U.S. NAVY Helicopter Crash Off VIRGINIA Coast Kills 1 One Crewmember (PRAY For U.S. Military)

#NAVY

One Crewman has been confirmed DEAD after a NAVY Helicopter recently crashed off the coast of VIRGINIA.

Another U.S. NAVY Aircraft crashed in the U.K. on Tuesday.

These type of Incidents are reasons why We must continue to PRAY for All U.S. Military Servicemembers.




ARTICLE: "1 Dead, 1 Missing After U.S. Navy Helicopter Crash Off Virginia Coast"


The U.S. Navy said that one person died after the MH-53E Sea Dragon went down off the coast of Norfolk, Va., Wednesday. Three are being evaluated and rescue workers are still looking for the fifth.

One crew member has been confirmed dead after a U.S. Navy helicopter crashed off the Virginia Beach coast, about 11 a.m. Wednesday.

Three other crewmembers are still being evaluated at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital but there conditions are not known at this time.

Rescue workers are still looking for the fifth and final crewmember.

The Navy confirmed that the helicopter is a MH-53E Sea Dragon, which has two missions: transporting heavy equipment to and from ships and airborne mine hunting.

The Navy initially thought the helicopter is question was the similar CH-53E Super Stallion, which is also used for delivering equipment. Both helicopters are 99 feet long and stand 28 feet, 4 inches tall. They can also reach up to 172 mph.

The MH-53E is assigned to Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Fourteen, which is based at Naval Station Norfolk Chambers Field, the Navy confirmed in a release.

Investigators are looking into the cause of the accident.

The search and rescue mission is using the Coast Guard cutter Shearwater and two MH-60S helicopters.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine took to Twitter to say that he is "Praying for a swift and safe rescue".

Just Tuesday evening, another U.S. military helicopter, a Pave Hawk for the U.S. Army, went down at Cley-next-the-Sea on the east coast of Britain in the English county of Norfolk. That is about 130 miles northeast of London.

All four crew on board died when the Pave Hawk crashed in marshland during a low-level training mission.


Sources: AP, NY Daily News, U.S. NAVY

Sebastian Pinera Calls For Better Mining Conditions

Pinera: Mining Conditions Must Improve


Chile's president said Monday that conditions must improve in the country's mining industry, just days after 33 miners were rescued from a collapsed mineshaft at a copper mine in the country's remote Atacama Desert.

The Miners spent 69 days trapped in a shelter almost a half a mile underground before rescuers were able to reach them by drilling a hole wide enough to send a rescue capsule down.

"We cannot guarantee that another accident will never occur in the future," Chilean President Sebastian Pinera told CNN's Connect the World during a visit to Britain to meet Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister David Cameron. "But we have learned our lesson and we are revising and changing our relations, our procedures."

He added that as a member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- a forum of nations with a focus on helping governments tackle the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalized economy -- Chile's new rules would be compatible with international standards.

"We will make sure they are enforced in the field because that's where it is important," he said. "And not only in the mining sector; we are revising our standards in many other sectors in order to guarantee that we are doing our best in terms of protecting lives, health, and integrity of our workers."

Pinera also described how, as the eyes of the world were fixed on Chile at the start of the dramatic story, he was coming to terms with personal tragedy.

As news emerged of the 33 miners trapped a half mile under Chile's Atacama Desert when the San Jose gold and copper mine collapsed, the president's father-in-law was gravely ill.

Days and nights were passing without any indication of the state of the men but Pinera spent the night of August 21 at the hospital, at his wife's side. His father-in-law told him: "Don't give up searching. It's your responsibility. It's your duty."

They were his last words. Pinera's wife encouraged her husband to immediately go to the mine. Something, she said, will happen today.

Pinera arrived at the mine near Copiapo to a handwritten message sent up by the miners through a probe. "Estamos bien," it said. We are well.

Pinera carries a copy of the message in his pocket always.

inner voice that told me, keep searching, keep searching, don't give up.

