POLITICO

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Haiti logistics: breaking the airport bottleneck

- Laura Rozen  - January 17, 2010

As aid flows into Haiti but is only slowly but increasingly being dispersed more widely to those in need, two top US officials recently back from Haiti, SouthCom deputy commander Lt. Gen. Ken Keen and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, spoke with CBS's Bob Schieffer about breaking the bottleneck at Port au Prince airport.

The initial U.S.-led international response, Shah indicated, was focused on urban search and rescue -- saving lives of those caught in the rubble. In parallel, there was an immediate effort to secure thousands of tons of commodoties, but whose distribution is being organized in extremely logistically complicated circumstances, and will now be aided by more military assets on the ground.

"We now need to expand alternate routes, including port-sea access," Shah said. "And we're working in partnership with the Department of Defense to make that happen as absolutely as quickly as possible."

"We're trying to dramatically expand the in-country distribution network," Shah added. "So we're working with our partners around the world, as the general mentioned, to identify as many major distribution points as we can, get those secure, improve transport to those points, and really dramatically accelerate commodity flow there."

The administration has faced criticism from the retired U.S. general who led the Katrina response that it was overthinking post-quake Haiti aid distribution, when it should have just pushed it out as faster at risk of it being disorganized.

"The next morning after the earthquake, I assumed there would be airplanes delivering aid," retired Lt. General Russel Honore was cited this week. "What we saw instead was discussion about, 'Well we've got to send an assessment team in to see what the needs are.' And anytime I hear that, my head turns red." 

Honore also said he thought the U.S. military and not USAID should have been put in charge of the aid effort, because of its superior logistical and lift resources.

Keen and Shah indicated the U.S. civilian and military were working in tight coordination on the Haiti relief effort, along with some 30 other countries.

Asked how the administration was measuring success in the quake response, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN: "We measure it day by day," Clinton said. "How many pallets of food, how many bottles of water, how many people rescued. And we’re measuring it in that kind of very personal terms. But we’re going to start looking at, are we getting the electricity up and going? Are we getting the roads unclogged? Are we getting some shelter for people? And then, what are we doing to help Haiti reconstruct, and how can we reconstruct it so that it’s stronger and more functional going forward?"

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