A man buried for 11 days in the wreckage of Haiti’s devastating earthquake was pulled from the rubble, as officials said they were shifting their focus from rescue to caring for the thousands of survivors living in makeshift camps.
Rescuers reached Wismond Exantus by digging a tunnel into a destroyed fruit and vegetable shop, French officials said, on the same day the UN announced that the Haitian government had declared an end to searches for living people trapped under debris.
Exantus, who is in his 20s, was placed on a stretcher and given intravenous fluids as onlookers cheered. He later said he survived by diving under a desk during the quake and later consuming some cola, beer and cookies in the cramped space.
PHOTO: EPA
“I was hungry, but every night I thought about the revelation that I would survive,” Exantus said from his hospital bed.
Exantus’ brother said he had been unable to approach the shop, in a dangerous area plagued by looters, because of the police. His family eventually alerted a Greek rescue team to his cries deep under the remains of the shop.
Meanwhile, on Saturday hundreds gathered for the funeral of the archbishop of Haiti’s stricken capital, a rare formal ceremony in a shattered nation where mass graves hold many of the dead.
Only a small number of funerals have been held since the quake struck, with most people buried anonymously and without ceremony in mass graves on the outskirts of the city.
An estimated 200,000 people died, according to Haitian government figures cited by the European Commission. The UN said on Saturday the government had preliminarily confirmed 111,481 bodies, but that figure does not account for corpses buried by relatives.
While the two-hour ceremony was held for Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot and vicar Charles Benoit, who also perished in the Jan. 12 earthquake, people in the crowd of about 2,000 wept for deeply personal losses.
“We feel like we have lost everything. Our child, our country, our friend,” said Junior Sant Juste, a 30-year-old father whose three-year-old daughter died when his home collapsed.
Experts said it was unlikely that there were many more survivors and the chance of saving trapped people begins diminishing after 72 hours.
Authorities have stopped short of explicitly directing all teams to halt rescue efforts, and searchers continued picking through the ruins. But UN relief workers said the shift in focus is critical: While deliveries of food, medicine and water have ticked up after initial logjams, the need continues to be overwhelming and doctors fear outbreaks of disease in the camps.
“It doesn’t mean the government will order them to stop. In case there is the slightest sign of life, they will act,” UN spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said. She added that, “except for miracles, hope is unfortunately fading.”
All told, some 132 people have been pulled alive from beneath collapsed buildings by international search and rescue teams, she said.
Also on Saturday, organizers for the all-star “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon in the US said the event raised US$57 million — and counting.
The two-hour telethon aired Friday night and was also streamed live online. Stars including Brad Pitt, Beyonce, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen used their presence to encourage donations for Haiti.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station