--President Pinera
"It was an explosion of joy, happiness, tears all over the country, and I think all over the world," Pinera said Monday, recounting the mine ordeal to CNN's Becky Anderson during a visit to the United Kingdom.

It would be many weeks before a dramatic rescue would hoist all 33 miners to safety. The entire world watched, families rejoiced and Pinera emerged with a burnished image.

He has been smiling in relief since last week's rescue but on August 5, the day the mine caved in, the burden of life for the 33 miners rested on Pinera's shoulders.

"The private company that owns the mine was not able to undertake the search and rescue," Pinera told CNN. "So it was either us, the government, or nobody."

So Pinera launched a blind search, against all odds.

He said he held onto "profound conviction" and his faith in God.

"I feel that their families were so convinced that they were alive that each time I went to visit them at the mine during those 17 days of anguish, I was reinforced in our convictions that they were alive," Pinera said.

"I had a kind of inner voice that told me, keep searching, keep searching, don't give up."

He recalled when the energy secretary told him about three possible technologies that could be used in the rescue. Which one should they use?

Pinera's thought was: all of them.

"The machines can fail. We cannot fail," Pinera said.

Then on day number 69, Florencio Avalos became the first miner to make the long journey upward and step out of the rescue capsule.

"I will never forget that moment," Pinera said. "It was so, so overwhelming. It was so impressive."

Pinera bear-hugged him. As he did all the others, all the way to number 33, Luis Urzua, the shift foreman who chose to be the last out.

Urzua told Pinera: "I am handing the ship over to you."

Pinera replied: "You have been a very good chief. A very good captain. Because you never abandoned your ship until all your men were safe. You were the last one. That was your duty and I'm so proud for that."

Pinera has been credited for his leadership; for his media savvy -- he used to own Chilevision TV -- and even for what some are calling a badly needed new image for Chile.

In England, Pinera alluded to the speech delivered by Winston Churchill when he first became prime minister in 1940. "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat," Churchill said.

"And it was similar that we have the same motivation, faith, and commitment," Pinera said. "Therefore, we kept searching.

"And I think that the lessons that we can take from this accident is when a country is united and committed with faith, with hope, using the best possible technologies and the best possible human teams, we are able to achieve goals that for some people seems as impossible," he said.


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Chilean Miner Historic Rescue Countdown: 24 Up; 9 More To Go

24 Rescued From Chilean Mine, 9 To Go


[Updated at 4:58 p.m. ET, 5:58 p.m. Chile time] Before the capsule carrying José Henriquez, the 24th rescued miner, emerges from the shaft, a crew member calls out, "Do you hear me?"

His muffled response, "Yes, I hear you," elicits claps and cheers.

He climbs out, fists pumping, as his wife rushes towards him and starts to sob as they embrace.

Chile's mines were virtually a second home for Henriquez, who has spent 33
years working in them. Before the explosion, Henriquez warned that something was wrong with the mine. During the period of captivity, he served as a religious leader of shorts for the trapped miners.

[Updated at 4:41 p.m. ET, 5:41 p.m. Chile time] Most of the miners are in good emotional and physical health, Chilean Minister of Health Jaime Manalich said, expressing surprise at how "well they are.”

He also spoke highly of the rescue capsule and the shaft, noting that the miners were coming out dry and with very little dust on them.

"Things are going fantastically well, better than expected," he said in a press conference. "The work at the shaft has been really impeccable."

[Updated 4:32 p.m. ET, 5:30 p.m. Chile time] Carlos Bugueño, 27, reaches the surface, making him the 23rd miner to be rescued. Bugueño helped oversee the packages coming into and leaving the mine during his captivity. He joined the mines with childhood friend Pedro Cortez, who is pected to be the 31st miner to reach the surface.

[Updated 4:30 p.m. ET, 5:30 p.m. Chile time] Miner Dario Segovia, the 20th miner to reach the surface, leaves the triage center and enters the family greeting area. He's traded in his outfit of dusty t-shirt, and green utility pants for what appears to be a teal jumpsuit. But he's still wearing the dark sunglasses to help his sight adjust to daylight as he hugs his relatives.

