Matt Marek is in Port-au-Prince and says he has never witnessed anything so devastating.
He says Haitians are being forced to fend for themselves, digging with their bare hands to help their friends and families.
"The gridlock that is paralysing the capital right now is not going to allow many of any forces of emergency response efforts to implement anything until there is a little bit more order," he told CNN.
"The population is obviously left to fend for themselves right now... they're closest, they're the first responders.
"The first people on the scene are your neighbours, they're your family. It's very unfortunate the Haitians have to go through this, but we need them to continue to do this in order to get through."
Mr Marek says no emergency response could have been enough for the disaster.
"Even if Haiti had a significant emergency response, the intensity and severity of this disaster would have limited any response efforts," he said.
"We had come to capacity of our own response efforts within a matter of hours."
As Haitians prepare to spend a second night on the streets, Mr Marek says the country is in a state of anarchy.
"I was in the streets last night all night, and walking around people are scared. They're sleeping in the streets... it just highlights the fear that everyone has and the desperation at this point," he said.
"Seeing thousands and thousands of people bundled up under light bed sheets, huddling together for a little bit of warmth and comfort, it was a very unreal scene.
"People have nowhere to go... a lot of people don't have home to go back to."
Mr Marek says it has been a rollercoaster of scenes and emotions.
"What we've seen immediately from the quake is a country in chaos and it's continued to be in chaos since," he said.
Meanwhile, people are gathering at the Port-au-Prince airport hoping they can soon leave the disaster-stricken country.
Haitian families and foreign business people are sleeping on the ground, finding it impossible to get out.
A businessman from Okalahoma City is among those trying to escape the disaster.
He says he is lucky to be alive.
"When the earthquake occurred, we were able to see ash going up and buildings going down... lucky for me the building was able to withstand the shock," he said.
"But then we started going out and seeing the damage on the buildings and the deaths that have already occurred and lots of injured people out there."
0 comments:
Post a Comment