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Obama: US Stands in Solidarity With Haiti

   VOA News 14 January 2010
   Search  and  rescue  team  with Los Angeles Fire Department arrives at
   Toussaint  Louverture  international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
   14 Jan 2010

Photo: AP

   Search  and  rescue  team  with Los Angeles Fire Department arrives at
   Toussaint  Louverture  international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
   14 Jan 2010

   U.S. President Barack Obama says the losses in Haiti are nothing "less
   than devastating."
   At  the  White  House Thursday, the president announced a $100 million
   investment  to  support American relief efforts.  He said U.S. support
   has  arrived  in the Caribbean nation and more is on its way.  He said
   it  will  take  hours,  maybe  days, for all of the U.S. resources and
   personnel  to  arrive.  He said the United States stands in solidarity
   with Haiti.
   The  United States has launched a major civilian and military response
   to  the  massive  earthquake  in  Haiti  that  devastated the capital,
   Port-au-Prince.
   Soldiers  from  the  82nd Airborne Division will leave from a military
   base  in  the  southern U.S. state of North Carolina Thursday to begin
   preparing  for the arrival of a larger force.  More than 2,000 Marines
   are  traveling  to  the  area  to help with security needs, search and
   rescue and the delivery of humanitarian supplies.
   Former  U.S.  President Bill Clinton, the United Nations special envoy
   for  Haiti,  says  the  earthquake is one of the greatest humanitarian
   emergencies in the history of the Americas.
   Mr.  Obama has promised Haiti the full support of the U.S. in rescuing
   people and delivering humanitarian relief.

   Secretary  of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates
   canceled  trips  to  the  Asia-Pacific  region  to help oversee relief
   efforts for Haiti from Washington.
   The  head  of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Dr. Rajiv
   Shah,  says  the  U.S.  disaster  assistance  response  teams  include
   personnel,  search  and  rescue  dogs,  and  up  to  48 tons of rescue
   equipment.
   The  State  Department  says  it  is  aware of at least three possible
   American  deaths,  and  says  it  is  working  to  locate U.S. embassy
   personnel and other U.S. citizens in Haiti.  Americans trying to reach
   missing   relatives   in  Haiti  can  call  the  State  Department  at
   1-888-407-4747 or 202-647-5225.
   U.S.  citizens  in  Haiti  can call the Embassy's Consular Task Force:
   509-2229-8942, 509-2229-8089, 509-2229-8322, or 509-2229-8672.

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