[Updated 4:20 p.m. ET, 5:20 p.m. Chile time] Miner 
Carlos Bugueño is loaded into rescue capsule and pulled toward the surface.

[Updated 4:05 p.m. ET, 5:05 p.m. Chile time] Samuel Ávalos reaches the surface dressed in the same outfit as his predecessors: dark sunglasses, blue hard hat, beige t-shirt that reads, "Gracias Señor," or "Thanks be to God," atop the star from the Chilean flag.

His wife greets him with a hug, and the two share a long kiss accompanied by some claps and whistles.

[Updated at 3:55 p.m. ET, 4:55 p.m. Chile time] Samuel Ávalos has left the mine in the rescue capsule, bound for Camp Hope.

[Updated at 3:34 p.m. ET, 4:34 p.m. Chile time] Yonni Barrios becomes the 21st miner to be brought to the surface.

Barrios, 50, assumed the role of chief paramedic for the group due to his previous nursing experience. As a child, Barrios was tasked with caring for his diabetic mother. Fellow miners are calling him "Dr. House" after the American TV show, which is popular in Chile. He has been in the mine since 1985 and is married with no children.

[Updated at 3:21 p.m. ET, 4:21 p.m. Chile time] Yonni Barrios, the 21st miner, begins his ascent to Camp Hope.

[Updated at 3:01 p.m. ET, 4:01 p.m. Chile time] Dario Segovia reaches the surface, making him the 20th rescued miner since efforts got underway Tuesday night.

Segovia, 48, is the second generation of his family to be trapped in a mine. His father, who spent a week trapped in a mine, began taking him down in the mines when Rojas was 8.

His wife snaps a picture of him while he is still strapped into the rescue capsule, a red, white and blue cyliner bearing the Chilean flag and its colors. After he exits, he touches the ground and the rescue crew cheers.

After Chilean Mining Minister Laurence Golborne and other officials greet him with hugs, he is loaded onto a stretcher, covered with a blanket and brought to the triage center for medical assessment.

In the waiting room, cameras capture the jubilant scene as Golborne greets the miners' relatives in a surreal moment that plays out instantly on the television screen behind them.

[Updated at 2:47 p.m. ET, 3:47 p.m. Chile time] Miner Dario Segovia begins his ascent to Camp Hope.

Meanwhile, rescued miner Edison Pena has found out that he has a special invitation to visit Elvis Presley's home in Memphis, Tennessee. Pena, a die-hard Elvis fan, led his fellow trapped miners in Elvis sing-alongs to pass time while waiting for their rescue.

[Updated at 2:30 p.m. ET, 3:30 p.m. Chile time] The rescue capsule is sent back down the mine, where 48-year-old Dario Segovia is expected to be the miner brought to the surface.

[Updated at 2:28 p.m. ET, 3:28 p.m. Chile time] The 19th miner, Pablo Rojas, reaches the surface, where he is greeted by his son, Michael Rojas, in a long embrace.

Rojas, 45, was trapped in the mine with his two cousins, Victor Segovia and Esteban Rojas, who have already reached the surface.

[Updated at 2:15 p.m. ET, 3:15 p.m. Chile time] Pablo Rojas begins his ascent to Camp Hope.

[Updated at 2:00 p.m. ET, 3:00 p.m. Chile time] President Obama praises the rescue workers and the Chilean government for their efforts so far, saying the story has "inspired the world."

Obama said the world watched the rescue of the first miner and his embrace of his family upon reaching the surface.

"The tears they shed after so much time apart expressed not only their own relief, not only their own joy, but the joy of people everywhere," he said.

The president also commended help from the United States and elsewhere in the rescue effort, citing the NASA team that he said designed the rescue vessel and other U.S. support.

[Updated at 1:57 p.m. ET, 2:57 p.m. Chile time] The rescue capsule has been sent back down to the mine. The next miner expected to be brought to the surface is 45-year-old Pablo Rojas, cousin of Estebean Rojas.

