Search teams in Haiti on Thursday refused to abandon hope of finding more survivors of the massive 7-magnitude quake after two children were pulled alive from the rubble in 24 hours.
More than eight days after the devastating tremor, which killed at least 75 000 and left a million homeless, rescuers said they could not rule out the possibility of some victims still being alive under the debris.
And they said the powerful 6,1-mangitude aftershock that shook Haiti on Wednesday could have dislodged masonry giving fresh opportunities to free any last remaining survivors.
“The aftershock could have made the structures subside, but it might have also freed people trapped between two pieces of concrete,” said French firefighter Gilles Perroux.
As the focus of aid efforts turned to the vast task of providing food, water, medicine and shelter to an increasingly desperate population, rescuers said chances of survival were slim but not impossible.
“On the eighth day, is anyone alive? We believe, or else we would not be here. While we are in the country we will stay hopeful,” said another French rescuer, Fabrice Montagne.
Experts say victims can still pull through if they are not too badly wounded, have found an air pocket and have something to eat or drink.
Two children were pulled from the wreckage of collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday.
A five-year-old boy was found in the wreckage of his home in Port-au-Prince, while neighbours dragged out an 11-year-old girl from under rubble in another part of the city.
“It truly is a miracle, she came back to life bit by bit. She is blessed by the gods,” said Dominique Jean, a surgeon working at a field hospital set up by French aid groups.
On Tuesday, three survivors were found including a 25-year-old woman trapped in a supermarket and a 70-year-old woman brought from the wreckage of Port-au-Prince cathedral. A three-week-old baby was also rescued.
A UN spokesperson in Geneva said earlier on Wednesday that international teams had rescued 121 people from the debris of collapsed buildings
Rebuilding
Meanwhile, makeshift hospitals were still struggling to treat the tens of thousands of people who were injured in the quake.
“We carried out 30 operations on Tuesday. In the previous six days we have cared for more than 1 000 Haitians,” said French doctor Thierry Allafort Duverger in a clinic in the upscale suburb of Petionville.
The clinic normally carries out plastic surgery procedures for the well-off inhabitants of the district, but is now one of 30 special public hospitals set up to care for earthquake victims.
Thousands of United States troops were pouring in as other nations pledged to send in hundreds more to help distribute aid, provide medical treatment and try to keep the streets secure as people scavenged to keep alive.
The biggest aftershock yet struck as dawn broke on Wednesday.
“God wants to destroy all Haitians because they are bad, because they are cursed,” Eleude Joseph, a shell-shocked mother of two, told Agence France-Presse at a squalid camp of 6 000 survivors in the Place Saint-Pierre.
There were no reports of anyone being killed or wounded by the 6,1-magnitude aftershock, but some severely damaged buildings came tumbling down, including the last surviving wall of the main cathedral.
International efforts are also focusing on rebuilding the country, with a major donor conference set for Monday in Montreal.
International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn called for a multilateral aid plan on the scale of the US “Marshall Plan” that rebuilt Europe after World War II.
Haiti’s ambassador to Spain, Yolette Azor-Charles, said reconstruction could take 25 years and warned the death toll could top 200 000 as help has yet to reach many villages.
The US poured in 4 000 more troops, who had been due to deploy to the Middle East and Europe, while a US general said the capital’s main port — vital to moving in tonnes of aid — should be up and running again on Friday.
Backed by three ships and a squadron of helicopters, the new troops should be in place by the weekend as the total US forces helping out in Haiti swells above 15 000 in coming days.
A 1 000-bed capacity US naval hospital ship also arrived off Haiti with about 600 medical personnel, and was ready to start taking on board the worst of the injured. — AFP