Workers Continue To Carve Out Mass Graves In Haiti

As the macabre task of digging out mass graves continues in Haiti some incredible stories of hope emerged this week with three children found alive amid the rubble in Port-au-Prince. 

Tens of thousands of people who died in last week’s devastating earthquake won’t receive proper burials or funerals – there’s no time to deal with the overwhelming number of bodies. Workers are digging out mass graves north of Port-au-Prince, and in other areas, and the already staggering death toll is expected to rise as survivors endure overcrowded camps with poor sanitation and the threat of disease.

The European Union estimates 200,000 people perished in the disaster and many of the estimated two million people left homeless are now gathered in makeshift camps with little or no sanitation. Several thousands of people are in desperate need of medical care but clinics have 12-day patient backlogs.

Doctors Without Borders reported that many patients are dying of sepsis from untreated wounds.

Haitian authorities say 80,000 bodies have been recovered and placed in mass graves. Burial workers have been reportedly traumatized by the sheer number of bodies. Earth moving machines were used Wednesday to cut trenches into a hillside in Titanyen.

But amid the death there have been some amazing rescue stories in the capital. The International Medical Corps said it’s caring for a five-year-old boy found in the rubble of his home eight days after the quake.

And on Tuesday a rescue team from New York found a 10-year-old girl and her eight-year-old brother in the debris of a two-storey building. They are expected to recover despite being buried alive for a week.

The hard-hit town of Jacmel has become a main entry point for incoming aid. The Canadian military is upgrading the airport there and the offshore navy ship HMCS Halifax is offering its radar to guide incoming and outgoing flights.

“Once this air strip has been cleared for use,” Defence Minister Peter MacKay said in Ottawa, “the Canadian Forces will be in a position to control, manage the air space in the region of Haiti to allow our aircraft, Canadian Forces aircraft, to move in and out of Haiti and avoid the congestion that we’ve seen at the Port-au-Prince airport since the mission began.”

The Canadian Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) is also based in the area. It will soon start operating its huge water purification units to provide potable water to people in the area.

The Canadian government announced Wednesday it was speeding up the process for the adoption of Haitian children. The change only affects adoptions that were already underway before the Jan. 12 earthquake hit. The government is waiving patriation fees and temporary resident permits are being issued to bring children to Canada as soon as possible.

With files from the Canadian Press