[Updated at 1:49 p.m. ET, 2:49 p.m. Chile time] Esteban Rojas has been lifted out of the Chilean mine where he has been trapped for more than two months.

"Esteban, how are you?" the rescuers shouted as he got close to the surface. You could hear him shout through the chamber showing he was okay: "Bien!"

His wife Jessica Yanez grasped onto a religious tapestry with Mary on it as she awaited to see her husband - the 18th man to be lifted from underground.

As soon as he exited the capsule Rojas too knelt down on the ground, clasped his hands in prayer and lifted his hands to the sky to praise God. His wife then wrapped the tapestry around him as they hugged and cried as workers rallied in a Chile chant.

Rojas, 44, was working with supplies sent down to the mine. During his time in the mine he asked his wife of 25 years to renew their vows - and they plan to do so shortly after his rescue at a traditional church this time.

[Updated at 1:27 p.m. ET, 2:27 p.m. Chile time] Esteban Rojas is being put into the rescue capsule and will soon begin his journey to the top of the mine and see his family at Camp Hope.

[Updated at 1:23 p.m. ET, 2:23 p.m. Chile time] Crews worked to rescue 33 trapped miners as if the miners were their children, a posting on the official Twitter page of Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said Wednesday.

"We looked for them like our children. We found them with God's help. We are rescuing them as Chileans," the posting said. "May their example inspire us."

The posting also thanked several heads of state, including the leaders of Brazil, Ecuador and the United Kingdom.



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Sources: CNN, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps

Obama Praises Amazing Chilean Miner Rescue Miracle

WH Dispatch: Obama On Chilean Miners



President Obama watched as the first of the trapped Chilean miners were rescued Tuesday night and found the story "inspirational," according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Gibbs quoted the President as saying the rescue was "a story with a happy ending" and he is "enormously proud" of the efforts of the American companies and federal agencies who assisted the Chilean government in the rescue efforts.

Gibbs also said President Obama will likely give remarks at the start of his 1:50 p.m. ET Rose Garden event on Wednesday and hopes to speak with some of the CEO's of those American companies and the Chilean government soon.




Miners In Chile Continue Their Ascensions To Freedom


By Wednesday afternoon, rescuers had winched to the surface more than half of the 33 miners trapped in a northern Chile gold and copper mine, and the world marveled at a "mission incredible."

After 69 harrowing days, the miners ascended to freedom one by one, hoisted through a half-mile of rock in a rescue mission that began in the numbing chill of a desert night and continued under the searing sun of a cloudless day.

As they came out of the earth in a red, white and blue capsule, the miners signaled a thumbs-up. Or waved Chilean flags. One even led the crowd in a chant for Chile. Some dropped to their knees and prayed. Mostly, though, they embraced the families they feared they would never see again.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera called the mission "magical." U.S. President Barack Obama called it a "tremendously inspirational story."

Florencio Avalos was the first to step out from the "Fenix" capsule, named for the mythical bird that rose from ashes.

He beamed as his feet touched the surface of the Earth that had smothered him. He cradled his son and wife before Pinera bear-hugged him.

The entire night passed before it was Mario Gomez's turn. He is 63 but has been mining since the tender age of 12. He contracted lung disease during his career and lost three fingers in a previous mining accident. He had planned to retire but went back down in the mine August 5 to test drive a new truck.

His wife, Lillian Ramirez, stood by nervously as he emerged before her in a cage no wider than the span of his shoulders.

Gomez, a man who used to tell his wife to quit bugging him to say daily prayers, dropped to his knees to praise God. At that moment, she knew how lucky she was to have him returned to her.

To say there were 33 trapped in the mine is wrong, Ramirez said. There were 33 men -- and God.

Ramirez was just one of the many anxious family members who bit their lips in anticipation and then rejoiced at the appearance of each man at the San Jose Mine in Chile's Atacama Desert. The miners had been trapped in the bowels of the earth since August 5 when the mine caved in.

In the capital, Santiago, hundreds wept and embraced as they watched the rescue on a flickering big screen TV set up in a square. Corks popped and champagne flowed at the Chilean embassy in Washington.

