Only 27 hours left to find survivors experts say

The aftermath of the 7.0 Richter earthquake in Haiti is a humanitarian crisis of world proportions. The Red Cross say casualties may exceed 40,000. Last night the Red Cross ran out of medical supplies.

The US landed planes yesterday at supper time.

“Washington (CNN) — With the first of its flights touching down in earthquake-devastated Haiti late Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. began deploying military planes, ships and ground troops to the Caribbean nation.

One of two planes carrying a 30-person assessment team arrived at Port-au-Prince airport about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. The team will assess what Haiti needs to cope with the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

One of the team’s first jobs is to get the airport working to a point where it can handle all the flights coming in from around the world filled with people and supplies to help the victims of the quake.

The U.S. Southern Command is leading the Department of Defense’s response. Gen. P.K. Keen, deputy commander of the Southern Command, was in Haiti when the quake struck and has seen the situation at the airport.

“He says the runway is functional, but the tower doesn’t have communications capability. The passenger terminal … has structural damage to it, so we don’t know what the status of it is, ” said Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of U.S. Southern Command. “So we have a group going in to make sure we can gain and secure the airfield and operate from it, because that’s one of those locations we think we’re going to have a lot of the immediate effort — from an international basis — going into.” CNN

The first four planes of international rescue and relief workers landed before noon today in a radio-sight only Port au Prince airport. There is no electricity to run the tower instrumentation.

The first rescue team on the ground were 200 from the Fairfax VA fire and rescue team. Medical supplies are starting to move from the airport to the city but it’s slow going with all public services shut down.

Experts says that they need to find as many people trapped as they can within the first three days from the quake, which means by supper-time tomorrow. It’s simply a matter of men and material but it takes time to get people on the ground.

Canada landed one flight in Port au Prince and has evacuated about 100 Canadians from Haiti who will arrive in Montreal today.

CNN coverage is the most extensive. They landed a team yesterday and have been broadcasting throughout the night and today. Anderson Cooper is reporting throughout the city. That alone is a risky job since the population are on edge with continuing after-shocks. The images are disturbing and a constant diet of the news live from Haiti is difficult to digest. The stories are not isolated news stories: people are dead or dying on camera. The videos are gut-wrenching.

Crisis coverage is a CNN specialty. They do hype the sensational parts of the story but no one gets the story out the way they do. CBC and CTV coverage is largely phone in’s, re-runs of the first videos we put up and talking heads. It will improve when they get media teams on the ground.

Both the United Nations and the national Haitian government have asked the US for military assistance to maintain the peace and thousands of US military are in route.

While efforts to rescue trapped people ramp up, aid and medical workers are working against the clock to save lives. People are lying in the streets afraid to go inside. The lie on doors, boards or right on the paving stones with a blanket for coverage.

The US has promised at least $100 million in aid. For a list of charities that are certified to accept money in the US, see How to donate to the Haitian earthquake crisis

Canada confirmed it will match any money donated privately up to $50 million.