Haiti disasterArmy engineers: Haiti's bad roads not damaged by quake
Engineers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say that many of Haiti’s roads are not any worse than they were before because they have always been in poor condition; 80 percent of the major destruction is around the city’s capital; 200 million cubic yards of debris will need to be removed from Port-au-Prince
Officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Saturday that they assessed the damage from the 12 January quake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and found that many of the roads are not any worse than they were before because they have always been in poor condition.
The Washington Post’s Dana Hedgpeth writes that officials said they have counted about 15 dozen government buildings that have been destroyed and estimate that 80 percent of the major destruction is around the city’s capital. They also estimated that 200 million cubic yards of debris will need to be removed from Port-au-Prince. “I don’t think these people will ever recover,” said Justin McDonald, a civil engineer with the Army Corps who has been helping survey the damage. “In Katrina, we had all the resources in the world in the U.S. and they still didn’t fully recover. Here you’re in a country that has no resources. Someone is going to have to do it for them.”
At the airport, U.S. military officials said they were working to keep aid-laden aircraft coming in. On Friday, 53 planes arrived unannounced or without informing aircraft carriers about their cargo. About 40 planes that were expected did not arrive, according to U.S. Air Force officials helping run the airport.
The State Department is slow in processing U.S. citizens to leave Haiti, according to military officials. The military said some planes returning to the United States are leaving half-empty because of the few U.S. citizens who are processed to leave.