The scene repeated itself as more and more miners arrived. Around the world, strangers sat glued to their television sets.

"I mentioned on Twitter how 41 years ago the world watched men walk on the moon," said Connie Preti of New York. "Today we are seeing men come out from the earth. It's equally striking."

Pinera greeted each man as he came out of the capsule and said he would remain at the site until the last man was out Wednesday evening.

"We had promised to look until we found them," Pinera said. "We can all feel proud to be Chilean."

Health Minister Jaime Manalich said the rescue was proceeding according to plan and "going extraordinarily well so far." He said the miners were generally in good health.

"We have had very, very minor problems," Manalich said.

As the second miner, Mario Sepulveda, exited the rescue hole, he reached into a large yellow bag and handed out what appeared to be rocks to officials and rescue workers.

Sepulveda cracked jokes and led the crowd in a cheer for Chile. As the 40-year-old was hauled away on a stretcher for medical evaluation, he asked his wife, "How's the dog?"

Later, in a video conference, he said his time underground changed him.

"I buried 40 years of my life down there, and I'm going to live a lot longer to be a new person," he said. "I think I have learned a lot of wonderful lessons about taking the good path in life. For those of you able to call your wives, or your husbands, do so."

Avalos, the first man out, appeared strong, walking without help, embracing many of the rescue workers who witnessed his arrival. He was then put on a gurney and wheeled away for an examination by doctors.

The 31-year-old miner became a cameraman during the isolation, filming videos of the miners to be sent up to rescuers and relatives at the surface. His brother, Renan Silva, is also trapped in the mine.

"I'm overwhelmed with emotion because it's been so long since we have seen him," Alfonso Avalos, Florencio's father, told Chile's TVN. "I'm very proud of him. Thanks to God he got out and looks good."

Amid the sea of Chilean flags greeting the emerging miners was a collection of small, handheld Bolivian flags for Carlos Mamani, the lone Bolivian miner.

His family back home was restrained in their emotions for much of the morning while watching the rescue on TV. But they jumped up and clapped when they saw him kneel on the ground.

Next up was the youngest of the lot: Jimmy Sanchez, an 18-year-old who worked as an environmental assistant -- and the father of a newborn girl.

The 12th miner to be rescued, Edison Pena, was no longer "All Shook Up," as the Elvis Presley song goes. An Elvis fanatic who led the trapped miners in sing-alongs, Pena, 34, looked fit and exuberant. He waved and shook hands and hugged colleagues, loved ones and dignitaries.

And so it went Wednesday, and so it will go throughout the day.

The trapped miners put on green coveralls made of moisture-resistant material and personalized with their names.

Each climbed into a claustrophobic capsule equipped with communications equipment and a supply of oxygen. Each wore special $450 Oakley goggles to protect their eyes -- which had become accustomed to the vampiric darkness of the caved-in mine -- from the lights up above.

Then they awaited the order to hoist to begin their journey.

The first miners to come to the surface were deemed the most fit, but also possessed the most technical know-how so that they could advise the rescue teams.

The next five were the physically weakest, a term perhaps not appropriate for anyone who has survived more than two months in the bowels of the earth. But one of the miners has diabetes; another has black lung.

The last to come out will be Luis Alberto Iribarren, 54. Like the captain of a sinking ship, the shift supervisor volunteered to stay behind until all his men were safe.

All of the men are going through two hours of health checks at a field hospital set up at the mine. They will then be flown by helicopter to a hospital in the town of Copiapo -- approximately a 15-minute flight.

"It's extremely exciting for us. ... It's a very emotional moment for us," said Jeff Hart, one of the lead drillers who assisted with the rescue efforts. "We worked real long and hard on that, and to actually see the capsule come through the first time through the hole that we drilled was just unbelievable."

For the 33 men, the only contact with the outside world since August 5 was through a small bore hole through which they were sent food, water and other supplies. A letter sent by one of them said they would take a vow of silence, to never to fully reveal the details of their underground misery.

