WASHINGTON — President Barack on Wednesday set the U.S. government on a massive rescue and relief operation in Haiti, ordering the rapid mobilization of military and diplomatic assistance.
Naval ships steamed south, and flights began shuttling search- and-rescue teams to dig through rubble in Port-au-Prince. Military aircraft flew over the island, mapping the destruction, while U.S. officials coordinated the efforts of non-governmental aid agencies. Coast Guard helicopters began flying seriously wounded Americans from the island nation’s U.S. Embassy to the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, about 200 miles away.
“With just a few hundred miles of ocean between us and a long history that binds us together, Haitians are neighbors of the Americas and here at home,” Obama said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton canceled her trip to Asia and diverted to a military base in Hawaii to help coordinate the U.S. response.
