2004 -- said 36 staffers had been killed in the quake, the worst disaster in the global body's history, while 188 were missing.
The World Bank, along with donor countries, aims to set up a reconstruction fund to provide long-term assistance to earthquake-hit Haiti, the bank's president Robert Zoellick said Friday.
The fund might offer a basis for discussions at an international conference on rebuilding Haiti, which France and the United States want to organise, Zoellick added at a press conference in Berlin.
"This provides an option for the conference that (French) President (Nicolas) Sarkozy is calling, and some countries might find it more efficient and convenient to contribute through the trust fund," he said.
In addition to the fund, the World Bank has already announced an emergency 100-million-dollar package for Haiti. Germany, meanwhile, has pledged 1.5 million euros (2.2 million dollars) in relief aid.
The reconstruction fund would aim "to coordinate further support from both bilateral and multilateral donors," he added.
Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, was struck Tuesday by a powerful quake that virtually flattened the capital Port-au-Prince.