High above the miners, family members and 1,500 journalists from 39 nations held their collective breath as the rescue mission continued throughout the day.

And as each trapped man emerged safe, they exhaled.


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13 Workers Pulled From Flooded China Mine, 80 More Still Trapped

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13 Workers Rescued From Flooded China Mine


Four more miners have been pulled out alive from a flooded coal mine in northern China, more than a week after being trapped. Nine others were rescued earlier Monday morning.

State television says rescuers are preparing to pull as many as 70 to 80 miners out of the mine, though conditions underground remain complicated.

The first rescue early Monday morning had seemed beyond hope for days before crews heard tapping from deep underground Friday.

The first survivor was brought to the surface at 40 minutes past midnight Monday, 179 hours after the Wangjialing mine filled with water. A crowd of rescue workers, miners and security workers outside the entrance of the mine shaft clapped as the miners were carried out.

The initial nine men were among 153 trapped since March 28 when workers broke a wall into a water-filled abandoned shaft. China Central Television said more miners could still be alive, but did not give any details.

State television showed the miners wrapped in blankets, placed in ambulances and rushed to a hospital where teams of doctors and nurses had been standing by for several days. Reporters who did not belong to state media were prevented from getting close to the site.

As they were taken into the hospital in Hejin city, about 30 miles from the mine, the miners' eyes were covered to shield them from the bright lights. Some were hooked up to intravenous drips.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that their blood pressure and heart rates were normal after spending nearly 7½ days trapped underground. It quoted one of the survivors, Li Guoyu, 38, from Henan province in central China, as saying they had gone without water because they were worried about drinking the dirty water flowing in the tunnel.

About 3,000 people have worked around the clock using 14 pumps to suck the water out of the mine in Shanxi province.

A glimmer of hope emerged Friday when rescuers heard knocking on a pipe that had been drilled into the mine. But no sounds were heard after that as workers frantically pumped water out and sent divers into the mine to scout conditions.

CCTV did not say how may other survivors there may be. Xinhua reported that swaying lamp lights were seen at the other side of a V-shaped shaft in the mine, indicating people might be there.

CCTV said the bottom of the V-shaped shaft had emerged as the water level fell.

A preliminary investigation last week found that the mine's managers ignored water leaks before the accident, the State Administration of Work Safety said.

China's coal mines are the world's deadliest. Accidents killed 2,631 coal miners in China last year, down from 6,995 deaths in 2002, the most dangerous year on record, according to the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety.


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Haitians Including Children Buried Alive! Screams Heard Under Buildings

Haiti Rescuers Race To Find People Buried In Rubble



A U.S.-led rescue effort brought ships, mobile hospitals and food to Haiti after the prime minister said the earthquake two days ago that devastated Port- au-Prince may have killed more than 100,000 people.

The United Nations and international aid groups said time is running out to save thousands of people trapped beneath collapsed buildings in the capital by the country’s worst quake in more than a century. President Rene Preval said his nation, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest, has been “destroyed.”

“People buried under the rubble are still alive,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday. “We must save as many as possible. The most urgent need is for emergency search and rescue teams.”

In Port-au-Prince, a city of about 2 million, bodies are heaped along streets and corpses of small children piled outside schools as flies begin to gather, the Associated Press reported. The UN said clean water is lacking and hotels, hospitals and the national penitentiary suffered extensive damage, as did the offices of UN peacekeeping forces and the presidential palace.

“I cannot live in the palace, I cannot live in my own house,” Preval told CNN in an interview at the airport. “The two collapsed.”

Haiti’s population of 9.6 million has a per capita income of about $560, with 54 percent of Haitians living on less than $1 a day and 78 percent on less than $2 daily, according to the World Bank. The gross domestic product was $7 billion in 2008. The country is still recovering from four tropical storms or hurricanes that killed at least 800 people in 2008.

Food, Shelter

“The first needs are for food, shelter and water, the absolute basics,” said David Humphries, a spokesman in Washington for CHF International, an aid group with 170 members in Haiti and a four-year budget of $104 million from the United States Agency for International Development.

