Aid agencies, hit hard by earthquake, struggle to cope in Haiti - washingtonpost.com
"I had the idea to say to people: 'Don't panic. We are Oxfam. We help people,' " the group's Haiti director said.
But this time, it was Oxfam that needed help. One of its top officials was pinned beneath the rubble in the agency's compound, fatally injured. Cellphones were dead. Roads were blocked. And when Etienne made it home, she found her elderly mother crushed under a collapsed wall.
The United Nations and aid groups are trying to run a relief operation for 3 million people while coping with missing staff and family members, damaged warehouses and files buried in shattered buildings. Workers are battling the logistical complications through a fog of grief.
The United Nations was particularly hard hit. Its two top officials in Haiti died in the collapse of the six-story Christopher Hotel, which the agency had rented to use as its local headquarters.
