VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHPU #0048/01 0151748
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 151746Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0207
INFO HAITI COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RHMFISS/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL IMMEDIATE
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEHPU/AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE IMMEDIATE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS PORT AU PRINCE 000048 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AEMR ASEC CASC KFLO MARR PREL PINR AMGT HA PGOV AID
EAID 
SUBJECT: TFHA01: EMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE EARTHQUAKE SITREP as of 1200, 
Day 4 
 
REF: PORT AU PRINCE 40 
 
EMBASSY OUTSIDE COMMUNICATIONS AND ASSETS LIMITED 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Aftershocks continue, but since 6:00am January 14, some 
Embassy personnel have been able to sporadically send and receive 
phone calls and text messages on mobile phones.  All land lines are 
still down.  Trilogy International, parent company of ComCel/Voila, 
Haiti's largest cellphone service provider, reported to PolOff that 
at midnight on January 13 phone service was restored to a level 
that was considered to be capable of supporting reliable commercial 
traffic.  The Voila network is now operating at 70 percent 
capacity, with international in-bound and out-bound calling. 
 
 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Most remaining Embassy personnel, plus 112 AmCits spent 
the night of January 13 at the Embassy with limited food and water 
supply.  The Management section is working with RSO to relocate the 
85 American Embassy staff currently at Post to three neighborhoods 
where residences remain structurally stable.  Less than half of 
Embassy residences are inhabitable, many requiring repairs to 
plumbing and generators, which is indicative of the severity of 
destruction in even the most affluent suburbs of Port-au-Prince. 
Almost the entire Motor Pool fleet is consumed with transporting 
evacuees to the airport. 
 
 
 
MORE HAITIAN-AMERICANS AMONG EVACUEES 
 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  ConOffs report that while the first wave of AmCits 
seeking American Citizen Services (ACS) was comprised mostly of 
natural-born AmCits, including visiting business travelers and 
missionary groups; today, more Haitian-Americans and Legal 
Permanent Residents (LPRs) were seeking Embassy assistance.  Most 
of these Haitian-Americans were visiting Haiti and have homes 
established in the U.S.  We have not yet seen a large movement of 
resident Haitians deciding to leave for the U.S. 
 
 
 
GOH RESPONSE INCREMENTALLY INCREASING 
 
------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The Ambassador met with Prime Minister Bellerive (as well 
as the Ministers of Interior and Commerce) at the airport at 
10:00am on January 14.  Prime Minister Bellerive was effusive in 
his thanks for the work the United States military is doing to get 
the airport up and running after the earthquake.  He was very 
pleased to see the steady stream of assistance flights that are 
efficiently arriving, delivering assistance and taking off to free 
tarmac space for other assistance flights.  The Ambassador asked 
that the GOH establish a mechanism of regular communication and 
coordination with donors, and Bellerive invited the Ambassador 
and/or his representatives to participate in a daily coordination 
meeting with other donors and GOH ministers at 08:00am.  The Prime 
Minister also invited the Ambassador to a meeting of all donors at 
3:00pm January 14 to discuss GOH priorities and coordination of 
donor efforts. 
 
 
 
¶5.  RSO reports that up until this point, they have had no official 
contact with the Haitian National Police (HNP) despite many 
attempts. RSO staff have visited the local commissariat and have 
been able to request spot support and security assistance for helo 
medevacs but have been unable to coordinate anything other than 
minimal time and location.   RSO has just begun to allow the use of 
privately owned vehicles (POVs) with advance notification and 
approval of itineraries and routes, as many roads are still 
blocked. 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  On January 13, only a handful of Haitian National Police 
(HNP) trucks with officers in plain clothes were on patrol, and on 
January 14, EmbOffs reported seeing for the first time HNP 
motorcycles out on the streets, HNP officers conducting traffic, 
more HNP vehicles patrolling throughout Port-au-Prince and the 
suburbs. 
 
 
 
ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE SERVICES, PORTS, BANKS 
 
---------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Private ports may become available as temporary medical 
sites.  Gregory Mevs of Terminal Varreaux informed Post that one 
berth at his port is functioning with roll-on and roll-off, and 
vessels up to about 3,500 tons are able to dock there.  Petroleum 
products cannot be delivered without repairs.  At least on the 
jetties of the National Port Authority (APN) is under water and no 
vessels can berth.  Terminal Varreaux has a 10,000 sq feet 
warehouse available for a field hospital and an enclosed yard of 
390,000 sq feet near the port.  Thirteen buildings were damaged and 
or destroyed at SHODECOSA, a private industrial part located across 
the street from the port.  The APN has been criticized historically 
for its poor operation, for having among the highest port fees in 
the world, and for trying to maintain a monopoly, having recently 
announced they would not allow anyone other than itself to run 
container operations at the port. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  The President of UNIBANK, the largest bank in Haiti, 
told a contact that he was hopeful they could get their bank 
servers back up and running and reopen for service on Monday.  As 
far as the Embassy can determine, this would be the first port to 
re-open. 
 
 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  The U.S. Coast Guard Liaison (CGLO), who spent the 
night of the earthquake organizing on-site triage for the injured 
in Carrefour, the epicenter of the earthquake, reports that afloat 
assets are undamaged, but maintenance depots and many other 
buildings were down.  The clinic and barracks remain intact.  There 
were no serious injuries or deaths among Coast Guard staff, 
contrary to reports that half the Coast Guard were killed. 
 
 
 
STREET ACTIVITY MINIMAL BUT RISING 
 
------------------------------------ 
 
 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  The main form of public transportation, converted 
pick-up trucks known as "tap taps," are operating at about only 10% 
of their normal rate.  Embassy personnel have been unimpeded in 
moving throughout the city. Arterials are open but congested.  Many 
secondary streets are still impassable.  Trucks, loaded mostly with 
plantains, are bringing goods to some main street markets, which 
are slowly beginning to reappear.  Very large numbers of people are 
still wandering the streets.  Long lines and crowds are forming at 
gas stations, although many are closed.  A gallon of gasoline now 
sells for 500 Haitian gourds (HTG), approximately USD 12.50, on the 
black market.  Many damaged vehicles remain abandoned in the middle 
of the road, some with drivers and passengers still inside.  An 
increasing number of bodies, many uncovered, line the streets and 
are beginning to decay. 
 
 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  Scavenging from destroyed buildings is increasing, but 
looting (defined as forcibly breaking into secured buildings does 
not seem to be occurring.  Looters dragged a USAID contractor from 
his vehicle at gunpoint on January 13 as he was leaving the 
Parliament, after spending hours digging out bodies, including two 
dead Senators, Michele Louis and Jacque Wilbert.  Thieves shot his 
vehicle and pulled him out; he gave them his cash, then got back 
into his car, and left the scene. EmbOff also heard reports of 
scavenging on the night of January 13 at the Digicel building on 
John Brown Avenue. 
 
 
FIRST REPORTS OF DAMAGE OUTSIDE THE CAPITAL 
 
------------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶13.  The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports 
significant damage in Petit Goave, a village 80 kilometers 
southwest of Port-au-Prince.  The earthquake destroyed the catholic 
church, several schools, hotels, and many houses. Several dozens 
are presumed to be trapped under rubble, including the vice-mayor. 
MERTEN