USAID said in a statement today it’s sending 14,550 tons of food aid to Haiti to feed 1.2 million people for two weeks.

A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, search and rescue squads from Miami and Virginia, and cell phone repair engineers are making their way to Haiti after President Barack Obama ordered a “swift, coordinated” relief effort.

The U.S. military is “very seriously” looking at sending troops to support UN and Haitian forces to maintain order in the Caribbean nation, General Douglas Fraser, head of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, told reporters at the State Department in Washington.

Rescue Efforts

Rescue efforts are still unfolding and Fraser said it may take days for large quantities of supplies to reach survivors. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said that “well over” 100,000 people may have died in the magnitude 7.0 temblor centered about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the capital. The U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site the quake was the “most violent” in Haiti in more than 100 years.

Florian Westphal, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, said reliable figures on the number of casualties aren’t yet available.

“We are unfortunately nowhere in a position to give a reliable estimate” on the number of dead and injured, Westphal said in a telephone interview today. “About 3 million inhabitants are very much affected, but the focus now is on the capital.”

Port Damaged

A U.S. Coast Guard inspection found significant quake damage to piers at Port-au-Prince port that may limit the flow of relief supplies brought by sea in the next few days, State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley told reporters in Washington.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates called off a trip to Asia to help coordinate relief efforts in Washington.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said today in Paris that three planes with military police and first aid have already arrived in Haiti and a fourth is on its way.

“A city has sunk and the toll is terrible,” Fillon said.

Germany’s Red Cross is airlifting a field hospital with doctors and nurses to Haiti tomorrow, Peter Ossowski, head of Red Cross logistics in Berlin, said in an N24 television interview. The tent facility will have space for 200 patients.

The U.K. has sent 64 fire fighters and eight search and rescue specialists to Haiti. The teams, which landed in Haiti this morning, are equipped with heavy lifting gear and search and rescue dogs, U.K. International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander told the BBC today. The U.K. will give $10 million to relief efforts, the government said today in London.

Economic Damage


Economic damage may be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to estimates from Eqecat Inc., an Oakland, California-based company that builds financial risk models to help insurers prepare for catastrophes. Eqecat estimated that as many as 2 million people may be affected by the earthquake and aftershocks.

Citigroup Inc., the U.S. bank that operates in more than 100 countries, said its three-story office building in Port-au- Prince collapsed. The bank is trying to account for 44 people who worked in the building, said Liliana Mejia, a spokeswoman for the New York-based bank. Gladys Coupet, Citigroup’s top executive in Haiti, broke her leg, Mejia said.

Montreal-based Gildan Activewear Inc., the largest T-shirt maker in North America, said in a statement distributed by Marketwire that one of its three contract facilities in Haiti suffered “substantial damage.”

U.S. Citizens

Search and Rescue squads from Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles have been sent to Haiti aboard U.S. military flights, Crowley said. Crowley said the U.S. Embassy is checking on the status of the estimated 45,000 U.S. citizens on the island, while it works to help direct relief efforts.

The headquarters of the UN’s 9,000-person security mission in Haiti collapsed, hampering efforts to coordinate international aid. The UN said 16 peacekeepers were confirmed dead and 56 were injured. Another 150 are unaccounted for.

The U.S. government is sending two, 72-man search and rescue teams with dogs, said Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, whom Obama assigned to coordinate the U.S. relief effort.

Four U.S. Coast Guard cutters are already approaching Haiti and the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is scheduled to arrive today.

Florida’s Miami-Dade County will send a 75-member Search and Rescue team, Mayor Carlos Alvarez said at a news conference.

Mobilizing

“They’re mobilizing and will be ready to leave when they’re called,” he said. Some 34,000 people live in Miami’s Little Haiti district, according to the city’s Web site.

The U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command, which operates the hospital ship Comfort, docked in Baltimore, was ordered to prepare to sail if needed, said Trish Larsen, a spokeswoman for the command in Washington. The ship could leave port in about five days, she said.

The Comfort can carry 650 medical professionals. It provided support in New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, according to its Web site.


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