U.S. presses forward with aid to Haiti despite extensive logistical challenges

U.S. officials pressed forward with relief efforts in the wake of Haiti's earthquake while confronting logistical hurdles to assistance flowing into the country.

Obama administration members said Saturday that they were continuing with search-and-rescue efforts in Haiti at the request of the island nation's government, days after a devastating earthquake struck on Tuesday night.

"That effort is massive," said Tim Callaghan, the senior regional adviser for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.
"There are many places to search, but the teams are doing an incredible job."

Callaghan, one of the Obama administration's point men in responding to the disaster, described the U.S. and international response in a conference call from Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.

Callaghan said that 26 search-and-rescue teams have arrived in Haiti, along with medical teams from 13 countries. The U.S. government has taken charge of coordinating relief efforts between nations, Callaghan said, including setting up 14 distribution points throughout Haiti for food and medical provisions.

Denis McDonough, the chief of staff for the National Security Council, said 180 tons of relief materials had arrived in Haiti so far, but described a number of logistical challenges to the ongoing international assistance.

The U.S. has essentially taken over control of the nation's devastated airport, McDonough said, and the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard were evaluating ways to reopen ports destroyed in the earthquake so relief materials could be shipped in.

"What you've begun to see yesterday and what you'll continue to see throughout the weekend is the delivery of that assistance," McDonough said.

Both Callaghan and McDonough had to fend off reporters from some foreign news outlets questioning whether the U.S. was elbowing out other nations' assistance efforts through its own relief work.

McDonough, for instance, rejected the idea that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's upcoming trip to Haiti would hinder delivery of materials through Haiti's airport.

"I hasten to add that she's coming in on a plane that was already coming in including assistance, and she'll be going out on a plane already scheduled to carry out American evacuees," he said.

McDonough also reiterated that President Barack Obama has no plans to visit the stricken nation at this point.

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